While we were expecting Jackie Chan’s next film to be Skip Trace, an action comedy set to star Chan alongside the lovely Fan Bing-bing (soon to be seen in X-Men: Days of Future Past) and Sean William Scott from American Pie and the superb Stark Ravin'. The film was announced last year and it seemed that pre-production had already begun, but Chan’s latest project is set to see him co-starring alongside no lesser name than Mel Gibson!
While we'd love to see Jackie's Police Story character Kevin Chan/Ka-Kui teaming up with Gibson's Lethal Weapon character Martin Riggs to battle the bad guys in modern day Hong Kong, the actual premise for the film is something we weren't expecting. The film Dragon Blade will be directed by Daniel Lee (What Price Survival?) is a period piece, that sees a Roman Legion lead by Mel Gibson’s character getting caught up in an adventure in China where they cross paths with a Chinese hero played by Jackie Chan. They are forced to join forces to battle an even greater foe that threatens the whole world.
Gibson has had a few rough years and to quote Kevin Smith, ‘what happened to Mel Gibson?' We liked the mad Mel from Mad Max and Lethal Weapon, but what went wrong?’ But his recent turn in Machete Kills saw the twinkle in his eyes restored and the images we’ve seen of him from The Expendables 3, see him looking ripped and fit to fight. Here’s hoping that the wilderness years and moments of extreme political incorrectness - to say the least - are behind him!
Jackie Chan has also had a few years where his previously squeaky clean image got a little tarnished, but has continued to deliver time and time again. We do like the idea of Chan and Gibson back to back battling the bad guys in a good old fashioned action adventure.
The shooting on Dragon Blade begins at the end of March and the film is scheduled for release in 2015.
