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Jackie Chan Headlining a Remake of Shaolin Temple in China

by Alex Billington
October 22, 2009

More cheesy kung fu "chopsocky" humor, but this time since it's actually coming from China, it won't be as bad as the Hollywood-produced crap like The Spy Next Door. Jackie Chan will star in a remake of the 1982 movie Shaolin Temple alongside of Andy Lau (The Warlords), Nicholas Tse (The Storm Warriors), and actress Fan Bingbing (Shinjuku Incident). The film is a $29 million Chinese production directed by Hong Kong's Benny Chan, who made New Police Story and Rob-B-Hood. This will also feature martial arts star Wu Jing, Yu Shaoqun and "thousands of Shaolin disciples from the temple", which just sounds awesome.

The temple, built in 495 A.D., is widely regarded as the birthplace of Shaolin kung fu. "We felt that it was important not to rush into a film project just for the sake of making another film. It has taken us a long time to find the right partners who had all the right elements for something as monumental as this," abbot Shi Yongxin said. The story follows a slave who runs away and learns kung fu at the temple and returns to kill a traitor who killed his father betrayed his emperor. It's based on a true story from Shaolin folklore, but highly fictionalized. Shooting on Shaolin Temple is expected to start the end of this year with a release in late 2010.

I long for the day when we'll see Jackie Chan return to his martial arts roots to make good action - or even good comedy - movies once again. I was glad to see him star in Shinjuku Incident (which hasn't hit America yet) and I hope this is like his older work as well. I'm just tired of seeing him in crap like The Spy Next Door.

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