Last May, it was revealed that MGM was moving forward with Shanghai Dawn, the third film in the Shanghai Noon series, with both Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson set to reprise their roles of Chon Wang and Roy O’Bannon. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the Shanghai Noon sequel has brought in Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) to direct, making this his second collaboration with Wilson after this month’s comedy Masterminds.
Shanghai Noon was an action-comedy combination of the Western and kung fu genre and was released fresh off the heels of Chan’s other notable buddy pairing franchise, “Rush Hour.” The first movie hit theaters 16 years ago and grossed just under $100 million at the global box office. The film was written by screenwriting duo Alfred Gough & Miles Millar and directed by Tom Dey. A sequel, Shanghai Knights, was released in 2003 and saw the pair travel to London. It grossed $88 million at the global box office.
Talk of a third film in the series came up upon the release of the second movie, and was even referred to at the time as Shanghai Dawn, though it previously never materialized.
“There’s talk about going to Egypt,” Wilson told Empire back in 2003. “This does seem like a Hope/Crosby thing. You can put the characters in all different situations and it works.”
Gough & Millar wrote the story for Shanghai Dawn, with Theodore Riley and Aaron Buchsbaum providing the actual script for Spyglass Entertainment.
