The Forbidden Kingdom

Directed by	Rob Minkoff, Yuen Woo-ping (action director)
Produced by	Ryan Kavanaugh, Casey Silver,
Written by	John Fusco (screenplay) Wu Cheng'en (story)
Starring	Jackie Chan Jet Li Michael Angarano Liu Yifei
Cinematography	Peter Pau
Editing by	Eric Strand
Distributed by	Lionsgate The Weinstein Company
Release date(s)	2008
Country	USA
Language	English

The Forbidden Kingdom is a film collaboration between Jackie Chan and Jet Li, with action choreography by Yuen Woo-ping. The film is currently in production as of July 11, 2007. As of April 2007 the film is officially titled The Forbidden Kingdom, before it had been often referred to as The J & J Project. Director Rob Minkoff (who previously helmed such films as The Lion King and the Stuart Little films) will be behind the camera while Yuen Woo Ping will handle the fight choreography. Film studios Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company, will share distributing duties.

Actor

Jackie Chan AS ---> Lu Yan

Jet Li AS ---> Sun Wukong The Monkey King / Lan Cai He

Lie Bingbing AS ---> White Haired Demoness

Liu Yi Fei AS ---> Golden Sparrow

Michael Angarano AS ---> Jason Williams

Collin Chou AS --> Warlord


In a posting on his official blog at Alivenotdead.com, Jet Li sheds light on his character(s) in the highly anticipated movie "The Forbidden Kingdom," in which he pairs (finally!) with Jackie Chan in a Westernized take on the classic "Journey to the West" tale.

In this re-telling, an American teenager (Michael Angarano) discovers a staff which transports him to ancient China where he joins in a quest to return the staff to the Monkey King. Jet Li plays the dual role of the Monkey King and Silent Monk while Jackie Chan will play a kung fu master named Lu Yan.

"[W]hen I first received the script three years ago the producer approached me to play the role of the Monkey King, but at that time there were problems with the script ... At that time they portrayed the Monk as a great fighter [which is a huge departure from the original story]," he writes.

Feeling Asian audiences would not accept this drastic of a change, Jet suggested they have the Monkey King transform into the monk. "Since the Monkey King knows the 72 'earthly methods for transformations,' he can pull one of his hairs out and transform himself into the Monk."

Other than that, Jet suggested to the producer they take more liberties with the story saying, "This is a dream of this American kid's interpretation of these characters so there is a lot of room for creativity."

As for "Fearless" being billed as Jet Li's final martial arts movie, you wouldn't believe in all that marketing spin, would you?

"Forbidden Kingdom" is directed by Rob Minkoff ("Stuart Little") for a 2008 release; the film also stars Collin Chou, Li Bingbing, and Liu Yifei. Yuen Woo-ping will choreograph all the action.