The Asian cinema connoisseurs at Twitch stumbled upon a report over at Channel News Asia stating that actor/writer/director Stephen Chow (SHAOLIN SOCCER, KUNG FU HUSTLE) will be making a film called TAI CHI. An apparent remake of 1972’s THE WAY OF THE DRAGON starring Bruce Lee, the proposed new film, according to unnamed “Hong Kong media reports”, will star Jack Black and Anne Hathaway.
Regarding the story, Channel News Asia says TAI CHI “tells the story of a Chinese migrant in the US (played by Chow) who works as a dishwasher in Chinatown and hides his skills as a Tai Chi master. He is forced to stand up to gangsters who oppress his fellow migrants and later gets invited to start martial arts schools to share his knowledge.”
The Chinese outlet also divulges some rather specific details on the production. TAI CHI will start shooting this summer with a budget of $60 million, and is a co-production between China Film Group Corporation and “an unnamed American film company”. Though that last bit is enough to further raise eyebrows as to the validity of this story, weirder things have happened in the past. Till something more “official” comes along, take all of this as nothing more than a rumor for now.
Stephen Chow’s previous directorial effort was the somewhat mixed CJ7. He was last attached to THE GREEN HORNET as both director and “Kato” before all that fell apart.