One of my highlights this week was having the opportunity to attend a screening of Jackie Chan’s new film, Chinese Zodiac, where he was also in attendance to receive the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement award as well as have a 40 minute discussion before the playing of his feature.
The entire discussion with Jackie Chan was led by Grady Hendrix who used to help run the NYAFF, but while he no longer does that he still is an active member and a very knowledgeable and personal person to have on stage which is why he was perfect to take Jackie on. Also, look at that suit, how could you not let someone in a hot pink suit sit on stage.
The topic of the discussion was primarily directing, how he started directing, his style, who taught him the most, scripting his films, etc. He also brought up his distaste for Hollywood because they always want him to play the same roles which is why he was excited about doing The Karate Kid with Will Smith because he didn’t have any action in the film. He went on to say that they only want him to do sequels and that after meeting with studio execs and being pitched story ideas for Rush Hour 4. He said he passed on all of them and that he has doesn’t really want to do a fourth film unless there is an amazing story to it.
The only downside to the discussion was that they didn’t take any questions from the audience, which sucks because I wanted to ask about his character in The Expendables 3.
The entire discussion can be found below and runs about 38 minutes. It’s a very interesting and comical discussion and one I recommend listening to if you are a fan of Jackie’s work.
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