While a huge fan of Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong-produced films, I’ve always found his Hollywood output to be lacking. The Rush Hour films are nigh unwatchable thanks to the atrocious direction of Brett Ratner and the grating onscreen personality of Chan’s co-star Chris Tucker while films like The Tuxedo and Around The World In 80 Days just fail to use Chan in an sort of interesting way.
But among all of the disappointing films, there’s Chan’s two onscreen collaborations with Owen Wilson for the martial arts/western mashup comedies Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights, which, while not great, were at least entertaining enough to stand out. And now MGM is looking to reunite the two for a third go around in Shanghai Dawn.
The Tracking Board is reporting that MGM is pushing a threequel for the franchise into development which will bring Chan’s Chon Wang, a former imperial guard, and Wilson’s fumbling outlaw Roy O’Bannon back together for the first time since 2003.
What’s troubling is the report stating that the studio has not yet attached a writer to the project. This suggests that Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights co-scripters Miles Millar and Alfred Gough are not involved. This would be a shame as they more than anyone were the creative drive behind the first two films. But the pair, who went on to create the TV hit series Smallville, are deep in preparation for their new series Into The Badlands, so they probably won’t have time for this.
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