Growing up, I wasn’t especially knowledgeable about Jackie Chan flicks. I discovered his best work right around the time he made his big breakthrough in the mid-’90s. Nevertheless, I haven’t exactly had that heavy a heart to watch his Hollywood career spiral downward to somewhere just barely north of Steven Seagal’s (for whom I do have a heavy heart, FYI…come on Steven…) basement. In between periods when one of his recent (and generally not that great) American productions isn’t taking up good screen space, he gets back to the East for work. It’s there that he’s just landed a role in the dangerously-titled Flying Duck for producer Jia Zhangke and his X Stream Pictures.
The project is funded by China’s Sunny Sky Culture and Media Investment Co. and is described as a “cross-border bromance” by its Korean helmer, the Busan-born first-time feature director Baek Seung-Hoon, who studied at China’s Beijing Film Academy and is fluent in Chinese. The comedy is produced by Jia and his X Stream partner Chow Keung, and stars Chinese actress Ni Hong-jie and Korean actor Choi Joon-suk.
Filming will begin in November for a six-month shoot in China. In the meantime, Chan has The Spy Next Door and (sigh) The Kung Fu Kid with Taraji P. Henson and Jaden Smith upcoming.