Jackie Chan was on hand as one of over a dozen notable names on hand hosting in-person panel events at the second-annual Red Sea Film Festival where he confirmed he would focus more on romance and drama for future projects. It wasn’t long before, however, that he would also reveal he is in discussions with an unnamed director for the long-gestating Rush Hour 4, as confirmed by multiple trade news sources on Thursday.
Indeed there have been developments over the last several years or so regarding the long-gestating development of Rush Hour 4, among other titles. Various interviews and trade blubs have surfaced to substantiate this, although it appears that more local mediums will need further scruitny with word from action star Jackie Chan’s own people pertaining to recent false rumors of forthcoming casting and auditions for the film, as well as a sequel to Harald Zwart’s The Karate Kid which had actor Jaden Smith set to recur.
For 60-ish Guinness world record-holding martial arts star and legendary action cinema mainstay Jackie Chan, any talk of retirement has always been suspect considering the workload he continues to mount for himself. The 2012 release of Chinese Zodiac ’12 – CZ12, followed by Police Story 2013 and the recent box office success of director Daniel Lee’s record period epic, Dragon Blade, are all prime examples of Chan‘s fortitude in what seems to be a non-ending growth in career, which has always left a daunting affect on any discussion regarding whether or not he would turn the page on doing films for good considering his age.
Chan himself has spoken to the press in recent years about the subject with regard to the caliber and danger level of his signature action and stuntwork his career has become so known and celebrated for, and for his age it obviously makes sense that he would express an interest in taking some kind of a break. However, it appears the enduring work ethic of folks like Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone have had an affect on Chan as both continue to work, with Stallone working on Creed and Scarpia this year and Eastwood’s recent directorial success on American Sniper. As such, Chan‘s statements quoted in a new article over at translatory Chinese news site, Jaynestars, are now hinting at otherwise continued plans for a follow-up to Armour Of God 3 (a.k.a. CZ12), a third ‘Shanghai’ movie proceeding Shanghai Noon (2000) and Shanghai Knights (2003), and a fourth Rush Hour movie.
Chan himself hasn’t really done a Hollywood film since 2010 with The Spy Next Door and Kung Fu Panda 2, the latter sharing production weight with Shanghai-based Oriental Dreamworks. That’s about five years, and so it is nice to see that the studios in Hollywood partly responsible in helping him cross over in the late 1990’s still see him as a viable star for American audiences. Plus, a forth Rush Hour film (aside from the new CBS series starring Jon Foo coming soon), and a third stint with actor Owen Wilson for Shanghai 3 have been in development hell since the relative preceding titles hit the big screen.
Needless to say, there will be more Chan. Director Renny Harlin’s latest with the actor in Skiptrace is still in post-production with the remaining possibility of Karate Kid 2 with Jaden Smith; Really, that latter title makes a total of four movies in development (five if you count his possible return to the vocal role of Monkey on Kung Fu Panda 3 in 2016), although time will tell as always. And at this rate, don’t be surprised if Dragon Blade gets a sequel greenlit. Early? Yes. Unlikely? Well, we’re talking Jackie freaking Chan here so…whatever.
Stay tuned for more info.
A lot of time has been spent going back and forth with the prospects of a fourth addition to the current Rush Hour trilogy. Quite frankly it’s confusing, but it looks like Warner Bros. is ready to take the franchise in a new direction with the production of a new one-hour action series, according to Deadline.
Executive producers and showrunners Bill Lawrence and Blake McCormick are expected to stay true to the original film in writing the series, with Hong Kong Chief Inspector Lee and Los Angeles Detective Carter (initally played respectively by Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker), who become reluctant partners on a series of crime-solving misadventures. Hercules helmer Brett Ratner who directed all three successful films between 1998 and 2007, is also joining the series to executive produce with Arthur Sarkissian.
Stay tuned for more info.
While it’s nice to know that Chan and Tucker are just a few steps closer to doing this particular movie than Chan with any of the titles mentioned two paragraphs earlier, time is always an issue, and anything can happen between now and the next several years as Chan maintains his focus on his next three stated projects, Skiptrace, DragonBlade, and another big action movie which he adamantly says he would be the one producing, directing and choreographing. And if that wasn’t enough, Chan also says he plans on starting his own action academy to personally instruct all action and stunt actors and pass down his knowledge to future generations of martial arts screenfighters.
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