Jiang Wen and Gong Li to Reunite for BULLETS Sequel

James Marsh, Editor, Asia; Hong Kong, China (@Marshy00)

May 23 2012, 2:05 AM

Screen Daily is reporting that Mainland Chinese actor Jiang Wen is set to direct and star in Gone With The Bullets, a spiritual sequel to his 2010 smash hit Let The Bullets Fly and that Gong Li is likely to co-star. Marco Ma, who co-owns Beijing-based Buyilehu Films with Jiang, has said the film will again take place in the turbulent 1920s Warlord period, but will be situated in a large city in East China, rather than the South West small town setting of the first film.

Gone With The Bullets will hopefully prove to be the central chapter of a planned Bullets trilogy, in a bid to recapture the enormous success of Let The Bullets Fly, which broke box office records in China to become the country's most successful film of all time (a title later usurped by Zhang Yimou's The Flowers Of War). Ma states that Buyilehu will likely again work with Hong Kong-based Emperor Motion Pictures to produce and distribute the film, which will have a budget considerably higher than its predecessor's, which was somewhere around $20 million.

In addition to reuniting Jiang with his Red Sorghum co-star Li, Gone With The Bullets is also likely to see Ge You return for a second time (although presumably playing a different role), with the production also seeking the services of a prominent US actor to take a role in the film, although Ma was keeping tight-lipped over who has been approached. The script is being written by Jiang and Bullets co-scribe Guo Junli - which is great news - and shooting hopes to start in the Autumn looking towards a late 2013 release date.