Jackie Chan and Sylvester Stallone Will Fight the Terrorists in ‘Ex-Baghdad’
Martial arts expert and outspoken proponent of condom usage Jackie Chan is at it again, raring and ready to kick some enemy buttock even as he ages into his mid-60s. The actor has kept up a steady stream of feature work (only some of which requires him to play chauffeur to a real live lion) and is currently preparing to re-mount his kids’ cartoon series The Jackie Chan Adventures, but ever the workhorse, Chan’s just announced another new project. And what’s more, his next mission will pair him with a partner all too familiar to Eastern and Western audiences alike.
The Chan-man — not to be confused with fellow Chan-man Channing Tatum — will team with Sylvester Stallone for the upcoming action flick Ex-Baghdad, Deadline reports. Their item states that as soon as Stallone had successfully freed himself from the Expendables franchise, this film was his next order of business. The pitch has a very 2017 vibe to it: Chan plays a private security contractor overseeing a Chinese oil concern in Iraq when some no-good terrorists start to do some terrorism. His only hope of salvaging the land lies with a grizzled former Marine, and of course that’s where Stallone comes in. Together, they’ll defend truth, justice, and the American w- actually, wait, no. They’re in Iraq, and their only stakes are the capitalistic investments of a Chinese corporation. So, in terms of personal audience investment, kind of a weird concept, but no doubt that plenty of terrorist ass will be made grass.
Scott Waugh will handle directorial duties for the picture, presumably drawing on his experience with Marine types accrued during production on 2012’s Act of Valor. What’s more, he‘s getting one of the largest production budgets in Chinese history, making this a titanic international co-production of the highest order. Hopefully the finished product befits the colossal pre-production ambitions on display here.