Shanghai Knights
Short description
Shanghai Knights is a comic adventure western set mainly in Victorian London. Chon Wang, a Chinese imperial guard, learns that a rebel has killed his father and fled to England, and he sets out for London to find the killer and recover the stolen imperial seal. His old partner Roy O'Bannon comes along, and Chon's sister Lin follows with vengeance of her own in mind. What begins as a manhunt widens into a plot against the British royal family, which the trio must try to stop without much help from anyone.
The film continues the pairing of Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson from Shanghai Noon, with Chan as Chon Wang, Wilson as Roy O'Bannon, and Fann Wong as Chon Lin. Aidan Gillen plays Lord Nelson Rathbone and Donnie Yen appears as Wu Chow. David Dobkin directed from a screenplay by Miles Millar and Alfred Gough; it is the second film he directed, following Clay Pigeons (1998) and preceding Wedding Crashers (2005). Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman produced for Touchstone Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment and JCE Movies, among others.
Made for a budget of about 50 million USD, the film took roughly 88 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.2/10 from around 117,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.1/10 from about 2,510 votes, while a critics' rating of 6/10 from 149 reviews places professional opinion close to the audience response.
What's left behind the scenes
- Fann Wong, who played Chun, had no prior experience in martial arts, so she had to train extensively for the role. She had previously studied ballet, which helped to some extent.
- During the sword fight in Big Ben, the shadow of the clock hands is visible, but Roy's shadow is not.
- Filming took place from February 4th to June 21st, 2002.
- The film was shot primarily at the Barrandov Studios, five kilometers from Prague in the Czech Republic, and the crew was predominantly British. Filming was repeatedly interrupted because it took place during the World Cup, and the entire crew regularly disappeared for an hour and a half to watch the national team’s home matches – much to the displeasure of director David Dobkin.
- The initial release was scheduled for December 2002, but the film ultimately came out in February 2003.
- The scene with the ball, which was scripted to take place in an English castle in honor of the queen, was filmed in the Czech Republic at the Chateau of Červená Lhota to save on rental costs.
- Director David Dobkin struggled for a long time to find an actress of Asian descent until he saw Fann Wong in the Hong Kong series 'Heroes in Black' (2001) and the series 'The White Snake' of the same year, after which he immediately asked her to come to London for an audition. After the audition, she got the role, and the number of scenes featuring her character was increased by a third.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
