Chan and Li’s Kingdom

The much anticipated pairing of Jackie Chan and Jet Li has finally gotten a formal announcement. Lionsgate and The Weinstein Co. have agreed to co-finance and co-release the film, which will be titled THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM. Filming will kick off on May 2nd in China. The film is based on the Chinese legend of the Monkey King. What, you mean you don’t know?? Sigh… Well it’s about a Monkey King (…) who goes on a journey and learns all about martial arts and immortality. He returns home to teach his friends these arts. Monkey King is greedy and his avarice angers the gods. The gods cannot kill him because he is immortal. The gods ask Buddha for help. Buddha traps him for 500 years. Afterwards he is forced to guide a monk across China. They have fun, learn lessons, kick ass, etc. Or something to that effect. Directing the film is Rob Minkoff, director of…STUART LITTLE? Yeah doesn’t make much sense to me either. Lucky for us we have Master Yuen Wo-Ping as fight choreographer and Peter Pau as cinematographer. Lionsgate is getting ready for a summer 2008 release. Chan has RUSH HOUR 3 coming this summer and Li recently signed on to star in THE MUMMY 3.