Fans of the Chan (and c’mon, who isn’t) were treated to a few interesting tidbits in the filmmaker’s online journal, and he spills some cool beans regarding his upcoming "New Police Story," as well as a few early nuggets regarding (we believe) his involvement with DreamWorks’ "Kung Fu Panda."
"Yesterday I was busy packing up my glass things, and today I have to do a dub for New Police Story. The dub started at 1pm, and to be honest it was very difficult because sometimes the translation from Cantonese to English isn’t really perfect, and the meaning can get changed. Sometimes I have to cry, sometimes I have to scream, and sometimes I have to be drunk, so I have to say it’s just really tough. The first day wasn’t that smooth because I wasn’t really satisfied with their edited version; either the dialogue was wrong or the editing point was wrong. As I watched the film, I had to remind them to make a note of the mistake and fix it as soon as possible. So I kept dubbing and making suggestions, until we finished up at 6 pm.
When I returned home I continued to pack up and clean the house, but I guess because of the time difference, I went to bed very early.
The next day I went to the recording studio at 9 am, and continued to dub for New Police Story. The day before I had recorded about a tape and a half (a little over ten minutes of the film). The second day I recorded from 9am to 6pm and finished about three and a half tapes. That made a total of five tapes. The first day’s progress wasn’t great, and the second day I was in so much better form that the crew there was completely stunned. They couldn’t believe that there was such a huge difference between the first and second days! They praised me for doing the dub so well and so quickly. To be honest, this is not the first time I have been praised that I do a great dub. They just don’t know the positions I had worked in before. I’ve been a director and an actor, and after shooting a film I would follow up with post-production work like editing, dubbing, music, and effects. I can do a dub and know if there is something wrong along the way immediately. The American crew was bewildered by my performance, and when I saw their stunned faces, I told them that I’d been doing this kind of work for many years – for every one of my films, including this one. I have seen it over a thousand times, so how could I possibly forget it!!!
The third day began at 8am. There were so many people at my house, all movers. I greeted them and then drove to the recording studio and continued dubbing. I began dubbing at 10am until 12pm, and I completed all the dubbing for my dialogue. There was only one tape yet to dub, and for that one I would be screaming a lot. Apart from the remaining tape, I still had to dub all the action sounds, like all the "ba," "ah," "ha," "wah," and "huh" sounds. After I finished dubbing all these screams, my voice was completely gone.
"In the morning I went to the company DreamWorks, and met with their second-in-command, Jeffrey Katzenberg. The main purpose for our meeting was to discuss DreamWorks’ upcoming animated film. It has been in preparation for a long time, and is scheduled to release in 2008. The film is about Chinese Kung Fu, and of course there will be a lot of Chinese background and culture as well. I will not say what the film’s name is now, because that would be revealing another company’s trade secret, so I’ll wait until the time is right to tell you all."
-Early word indicates that "New Police Story" will most likely not receive a North American theatrical release. True to form, it seems that the Weinstein brothers purchased the rights just so they can produce an American version. Check out Mr. Chan’s website for all sorts of Jackie-related goodness.
