If Jackie/Jet project would have more HK involvement.

[W Hong]

Based on what I've read so far about it, the upcoming Jackie Chan/Jet Li project doesn't seem to have that much of a HK connection. I think that the only HK movie connection is from Yuen Woo Ping being the fight choreographer, the two stars of the movie, and the plans to shoot in China(if I'm not wrong about that).

I wonder why this movie seems to have so much involvement from Hollywood, and little from HK. That may or may not make a difference, but here are my opinions:

1. "Around the World in 80 Days" is the only good Jackie
movie that wasn't from HK.
2. The only good Jet Li movies that were not produced by HK
were "LW4", maybe "Kiss otD", "Cradle2TG", and "Unleashed".
3. If a movie is going to have those two HK movie superstars
(or superstars until recently), then it doesn't seem like a
good idea to have the director/producer/writer all working
for Hollywood. The examples above show that Hollywood
doesn't really do as good a job w/ kung fu as HK. Maybe
the director or producer for the J/J Project should at least
have worked for HK before.

I know that J & J are getting a little bit older, but what are your thoughts on this?

[limubai2000]

A couple of observations...

The American influence in Chinese films will only increase as they try to get into the Chinese marketplace via financing and film production. They can't get more into the theaters in the mainland (limited to 20 foreign films per year) and they see this as a big future market. So they are using this method to get more entrenched in China so they can get more of their own movies into theaters AND make more money. Also they are looking at international distribution profits, I think CTHD was a big wakeup call to many US film companies. I think the cheaper production costs are surely another factor.

two HK movie superstars (or superstars until recently),

I think they are still superstars, Jackie doesn't make straight out fighting movies anymore and some kung fu fans can't understand/accept that. To each their own.

the director or producer for the J/J Project should at least

He with the money makes the decisions, in Hollywood and in HK. When you look at who financed it you can easily understand who got picked for what. I don't think an HK/Chinese company could have financed the film with the salaries required of the stars let alone a good director and YWP. Even a group of Asian companies would be hard pressed to agree enough to pull this off. The only way I feel it can happen is with a big Hollywood major film company stepping in.

I will go see this with no expectations whatsoever and probably enjoy it on some level. It will never be what fans want it to be.

[Update] It just came to light that the Chinese government has changed their rules for foreign companies involvement in Chinese film and TV. Going forward foreign companies will not be able to setup permanent financing entities inside China to co-produce/produce films and TV programs. They will need to setup individual finance entities for each project they wish to complete, this will cost the foreign companies alot more money and probably spurn increased foreign investment in Chinese media. (Might be a good thing) So I stand corrected from what I said above.