to be FIRST Jackie Chan movie theatrically released in US+China sameday

1911 is now the FIRST!! Jackie Chan movie to be scheduled (and will fulfil the schedule, not sure if they will release it subtitled in the US, or create an english dub during the post-production) that will have the same day release in the USA, HK, China, Singapore, UK, Japan amongst other countries. the biggest thing though is how the US distrubtion group is trusting a Dramatic war epic that is historically based, investing a lot of money in distributing it to the max number of theaters possible (around the same number of theaters for movies like Rush Hour 2 or new block busters like Tron)

What this means for Jackie and us as fans? We have been neglected with not getting wide theatrical releases of any Hong Kong Chan film since Police Story 4, First Strike (even that was less # of theaters than the huge wide release of Rumble in the bronx due to the huge campaign prior on talkshows and the MTV Movie Award life-time achievment award to Jackie Chan presented by Q Taraintino which turned an entire base of teen-ages to renting Jackie Chan movies and seeking to buy VHS's which made distributers re-release and get copies of his older films out ASAP, along with DIMENSON films marketing it 10 times that of what they intended, allowing it to be #1 in the box office opening weekend and blow the minds of critics, although the posters and trailers all emphasized on how he does his own stunts and the amount of damage (including almost dying from splitting his head open) during his career) including that one trailer that just showed random movie scenes of his career of doing seriously painful stunts mixed with quick clips of fighting, then about 10 seconds of fast footage from Rumble)

I am not counting the medallion as that was a joint effort between the UK? and HK during filming / production, and was pretty terrible, especially for the budget it was given.

Jackie is paying for this movie himself with a budget of US 30million$ (thats a lot for a Hong Kong Movie, remember that Rumble In The Bronx only had a budget of 7 Million which was considered Huge for a chan movie at the time, and raked in over 33 million in the USA alone, or the IMO awful Hollywood Chan movies like Rush Hour that had a budget of 20? million and made 200 something million).

so boom, US gets to see Jackie in a Dramatic role that should be of EPIC style as the current poster it shows soldiers dying on the battlefield faded blended in the backround as the giant photo of Jackie as the General is the main focus, with this also being his 100th movie, 100th anniversary of the revolution, it is a giant production (with reason) for china, chan as an actor/director (to be taken seriously in drama) sets him up for HOLLYWOOD Dramatic roles, or Wide releases of upcomign dramatic HK movies like the non theatrically released CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED Shinjuku Incident from 2009 in which Chan gave his best dramatic performance to date, a film without one Kung Fu scene or "super stunt" (basically the Chinese Scarface as some people would like to put it, Chinese entering Japan Yakuza being bad-asses and the chinese basically becoming a Triad in Yakuza provinces). and Little Big Soldier from 2010 (another movie that may not have had made as much money as Shinjuku would have in the USA, but would still have done very well and would have been received very well by critics (after shinjuku Jackie assumed/hoped that Little Big Soldier was going to be picked up by full USA theatrical, but am not even sure if its been released in DVD/BluRay form yet... its only been released in Japan in theaters 4-5 months ago in which it had phenominal critical and fan accliam.)

So if the movie is as good as I am assuming it will be, Chinese culture and HISTORY especially never fails in chinese cinema (see Red Cliff for example), the chinese people take more pride in it than our history, and our pretty bad Civil war movies etc... this movie is being built knowing it needs to deliver the absolute best for an event like the 100th anniversary along with jackies 100th movie. and it will, and it will make ALOT in the US box office...

Setting up for the release of his last super-stunt Kung-Fu Movie "Armor of God 3: Chinese Zodiac" - to be filmed right after 1911.


Cheers! lets hope after this world wide same say release, that Chan as a dramatic actor will be a serious consideration with directors in hollywood, (they def. have watched his recent drama movies like Shinjuku and Little Big Soldier seeing his acting talent and range/dynamics in his roles) and this will set the switch on for them to be able to say "Chan will be in this movie" rather than just thinking it now and being put down by the men with the money behind he movie who see Jackies current hollywood career only in bad comedy like rush hour or family films like the spy next door *which was rather entertaining I will admit*, The Karate Kid showed USA that Jackie Chan could ACT in a dramatic role, critics proclaimed "Best actor/supporting actor for chan? Theres a new bandwagon!" type of deal.

IF ALL GOES WELL, we will have a healthy dose of HK and Hollywood Chan Movies both dramatic/serious plots, and perhaps even though AoG3 Chinese Zodiac is his last "80's-90's" style Chan Movie (even thoug his 2000-present movies feature the same characteristics just in.... longer plot points and story, less action more script which is the only thing thats bogged some of them down from being instant classics). so perhaps after that healthy dose of Drama we will start seeing some Kung-Fu movies were Chan isn't going for the "I am the greatest martial artist stuntman who ever lived, and will top what I did in the last movie in the next movie" As he is the best, and thats pretty much been his career, and just have 1 on 1 fights that are intricate and detailed but still mesmorizing, or perhaps still keep the 20v1 style, and just encorporate it in a way that fits whatever age he will be, consider Jackie chan 10 years younger than he really is due to how flexible, athletic and fast he is, but also consider his body to be so beat up and broken down after so many years of ... destroying it.

I am on a tangent, all I can say is this will be a HUGE release for chan, and his future as a dramatic actor, and the already confirmed Karate Kid 2 better continue his dramatic role in a positive way that pleases critics, audiences and the box office to help support that notion that he should be offered roles like Inception (not to diss on Ken Watanabe) but, thats what I believe the future will be.