In a shocking turn of events, Chow Yun-fat dropped out of John Woo's highly anticipated epic drama, “Red Cliff,” billed as the most expensive Chinese film yet. Only three days after shooting started, Chow hit the road and according to the local media, he was fired.

But can that be? Chow and Woo go way back: In the 1980s, Woo's Hong Kong action films “A Better Tomorrow" and “Once a Thief” made Chow a pan-Asian star and also paved the way for Chow's Hollywood success. For many years, Woo, his producer Terence Chang and Chow were old buddies; they partied together in L.A., stormed Hollywood and introduced each other to major players to help further each other's career.

The day that Chow dropped “Red Cliff,” he released a statement saying that he had to resign from the role because the script was only delivered to him a week ago and that didn't give him sufficient time to do the role justice.

To find out what's really going on, I placed a call to Terence Chang. “It was the American bond company who refused to sign Chow's acting contract,” explained Chang. “There were way too many unreasonable requests [by Chow].” So what are those strange demands? “I can tell you that the same American financer had dealt with Julia Roberts' contract. Even Julia Roberts is not as fussy as Chow!”

When Chow acted in Zhang Yimou's “Curse of Golden Flower,” he requested a 10 meter long limousine equipped with a toilet just for Chow and his wife to use as a bathroom during the 40 day shoot. And in his “Red Cliff” contract, reports indicate that Chow demanded three meals at very specific hours, breaks at strict intervals and his make up to be done at the same hour every day. All of this scheduling only left four hours a day for actual filming.

“All my acting contracts are based on Hollywood practice. And I used the same contract in both Hollywood and Asia,” Chow told the media. “It may be that the Chinese filmmakers are not used to Hollywood standards.” Before this statement, all the bru-ha-ha could have been put down to a contractual disagreement. But the condescending comment Chow made towards the Chinese cinema really hurt Woo's feelings, not to mention the Chinese producers.

“We have offered the highest we could offer [US$5 million]. But we and the financer think that if we follow this unreasonable contract, it will affect the shooting schedule,” Chang said.

Chow not only lost a role, he's lost his two decade friendship with Woo. More importantly, though, he may lose all respect from his Chinese fans. And an actor without friends, partners and respect doesn't leave much.