Indiana Jones incarnated in Jackie Chan
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-09 07:38

Jackie Chan fans will only have a couple of months to wait before his latest martial arts blockbuster "The Myth" comes out.

Due for release on September 23, it will be different from "Around the World in 80 Days" and "New Police Story," Chan told press conferences in Beijing and Hong Kong this week.

The media has likened "The Myth" to the Indiana Jones' series of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom."

In the movie, Chan plays a modern-day archaeologist who in the process of discovering a mausoleum built by China's first emperor Qin Shihuang in 221 BC he of Terracotta Army fame found himself falling back in time to become a Qin Dynasty general.

The film also stars Leung Ka Fai from Hong Kong, Kim Hee-Sun from South Korea and the Indian actress Mallika Sherawat.

Director and screen writer Stanley Tong said he got the story idea after visiting the mausoleum of Emperor Qin, which took over 700,000 men 38 years to build.

Liberally splattered with fantasy and much literary licence, the film is a modern-day swashbuckling adventure. It is a co-production of Jackie Chan Emperor Movies Limited and China Film Group Corporation and cost US$20 million to make.

Its on-location shoots included Shanghai, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Guizhou and Yunnan, as well as India.

It contains over 900 shots with CG effects, like the one showing thousands of terracotta warriors and a sea of mercury falling from the sky the actual tomb of Emperor Qin has still not been opened because of the lake of highly toxic mercury reputed to be inside.

Battle scenes using over 1,000 extras and more than 100 horses, were shot, while over 100,000 CG soldiers will be added to the final film.

Graham Ware Jr, horse trainer for "The Lord of the Rings," was on board to train the horses, especially the one Chan rides.

Intriguing plot

During filming, the cast sustained quite a few injuries, with Chan himself injured in a horse-related accident. He recovered sufficiently to travel on the HIV/AIDS charity work he has been active in, and promotion of "Around the World in 80 Days" in Europe.

At a press conference in Hong Kong on Thursday, Chan spoke of how Kim's professionalism had impressed him during the making of the movie. He marvelled at Kim's ability to learn Chinese, her continuing to work in spite of some particularly tough filming conditions and being able to cry on demand.

In interviews with the media in previous months, Mallika Sherawat has been quoted praising Chan.

She described him as professional, funny, helpful, and caring, andvery admiring of the beauty of Indian women.

At the press conference in Beijing on Tuesday, Chan said he was drawn to the plot of "The Myth," not only by the challenge of playing two roles, but because of the serious message it carries about the need to return looted cultural relics to their rightful and native countries.

Chan, who has been participating in a lot of charity events recently to arouse public concern over AIDS prevention and HIV/AIDS victims, said film-making carries a lot of social responsibilities.

He revealed that for his next film project he will collaborate with the celebrated mainland director Zhang Yimou on a comedy set in 1980s' China.

"I waited for 10 years to be able to collaborate with Zhang," he was quoted as saying by the local media.

His collaborative project with Zhang would be "galvanizing" and is set in the 1980s. The idea is his, but Zhang will work on the script and the pair plan to dispatch someone to do research.

As a director, Chan has made a lot of action movies.

But he admitted at the press conference in Beijing, that he knew little about how to make films on the themes that take place on the Chinese mainland.

He said he liked Zhang Yimou's films, especially "No One Less," a feature starring Zhang Ziyi as a school teacher in the countryside and "Beautiful Mother," starring Gong Li, who makes tremendous sacrifices to bring up her mentally handicapped son.

Chan said he has been so impressed by Zhang's kung fu movies that he is convinced that he could make any movie.

"He relies on imagination ... like an arrow flying through water. How can we produce this kind of stuff?" remarked Chan.

"He has elevated the martial arts genre. I believe he can make any type of movie now."

Chan said he hoped to be able to create films on a variety of subject matters.

With a large following the world over, in June the mayor of Paris awarded Chan an honorary medal from the city, praising the Hong Kong action star's film career and his smile.

"It would have been an immense pleasure just to shake your hand," Mayor Bertrand Delanoe told Chan during the ceremony.

He described the 51-year-old director, actor and stuntman as a "master of humour, of the burlesque and of self-deprecation."

"This mayor knows everything about me!" Chan joked.

But Chan said during the press conference in Beijing that he is starting to promote fresh new actors.

"It is an era of new people," he said.

(China Daily 07/09/2005 page9)