John Woo has cast Chow Yun-Fat, Ken Watanabe, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Taiwanese supermodel Lin Chi-Ling in his Chinese costumer, The Battle of Red Cliff, a co-production with the China Film Group, according to Variety.

Based on the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the film is set in the final days of the Han Dynasty in the year 208 and covers the war that established the Three Kingdoms period, when China had three rulers.

Historians believe that 1 million soldiers took part in the original battle of Red Cliff. Woo plans to set up six units to simultaneously shoot various scenes for the war epic.

Woo is again teaming with longtime associate Terence Chang to make the pic, which is aiming for release in the runup to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The movie is scheduled to start shooting in March from a screenplay by Wang Hui-ling (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).