Papa Vinyard here, now here's a little somethin' for ya...
A Jackie Chan-Seann William Scott teamup seems like it should've happened by now. Back in the late-'90s/early-2000s, Jackie was co-starring with westerners like Chris Tucker, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, and Lee Evans, while Scott became well-known for playing the comedic relief for action stars like Dwayne Johnson and Chow Yun-Fat. Both have deviated their careers from those trends, but now, it seems that the two will join forces on SKIPTRACE, a Chinese co-production gearing up to shoot in January.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jackie will star as a Hong Kong policeman who has to save his niece from a local kingpin, and requires the help of, you guessed it, a "fast-talking American", played by the Stiffmeister. Expect high-flying acrobatics and schlubby, frat-boy banter to ensue.
The film will be directed by Sam Fell, who is making his live-action debut after helming PARANORMAN and THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX. I laughed quite a bit at the former, and hopefully, Fell can translate that know-how regarding comic-energy and high-concept set-pieces into this live action actioner. Less exciting is the collaboration between the writers of THE SITTER and BACHELOR PARTY 2: THE LAST TEMPTATION for the film's script. Hopefully, the guys who wrote the upcoming BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY can spin this into something other than a disposable raunchy yuk-fest, and into a genuinely fun action-comedy with a fast-moving plot and even faster-moving action beats and jokes.
These two stars were huge when I was a kid, and I have to admit I'm excited to see them trading barbs and punches onscreen. Let's just see if the script is up to snuff, and whether Fell can optimally show Jackie's near-60 body doing whatever crazy feats he's still capable of.
-Vincent Zahedi
”Papa Vinyard”
vincentzahedi@gmail.com
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