Having already ditched one title (The Foreigner), the Jackie Chan action thriller adapted from Stephen Leather’s book The Chinaman is now seeking a name. But it does at least have a new cast member, with Pierce Brosnan joining Chan in the movie.
We suppose just having one action icon in the film wasn’t enough, so who better than a former James Bond to work alongside a director – Martin Campbell – who helped him bring the 007 franchise back to life via Goldeneye (fans of that one should check out our excellent oral history of the film’s opening right here).
Chan is starring as a restaurant owner in London’s Chinatown who is devastated in an attack orchestrated by rogue Irish terrorists. When the justice system brings him no satisfaction, he decides to track down the people responsible himself. Brosnan is playing Liam Hennessy, a former IRA member who is now a government official. With David Marconi and Peter Buchman adapting Leather’s novel, the film should be in production sooner rather than later, which will come as a relief to the producers, who had been hoping to see it shooting last month.