Out of the elderly prosthetics and back in the action comedy saddle once again, Johnny Knoxville has signed on for Skiptrace. The Jackass star will appear alongside Jackie Chan in the globe-trotting action-com.
The film has just started shooting in China, with The Long Kiss Goodnight director Renny Harlin at the helm. Chan plays Hong Kong detective Bennie Black who must track down the missing niece of a crime boss with the help of a loudmouth American, Connor Watts. The jabbermouth sidekick role was originally tapped by Seann William Scott, who for unknown reasons has dropped out. Now that showy part has gone to Knoxville, who is en route to China to begin filming immediately.
The film’s producers are pitting it as a Midnight Run-style comedy – while it sounds to us like Taken meets Rush Hour. Expect the usual cultural fish-out-of-water scenarios to elbow in laughs. Chan’s resume is cluttered with a lot of similar-themed projects which makes you wonder why he even came up with the story in the first place. Doesn’t he want to branch out into something new? With Knoxville taking over from his previous onscreen buddies Chris Tucker (Rush Hour) and Owen Wilson (Shanghai Knights), here’s hoping his R-rated verbosity will add a much-needed breath of fresh air to a stagnant genre.
Check out the plot summary for Skiptrace below and let us know what you think.
SKIPTRACE follows a Hong Kong detective Bennie Black (Chan), who has been tracking a dangerous crime boss, Victor Wong, for over a decade. When Bennie’s beautiful young niece Bai (Fan Bingbing) gets into trouble with Wong’s crime syndicate, he comes to the rescue and must track down the only man who can help her – a fast-talking American gambler named Connor Watts (Knoxville) who is also on the run from the mob. The unlikely pair embarks on a hilarious adventure from the wind swept dunes of the Gobi Desert to the rocky spires of the Huangshan Mountains.
