First rumored in: 1997
Status: Unknown or has it transformed into "Land of Destiny (The Divide)"? We'll be grateful if anyone can confirm this.
Who's making it: To be produced by John Woo
Director: PJ Pesce
Written by: Tom Abrams, David Henry Hwang, Gary Tiesche
Producers: Midge Sanford, Sarah Pillsbury
Genre: Action Drama
Language: English

Synopsis:

"A young Chinese man escapes his country and heads to America, the land of opportunity, in order to mine for gold. However, with the opportunity comes racial prejudice, greed and injustice."

Latest Development:

• This interview was conducted in February 1999.
  
  Q: What's your dream project?
  
  PJ Pesce: "The Battle of Ono," a script I wrote for John Woo and Terrence Chang and Chow Yun Fat for me to direct. They approached me after they saw "The Desperate Trail" (guess they saw how much I'd stolen from John...) and asked me to rewrite the script and direct it. It's an action western about the chinese immigrants that built the railroads in the 1870's. Fat plays a Tai Ping rebel who's great with guns. It's really like a Clint Eastwood movie from the 70's--the action grows out of character.
  
  
• Q: There's a report that you're considering a project by King Hu?

  CYF: It's called Battle Of Ono, based on the first-generation Chinese workers in America. An independent company is looking for a distributor to back the project, but some people, they're not very interested in the Chinese workers' story. It's difficult to find investors.

• Chow Yun-Fat and director PJ Pesce (The Desperate Trail) have signed up for The Battle of Ono, Goldcrest's new $16 million action drama. Described as "an Eastern Western" by producers Midge Sandford and Sarah Pillsbury (River's Edge), it is executive produced by Terence Chang and John Woo. Pesce, who has also been signed by Fox to direct its upcoming Lone Ranger movie, takes the place of the late director King Hu, who originally developed The Battle of Ono.
  
  Pesce will then go back and do "Lone Ranger," and move on to "The Battle of Ono," a Western about Chinese immigrants working on the railroads in the 1870s. John Woo produces and Chow Yun-Fat will star, with several studios in talks to acquire the rights.

• Pesce wrote the "Battle" script with Tom Abrams and David Henry Hwang.

• CYF signed the contract for The Battle of Ono in mid-May, 1997.

• 1997: As for Wu Kam Chuen's last wish, Wa Gung Huet Lui Si (Lit: Chinese Labor Blood Tear History) [a.k.a. The Battle of Ono], John Woo has agreed to produce the film and the project will cost US$ 15 million. Because of John Woo, Chow Yun Fat has agreed to star, but he has asked for US$5 million for his role. Unfortunately, there still hasn't been a date for production because the film company is still measuring possible profit from the market.

• THE BATTLE OF ONO was to be a sweeping historical epic to take place in China with Chow Yun Fat set to star. Everything was set in place and Hu was very happy with his latest prospect. The film would afford Hu the luxury of a large budget, state of the art production equipment, a major international star, and world wide distribution. Trades like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter enthusiastically reported that the film was "go". On January 14th, 1997 - one week before the film began production, Hu passed away quietly at his Los Angeles residence. Gone was a cinematic genuis rarely paralelled, a quite giant whose influence on a nations' cinema remains immesurable.

• Filmmaker King Hu had great influence on Hong Kong martial arts films. It was he who popularized the use of lightning-cut montage to make action sequences more exciting. He also helped popularize the genre with the addition of humor, something that greatly influenced such directors as Tsui Hark and John Woo. Born near Beijing, young Hu was raised in Hong Kong (he had been visiting there when the Communists took over mainland China and was not allowed to return). He broke into films as a set painter. He then worked as an actor and a writer as well as writing and producing radio shows for the Voice of America. In the early '60s, Hu began directing martial arts actioners for Shaw Brothers. In total, Hu directed 16 films. In the West, Hu is best known for A Touch of Zen (1973) which won an award at Cannes. King Hu spent the last decade of his life living in Los Angeles. He was visiting friends in Taipei and preparing to direct The Battle of Ono when he suffered a fatal stroke.