“In part one, I knocked out my opponent. When I realized that she was a girl, I flew to save her and was thanked by her people. In the end, I became friends with the villains who tried to steal the 12 zodiac statues. If there is a chance to film a sequel, I want to bring those villains back, this time as my friends, who will help me in return.” “- Jackie Chan. This daring scene which he hopes to save for a sequel to CZ12, estimated to cost about 400 to 500 million RMB to produce.
There was another extremely dangerous airplane scewhere Jackie jumps off the plane without a parachute. When asked why he chose to perform such a death-defying stunt, Jackie said, “The scene was a part of the movie ever since it was conceptualized about 7 years ago. I did wear a safety vest which I invented myself and took a long time to design. But that’s the beauty of movies – whatever you imagine can become a reality.”
Watch new trailer to Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac
Watch the second trailer to Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac
Check out posters for Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac
Watch the first trailer to Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac
Chinese Zodiac sees Jackie Chan reprise his role as Asian Hawk. This time Hawk attempts to search out the twelve mystical bronze sculpture heads of animals in the Chinese zodiac. The quest necessitates some crazy gear that allows him to break into (and out of) some tight situations.
Chinese Zodiac, also known as CZ12 debuts December 12, 2012.
Watch the first teaser to Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac
Check out the first poster for Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac
After years of development and work on other projects, Jackie Chan is currently filming final big action film Chinese Zodiak aka Armour of God 3.
The film revolves around Asian Hawk in his final mission, in which he must collect the 12 statue heads of the Chinese Zodiac to save the world. One may remember that Chan used the Chinese Zodiac symbols as the basis for the first season of his animated series, JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES, back in 2000.
Production began in June in Paris, France with Chan at the director’s chair and Stanley Tong as producer. Both previously worked on SUPERCOP: POLICE STORY III (1992), PROJECT S (1993), RUMBLE IN THE BRONX (1995), and FIRST STRIKE: POLICE STORY IV (1996).
A concept teaser has been release to the Chinese media in December, a year before the official premiere on December 12th, 2012 in IMAX theaters. There is no actual footage has been revealed in this teaser, only retrospective montage of Chan’s classic action films in chronological order, follow by a behind-the-scenes glimpse of gun fights, car chase and his trademark improvise-with-the-environment style of fighting.
How I love it! For real fans it is an awesome chance to see Jackie in his original martial arts movie genre in which he is still The King of Action. Waiting for official trailer!
After his success with Daemul, Kwon Sang Woo got a big project, teamed with Asian royalty, Jackie Chan, for the Hong Kong success Armour of God 3. I suppose it is a big honor for Kwon Sang Woo to be able to work with Jackie and he surely will give his all. Although still in the pre-production and the first shooting will be held next June in Paris, Kwon already spent times to discuss his role.
Jackie Chan announced his next martial arts movie project in Beijing – a collaboration with Rumble in the Bronx director Stanley Tong.
“The 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals features many intense fighting scenes, almost from the beginning to the end. A major fight scene of the action movie cost 70 million yuan, or more than 10 million U.S. dollars”, Chan revealed.
“I think I won’t fight so fiercely as this in the future,” said the 56-year-old.
The martial arts movie tells about a Chinese hero bringing back the bronze head statues of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals, which were sacked by the French and British armies from the imperial Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860.
“We wanted to make this film as early as six years ago,” Chan said. “Last year, the news about the statues’ auction struck us and we finally started on it.”
Jazz musician Kenny G will have a cameo as an airplane pilot. His music will also be featured in the film’s soundtrack.
When the film was initially announced back in mid-2009, the project’s working-title was Armour of God III: Chinese Zodiac. Anyway I am glad to hear it is happening and Jackie reprised his role of famous adventurer.
Here is some photos of Jackie in Paris.
The film has been in discussion for some time, with Operation Condor: Armour of God 2 co-director Frankie Chan pencilled in to direct at one point. Asian press reported some time ago that Jackie is set to reprise one of his most popular characters in the Armour of God 3: Chinese Zodiac and will be co-directed alongside Stanley Tong. Filming was scheduled for October 2009, but because of busy Jackie’s schedule was postponed to June 2011. The shooting locations are France, Vienna, Beijing, Hong Kong and Kazakhstan.
The martial arts adventures with a budget of close to 250 million HK dollars is produced by Emperor Motion Pictures subsidiary Emperor Dragon Movies and plot-wise it looks as those Chinese Zodiac will see Chan on another series of treasure hunts across the globe that are intricately linked with one of the major events in Chinese history.
The first Armour of God film shot way back in 1985 saw Chan suffer his most serious injury yet with a fractured skull. He dislocated his sternum in the sequel – so fingers crossed he will go unscathed in Armour of God 3.
During the 2010 promotion of the new martial arts movie The Little Big Soldier, Jackie Chan talked about his motivation for making his 101th film named Armour of God 3 or Chinese Zodiac. According to Chan, he wanted to work on the movie that deals with recovering the national treasures of the Chinese people including the last four lost items of the Gardens of Perfect Clarity’s 12 Head Statues of Chinese Zodiac.
Film will be produced by Emperor Motion Pictures and Emperor Dragon Movies, budget of Indiana Jones-esque adventure series Armour of God 3 is about $40 million with Jackie co-directing along with Stanley Tong. Jackie is going back to directorial duties since Who Am I? movie in 1998. He came up with the story in 2003 but due to schedule conflicts, the development was put on hold until 2011.
What Jackie said about his third adventure movie: “I once saw a Chinese Zodiac animal bust being auctioned in a foreign country, I was immensely stirred, why do we keep losing our national treasures to other countries? Last year, two more busts were auctioned, re-igniting my will to shoot the movie Chinese Zodiac. Why does such and such museum have so many Chinese national treasures? These are loots. Many big countries are saying those are world legacies, and they’re safekeeping them, but in reality, they just want to possess them.”
He also added, “Once, I set aside US$30m, intending to quietly buy back an animal bust for China. However, the final bid was US$100m, it was far too high, beyond what I could afford, and I had to give up. I had thought of making use of my kung fu skills, sneak into those museums, and get back all those lost national treasures one by one. But, their security was too high. But I believe, all these artifacts will gradually be returned by and by.”
Jackie wanted all the bases covered in the movie by allotting another 70 million yuan for a major action scene. He said, “have been hesitant about this for a long time, many told me it is too extravagant, and advised me against it. But eventually, I still go for it. This film will contain many vigorous action scenes, I’d almost be fighting throughout the film, but my most demanding action scenes will stop at martial arts movie.”
You know, I’d love to see Sammo Hung doing something to the project as he is the best fightig choreography for today (great job on Ip Man 2 Film) and Jackie has to work with him again for sure. First 2 martial arts movies of Jackie’s adventure is a pure gold! Bad news that on press in Oslo Chan said Armour of God 3 will be his last big action film. It’s not all bad news though, Chan will continue to star and appear in films but showing off his acting ability as opposed to his muscle.
IMDB has Chan at 109 acting credits, 18 as director 37 as producer, including a few uncredited appearances and his voice gig for Kung Fu Panda 2. All newspapers tells that actually 1911 will be billed as Chan’s 100th project, which Chan co-directed with Red Cliff cinematographer Zhang Li. Anyway who cares, Jackie is Jackie and he always welcome to any TV or cinema screen. If you haven’t seen his last project with him I reckon to read my review on Shaolin Movie.