Scifi.com continues to roll out tidbits from their interviews with screenwriter John Fusco and actor Collin Chou from their Wizard World appearance. Here, Fusco gives some insight into the film’s stars…
Photo from Jackie Chan.com
Li Joins Chan In Kingdom
John Fusco, who wrote the upcoming martial-arts fantasy film The Forbidden Kingdom, told SCI FI Wire that Jet Li joined the project to work with fellow martial artist Jackie Chan for the first time. He also wanted to play the Monkey King, a fabled character from Chinese mythology.
“Both Jet Li and Jackie Chan said they always wanted to work together, and they were always looking for the right project, and when each of them read the script, they liked it,” Fusco said in an interview at Wizard World in Los Angeles last weekend.
The Forbidden Kingdom is based on the myth of the Monkey King, who is imprisoned by the evil Jade War Lord (Collin Chou). An American teenager (Michael Angarano) finds himself transported into the alternate universe of the Monkey King, where he meets a kung fu master, Lu Yan (Chan), and the Silent Monk (also played by Li) and sets out to free the king.
Fusco (Thunderheart) said he updated the Chinese legends with the help of by Li. “Jet Li did not want to do martial-arts films any more, and he became a true collaborator,” Fusco said. “I tried to Westernize the story as much as I could, and then Jet Li joined in and took it upon himself to work on it some more. I traveled to Hong Kong to see him and work with him on it.”
Fusco added: “Jet Li responded in a positive way, and it was his childhood dream to play the Monkey King. He is a really deep guy, a devout Buddhist, and his charitable foundation does a lot of great things. He found out that if he takes himself out of movies it would hurt a lot of people. He didn’t want to hurt a lot of people.”
The Forbidden Kingdom is directed by Robert Minkoff and also stars Crystal Liu and Li Bing Bing. Lionsgate is releasing the film on April 18. –Mike Szymanski
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