Woo was born Wu Yu-seng (Ng Yu-sum in Cantonese) in Guangzhou, China, amidst the chaos of the Chinese Civil War at the end of October 1946. Due to school age restrictions, his mother changed his birth date to 22 September 1948, which is what remains on his passport. The Woo family, Christians faced with persecution during Mao Zedong's early anti-bourgeois purges after the communist revolution in China, fled to Hong Kong when he was five. Impoverished, the Woo family lived in the slums at Shek Kip Mei.

A CGI Mighty Mouse film was announced in 2003 although, as of September 2015, nothing has yet been produced. There have been rumours that Woo will direct a film version of the videogame Metroid, however the rights he optioned have since expired.  Woo's next projects are The Divide, a western concerning the friendship between two workers, one Chinese, the other Irish, on the transcontinental rail-road, while The Devil's Soldier is a biopic on Frederick Townsend Ward, an American brought to China in the mid 19th century by the Emperor to suppress rebellion. Rendezvous in Black will be an adaptation of the drama/thriller novel of the same name, and Psi-Ops is a science fiction thriller about a telepathic agent, and a remake of Blind Spot.  In May 2008, Woo announced in Cannes that his next movie would be 1949, an epic love story set between the end of World War II and Chinese Civil War to the founding of the People's Republic of China, the shooting of which would take place in China and Taiwan. Its production was due to begin by the end of 2008, with a theatrical release planned in December 2009. However, in early April 2009, the film was cancelled due to script right issues. Reports indicated that Woo might be working on another World War II film, this time about the American Volunteer Group, or the Flying Tigers. The movie was tentatively titled "Flying Tiger Heroes" and Woo is reported as saying it will feature "The most spectacular aerial battle scenes ever seen in Chinese cinema." It was not clear whether Woo would not be directing the earlier war film, or whether it was put on the back burner. Woo has stated that Flying Tiger Heroes would be an "extremely important production" and will "emphasise US-Chinese friendship and the contributions of the Flying Tigers and the Yunnan people during the war of resistance." Woo has announced he will be using IMAX cameras to film the Flying Tigers project. "It has always been a dream of mine to explore shooting with IMAX cameras and to work in the IMAX format, and the strong visual element of this film is incredibly well-suited to the tastes of cinemagoers today [...] Using IMAX for Flying Tigers would create a new experience for the audience, and I think it would be another breakthrough for Chinese movies."  After the death of Japanese actor Ken Takakura in 2014, Woo announced his next film Manhunt, a film based on the novel by Juko Nishimura. The novel had previously been adapted by Junya Sato in 1976 as Kimi yo Fundo no Kawa o Watare, starring Takakura. Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Shu Qi were in discussion to star in the film. In March 2016, it was confirmed that Zhang Hanyu, Masaharu Fukuyama, and Qi Wei would be starring in the film. Ha Ji-won was additionally confirmed as being attached to the project. Lee Byung-hun was slated to join, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Taking place and being shot in Japan, the film will have Chinese, Korean, and English dialogue. It is currently set for a tentative 2017 release.

Ask a question about this article.
Does Woo plan to work with anyone on a project?