Around the World in 80 Days (Movie - 2004), Jackie Chan, ...

All About

Jackie Chan

Get the latest photos, news, and more

While Chan's comedic brawling offers one kind of new thrill to American audiences, director Woo is also serving up something new: action drenched in operatic slo-mo style, acrobatic shoot-outs, and the cooler-than-cool swagger of his movies' heroes, often portrayed by his gun-toting muse, Hong Kong's Chow Yun-Fat (who has his own movie deal brewing with Sony). ''It used to be that we borrowed from American films,'' Woo recalls. ''But now everyone here borrows from me.''

In the wake of Arrow's and Rumble's success, Woo and Chan aren't likely to be leaving the U.S. scene any time soon. In addition to having his seminal 1989 movie, The Killer, remade by TriStar, Woo has six features in the works, including Face Off, a Paramount sci-fi thriller that would reunite him with Broken Arrow star Travolta; Hatchetman, a detective drama written by Tarantino's Pulp Fiction cowriter, Roger Avary; a potential film in development for Woo to direct from a screenplay by Tarantino himself; and two more films at Twentieth Century Fox, which released Broken Arrow and has seen it gross $44.8 million so far.

As for Chan, well, now that he has kicked his way to the top, he thinks it's time to stretch. ''I don't always want to do Jackie Chan-style movies,'' he says. ''I want to make something new.'' Now, that sounds like the sigh of an authentic Hollywood star.
— Additional reporting by Judy Brennan, David Chute, Andy Klein, and Richard Natale

Originally posted Mar 08, 1996 Published in issue #317 Mar 08, 1996 Order article reprints
Page 1 2
You Might Also Like

Add your comment

The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. An asterisk * indicates a required field.

500 characters remaining