Prologue:
Jackie Chan's new film Shanghai Noon
opens early in the States on May 26, on a
direct course to clash with Tom Cruise's
Mission: Impossible II, which opens on
May 24. "Disney is very confident of
using this film to compete with Cruise.
As I'm a newcomer in Hollywood, whether I
win or loose it doesnt matter."
That's true. With Jackie's current price,
why cant he challenge Cruise, who also
receives US$20m a film?
Cowboy Dream
Witnessing how cool John Wayne and Clint
Eastwood play with guns, imitation came
naturally. "I always wanted to be a
cowboy from very young. But I couldn't be
one in real life, so I made Shanghai
Noon." And this Chinese cowboy is
just as cool: from The Forbidden City to
train explosions, to having an Indian
wife, and even fell in love with the
princess.
The Power Game
"In Rush Hour I was only an actor,
the crew didn't listen to me much, which
was no fun. This time I supplied the
script, I executive produced the film, I
can even choose the actors. Things were
much better this time." Why didn't
he use Michelle Regis or Hsu Qi? " I
wanted to introduce more Hong Kong and
Taiwanese actresses, but Spy Glass wanted
Lucy Liu. I though I supplied the story,
so I asked to be included in the credit
as script writer, but Disney refused.
Even my Jackie Chan Stunt Team cannot be
credited!" The power game is not an
easy one.
It feels good to ride a horse
Insisting of performing everything
himself, and getting injured frequently,
why Jackie still try as hard? "They
(Hollywood) need my stuff - the Jackie
Chan style (no special effects). They
couldn't do it, and that's Hong Kong's
advantage!" Dangerous stunts were
daily routine for Jackie, but horse
riding did give him headaches. "I
was worried when I knew I have to ride
horses - a female jockey was killed
falling from a horse, and Christopher
Reeves got paralysed from the same type
of accident!" After a month long
training, Jackie had overcome the fear
and learnt something along the way:
"you just cant get that feeling of
riding on horseback through vast
landscape in the city!"
Epilogue:
The interview took place at the 48th
floor of a hotel in Admiralty, Hong Kong.
With no reason, Jackie, who is still
suffering from back injury, sang an old
TV song: "You think you're at the
mountain's top, but there's still higher
places..." Only God and he knows why
someone at the peak of his career would
suddenly feel that way.
To tell you the truth, it does look scary
from the 48th floor up.
Photo captions:
The ever considerate Jackie changed his
clothing after every interview, so each
magazine would have different photos to
print.
Train robber Owen Wilson escaped prison
with Jackie, and managed to save the
princess in the end.
The JC Stunt Team, who followed Jackie to
the States, designed action sequences
that had won the praise of the US crew.
After spending months with horses, Jackie
has become an expert on the animal.
Lawrence (lawmak@hk.super.net)
This is another interview Jackie gave to
the East Magazine, appeared in its 9th
May edition:
Title:
Breaking the Tradition -
Jackie Had Every Say in Hollywood
Prologue:
Jackie Chan's second Hollywood
feature, Shanghai Noon, which had
already won high praises in
screenings, has already broken
traditional Hollywood production
model even before official
release. Not only did Jackie had
firm control on the film,the
movie studio even |
 |
accepted
his way of making dynamic, ad-hoc changes
to the story, which was unheard of in
Hollywood. When released in US, it will
come head to head with Tom Cruise's
Mission: Impossible II. Jackie admitted:
" I'm honoured even if I lost at the
box office."
Winning Trust with Real Stuff
The success of Jackie's first film had
seen him changing the production model in
Hollywood. When interviewed, Jackie said:
"All this was mainly due to the
success of Rush Hour. When you do things,
you must have something that you are
better than others before they trust you.
In Rush Hour, the producer did not trust
me wholeheartedly. But when the film was
a box office hit, he came to me and said,
' Jackie, you were right!'
I told him, I wouldn't just cut and paste
the Hong Kong production model to US. I
would bring the smart stuff from Hong
Kong, and blend it with Hollywood's
systematic production model. That makes
my movie dynamic. Like the axe throwing
scene in Shanghai Noon; they trusted me
100%. In the past, they wouldn't let me
do that. Now we use real axe, and they
would say: 'Jackie, are you sure?' I said
I can, so they threw the axes at me! I
would calculate how far I have to move
back, when to turn, and when to jump...
and it all worked. So they trusted me
completely."
Making Additions as He Sees Fit
"They wouldn't let me to do this in
the past, but now they listen to me.
After I finished the scene, everyone was
stunned. Think how much money I just
saved on special effects! All the green
and blue screen! And it looked real! And
through this, I began to bring my style
of half-death-defying style to US, and
they accepted them. Because if they
didn't, they couldn't make it any other
way. Now, whenever I have some new idea
about a scene, I would ask for one or
more extra days to try it out, and they
will give me the time. In the past, if I
asked for some ad-hoc stuff, they'll get
real scared, because their system doesn't
allow them to do so. Now it really is
much better, and they've become
accustomed to my dynamic style."
Old Tricks as New
For Shanghai Noon, Jackie added lots of
specially designed action sequences, some
originally reserved for Rush Hour II,
some borrowed from Druken Master II.
"There is a really interesting
Drinking Game scene in Shanghai Noon,
which originated from the producer
watching me and Samo played it at a
party. He wanted to put it in the film,
and I wanted to reserve it for Rush Hour
II. But the producer liked it so much he
said he couldn't wait. So we put it in.
They've also watched Druken Master II,
and also liked the scene where I blew the
bubbles, so we put one in as well.
Although everyone who saw the scenes
liked them, they were pretty hard to
do."
Filming wasn't the only tough part:
Jackie was suffering from an old back
injury on the day of interview, and
couldn't sit for any extended period of
time. But he still perservered till the
end of interview. But the second he
talked about the best sequences in the
film, he smiled: "In US I'm against
Tom Cruise; his film opens on Wednesday,
and mine on Friday. I'm honoured even if
I loose. Think about it: Tom Cruise is a
super star; now I'm head to head against
him, so I'm also a super star!! Ha
ha!!"
Sidebar 1
Photo 1: Jackie Jumping from cabin to
cabin
Photo 2: Jackie holding onto rails on the
cabin
Photo 3: Jackie and Owen playing the
Drinking Game
Photo 4: Jackie blowing bubbles, again
Photos 5: Jackie ordering fido the horse.
The fim used two similar looking horses
for different scenes.
Sidebar 2
The ever changing looks of Jackie in
Shanghai Noon
Photo 1: Soldier
Photo 2: Prison
Photo 3: in Ching Dynasty costume
Photo 4: Cowboy
Main Photo 1 Caption: The story of
Shanghai Noon came from twenty years ago,
when Jackie was making The Big Brawl in
US.
Main Photo 2 caption : The axe throwing
scene had stunned the US crew.
Main Photo 3 caption: Suffering from old
back injury, it took the normally agile
Jackie minutes jus to walk a short
distance, with the need of help from
others. Fame does come at a price.
Lawrence lawmak@hk.super.net
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