If you were hanging around near the escalator on Staunton Street at the beginning of last week, chances are you would have seen Jackie Chan lying in a dishevelled state on the street. But Hong Kong's biggest international star hasn't hit the bottle. He was shooting a scene for his new movie in which his character is discovered in an alleyway, drunk. Benny Chan Muk-sing is directing the film, which has the working title 'New Police Story', and also stars Nicholas Tse Ting-fung and Daniel Wu Yin-Cho.
The film is one of the first productions from JCE - a new company set up by Jackie Chan and his business partners Willie Chan Chi-keung and Solon So Chi-hung with backing from Albert Yeung Sau-shing. 'It's a police action film, but has nothing to do with the original Police Story series,' explains So. 'The characters and plot are completely new.'
Maggie Cheung Man-yuk starred in three of Chan's Police Story movies - prompting rumours that she'd play the female lead, as Chan's girlfriend, in the new film - and several other actresses were mentioned during the casting process including Faye Wong, Gong Li and Sammi Cheng Sau-man.
The role finally went to Charlie Yeung Choi-nei, who has been away from the big screen since 1997, but has some noteworthy credits including Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels and Teddy Chen Tak-sum's Downtown Torpedoes.
The film marks something of a homecoming for Chan. After making a string of films in Hollywood, including Shanghai Nights, The Tuxedo and Around The World In Eighty Days, it looks like he'll be spending more time in Hong Kong in the future. Although he's attached to star in Rush Hour 3 for US studio New Line Cinema, he's also agreed to star in several Hong Kong projects including Media Asia's Time Breaker and Mandarin Films' The Sword Searchers.
In addition, the Hong Kong star recently bought a 7 per cent stake in local film studio Golden Harvest. 'I increased my stake in Golden Harvest because I have confidence in the company,' Chan said at a recent press conference to announce his role as Hong Kong Film Ambassador. 'I will spend more time in Asia making more films for this market, even though I'll be going back to the US in December. I know that my roots are in Hong Kong and China and I won't be staying in the US forever.'