THE FOREIGNER Enlists Martin Campbell To Direct Jackie Chan's Next Action Thriller

It was late last year that Casino Royale helmer Martin Campbell was a frontrunner to direct Relativity Media's forthcoming book adaptation, Hunter Killer. That was long before this week's news of the studio's current financial troubles started making headlines, which now appears to be a reverting point for Campbell who is now in the running to direct one of several of action star Jackie Chan's upcoming films, STX Entertainment's The Foreigner with Wayne Godfrey producing.

The film, which Deadline states will be retitled between now and throughout the course of production, was announced back in June off the heels of another busy season of Chan-related announcements with the film set to go into production this October. Chan will lead the film, based on an adaptation of the 1992 Hodder and Stoughton publication by author Stephen Leather with a script by David Marconi and Peter Buchman, as a former member of the Viet Cong-turned-South London restaurant owner who sets out to avenge the death of his family at the hands of the IRA when the justice system fails.

If you're a regular Chan fanatic, you already know to keep an eye out for more titles. At any rate though, tentatively-titled The Foreigner is already looking like an exciting venture on the action genre, and one that will no less appeal to that of the Taken crowd.

Stay tuned for more details to follow.

Jackie Chan Enlists To Take On Terrorists In THE FOREIGNER

Nope, no vacations for action star Jackie Chan. He's still a working actor and with all that's already on his plate, he's added some extra meat now with final negotiations for a new action thriller set to begin rolling cameras this October titled The Foreigner. The film is based on The Chinaman, a 1992 Hodder & Stoughton publication from author Stephen Leather, and services another tasty deal for STX Entertainment within a slate of films bolstering Chinese investment, and as for the film itself, the book description alone should give Chan fans something to look forward to.

The Chinaman understood death. 

Jungle-skilled, silent and lethal, Nguyen Ngoc Minh had killed for the Viet Cong and then for the Americans. Imprisoned and tortured after the Communist victory, he escaped with his wife and baby daughter to Hong Kong - but only after being forced to watch Thai pirates rape and kill his two eldest daughters. 

Now the proud owner of the Double Happiness Chinese takeaway in South London, he watches his daughter grow into a beautiful young woman, secure in the knowledge that the horrors of his homeland are finally behind him. 

Until the day an IRA bomb in a Knightsbridge store snatches his family from him in a horrific maelstrom of fire and glass. 

Then, simply but persistently, he began to ask the authorities who were the men responsible, what was being done. And was turned away, fobbed off, treated as a nuisance. 

Which was when the Chinaman, denied justice, decided on revenge. And went back to war.

Award-winning director Nick Cassavetes has been tapped to helm the picture, and the news comes just as Chan's most recent theatrical offering with Police Story: Lockdown has finally made its way to the U.S. this weekend. I can't exactly say what this does for Chan's previous talk of retirement and not being able to do a lot of what he used to, but clearly whatever is left of his capabilities, there are plenty. He's a Guiness World Record holder too, so...yeah. Don't count him out any time soon.

H/T: Deadline