While promoting his new film Chinese Zodiac, Jackie Chan tells us about his sequel plans, including Shanghai Dawn and Expendables 4...
Jackie Chan may be in his early 60s, but he’s still one of the biggest action stars on the planet. His latest film, Chinese Zodiac, a semi-sequel to Armor Of God II: Operation Condor, broke records in China, and offers up a veritable banquet of goofy comedy, outlandish combat and unfeasibly dangerous stunts.
It was while on the promotional trail for that film, out on disc now in the UK, that we had the chance to sit down with Mr Chan and talk about his career and plans for the future. Although he’s recently stated that he’s retiring from “big action films” (with emphasis on the word big), his slate of forthcoming films is more crowded than ever - so much so that he rattles through them almost casually.
There’s Dragon Blade, a sword-and-sandals action epic starring John Cusack and Adrien Brody, and Skiptracer, an action caper co-starring Seann William-Scott. There’s Karate Kid II, in which he’ll reprise his role as the sad-eyed mentor Han. Plus there’s Shanghai Dawn, the sequel to Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights, which he says he’s “talking about,” along with a fourth Rush Hour movie.
He also revealed that Sylvester Stallone’s been on the phone, still trying to talk him into appearing in an Expendablessequel - something Jackie Chan’s repeatedly turned down in the past.
“...this morning I did hear - the office called - Sly [Stallone] wants me for Expendables 4,” he told us. “I said, ‘Okay.’ Because they already asked me to be in two and three, but I refused. Well, I didn’t refuse, but I said, ‘Sly, can’t we just do you and me? Not just a bunch of people and me only coming out for five minutes.’ Because then the audience is, ‘Oh!’ And then I’m gone.”
It’s just possible, then, that if Stallone writes a beefy enough role for Jackie Chan, then the venerable action star could finally make his debut in the franchise - assuming a fourth Expendableshappens at all, of course.
Until then, Jackie Chan has all those other films to think about, plus he’s already writing a script for Chinese Zodiac II.“I think Zodiac II will be my last big action movie!” He laughingly tells us.
Jackie Chan? Retiring? We’ll believe it when we see it.
You can read our full Jackie Chan interview tomorrow.
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