Jackie Chan’s Action-Packed Western Couldn’t Have Existed Without One Major Box Office Hit

Is very weird It took so long that Hong Kong’s action star Jackie Chan broke out in North America. He was a massive star in Hong Kong throughout the 1970s, and his films are exciting and fun. For some reason, however, this success did not turn very well to the American audience, despite a few largest American studios.

For example, in 1980 Warner Bros. And Golden Harvest began to make “Big Brawl”, or “Battle Creek Brawl”, an American production that was supposed to bring the state of Jackie Chan. “Big Brawl” played Chania, playing gentle restaurants in the 1930s in Chicago, leading from the crowd. Together it played Kristine Debell, José Ferrer, Mako, Rosalind Chao and wrestler hard -cooked Haggerty. The movie was really a hit, but Warner Bros was disappointed that it was not as big as the recent Bruce Lee movie “Enter the Dragon”. Chan was able to stay in American consciousness through camels in the movies like “Cannonball Run”. The repetition never happened.

Nor did Chan like how American directors depicted the battle scenes. He was used to keeping giant fighters and trick performers who practice extensively to make sure the scene was correct. In America, it was only Chan, and the instructors wanted to move on after two or three matches. Chan could make the film in his own idiom only “Rumble in the Bronx”, but still in the mind of the American audience. It was a hit.

After that, Studios took the opportunity for Chan. He was “during peak” in 1998, playing half of the inappropriate Buddy-Cop duo, opposite Chris Tucker, and exploded in popularity. “Rush Hour” made $ 244 million from a $ 30 million budget and gave birth to a whole franchise. It also showed Chan to be a banking American star and led directly to his work “Shanghai midday”, comedy/action/Western, which he played with Owen Wilson. It was also a massive hit. Chan talked about his path to the American West Vintage interview with WFAA ABC News.

It seems that Chan had wanted to do the Western many, many years. Chan has always been a huge fan of Hollywood movies, and he has even said in earlier interviews that his screen’s physicality has deeply inspired by Buster Keaton. He loves Western and had tried to do his own at least after 1980. In fact, his experience “The Big Brawl” led to his writing directly from the early “Shanghai Noon” nature, which Chan was forced to keep in a box for decades. As he said:

“20 years ago I was going to make a movie in Texas and Arizona. And I see a lot of cowboy […] And suddenly my idea! Wow! It’s a good idea; A 19th century movie, a Chinese man who goes to the west back to the east. I’ll write a manuscript. […] When I look at cowboy [he mimes silently] It’s all this. It becomes a comedy. But the studio doesn’t listen to me, they don’t want to take the risk. So I stopped the project. But I kept the script. Then, after a busy time, I just introduced my manuscript [producer] Roger Birnbaum. Then I can speak English! Then Owen Wilson is a train robbery! Then they changed a bit … but I like it. “

Chan couldn’t get the Western way back in 1980 because as American producers told him at that time, he did not speak enough English. That is why he was relieved to be told to speak English “Shanghai at noon”. The film was renewed as a manuscript between Alfred Gough and Miles Millar; Chania is not credited as a screenwriter or producer, but he claims that making Western was his idea.

“Shanghai Noon” was a modest success, By earning nearly $ 100 million for $ 50 million budget. It inspired the sequel called “Shanghai Knights”.