Martial arts superstar Jackie Chan has animal magnetism.
That's the word from the set of Chan's movie Shanghai Noon that's currently filming in the Calgary area.
Wherever Chan goes, his four-legged friend Fido is not far behind. No, Fido is not a dog.
He's a horse.
One of the running jokes in this comic western is that Chan's sidekick acts more like a dog than a horse -- hence the name Fido.
Extras and crew members say it's the funniest pairing of man and horse since Lee Marvin and his equine co-star in Cat Ballou. That flick earned Marvin his Oscar.
In Shanghai Noon, Chan plays an imperial guard at China's Forbidden City who travels to the American West to rescue a kidnapped Chinese princess played by Ally McBeal's Lucy Lui.
The $50-million US Disney movie is based on an original idea Chan had and he acts as one of the film's producers as well as its star.
Chan, 45, has been a superstar in Asia for 20 years, but it was only with the runaway success of last year's Rush Hour that he has found himself a major player in Hollywood.
"I tried two times before to become a star in America but I failed big time both times," Chan tells me.
His first assault on American audiences came in 1980 with The Big Brawl.
"The movie failed because the director (Robert Clouse) wouldn't let me improvise. He wouldn't let me have any input. I know better than anyone what audiences want from Jackie Chan."
What they want is Chan's blend of daredevil action and deft comedy.
Chan returned to Hong Kong where each movie he made became an instant hit. Routinely made for less than $10 million US, they would gross $150 million US.
He returned to Hollywood five years later to film The Protector but, once again, Chan was forced into a restrictive mould that failed to showcase his amazing talents.
"With two big flops, my confidence was destroyed. I crawled back to Asia and vowed never to come to America again," he says.
Chan broke his promise when he arrived in Vancouver in 1995 to film Rumble in the Bronx. It was filmed in Cantonese, but Chan agreed to dub it for an American release.
Rumble in the Bronx made money for New Line, which released dubbed versions of two more Chan movies and then teamed him up with comedian Chris Tucker for a Lethal Weapon clone called Rush Hour. It grossed $160 million US in North America alone.
"There's a scene in Rush Hour where I'm hanging from a street sign on Hollywood Boulevard. That was my idea. It was my way of saying it's all or nothing this time."
Chan insists if Rush Hour had bombed, he'd have "crawled back to Asia to hide out for another 12 years."
Third time lucky. Very lucky.
Chan has so many movie offers -- including a sequel to Rush Hour -- that he bought himself a $3-million US, four-bedroom house in the heart of Beverly Hills.
DAREDEVIL IS A REAL BROKEN MAN
Jackie Chan has hurt himself more than a few times on movie sets over the years.
He:
1. suffered a brain hemorrhage
2. lost hearing in one ear
3. was almost suffocated when he injured his throat
4. dislocated his shoulder
5. dislocated his sternum
6. had his arm slashed by a sword
7. broke his fingers
8. broke his eyebrow ridge and almost lost an eye
9. dislocated a cheek bone
10. had a tooth kicked out
11. had his legs crushed between two cars, broke an ankle while jumping on a hovercraft and injured his knees innumerable times.
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