Back in May of last year, Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan, stars of Shanghai Noon and its sequel Shanghai Knights, were attached to a third movie in the series, titled Shanghai Dawn. As happens in Hollywood, projects can take a while to get off the ground, but some news today confirmed that this one is coming closer to fruition: Jared Hess, who previously directed Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, has signed on to helm Shanghai Dawn.
There’s not much we know about the upcoming film just yet, but we can say that the story is by Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, who were behind the original two movies, and the script is being penned by Theodore Riley and Aaron Buchsbaum. Still, it’s likely the third film in the series will bear some resemblance to the first two, which saw Wilson and Chan’s characters form an unlikely duo to prevent devious things from happening in the 19th century. Back in 2003, when Shanghai Knights was hitting theaters, Wilson mentioned the possibility of a third movie taking place in Egypt, so perhaps that idea is presumably still on the table. That was also 13 years ago, so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if that concept has long since been abandoned.
Hess has the credentials to allow this movie to thrive: Aside from his work on the previously aforementioned films, he has also directed episode of Fox’s The Last Man on Earth and Son of Zorn, as well as the upcoming (and long-delayed) film Masterminds, which stars Wilson, Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon.
The first two movies were great fun, and we can never get enough Chan fight sequences, so here’s to a third film moving forward!
Featured image: Buena Vista Pictures
