A couple of new stills are available here

This review practically gives away the whole story from the beginning to the end.

Script review: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (early draft), by Sanney Leung

Thanks to Sanney Fan

According to Variety, 80 DAYS has been sold in more than 30 territories and "with Spain and Italy the only unsold major markets outside the U.S., foreign sales have kicked in more than 55% of the budget". With a budget of US$110 million, 80 DAYS is probably "the most expensive movie ever to be produced without a US distrib." The film is backed by Walden Media, controlled by Denver-based billionaire Philip Anschutz. In January, Paramount "broke off talks to serve as the partner on "Eighty Days" in the U.S. and a number of foreign territories". "Sources say the sticking points were budget and cast. Walden has a first-look deal with Disney, but "Eighty Days," which has been in development at the company for a few years, was never included in the deal." "Sources close to the pic say there's strong interest from U.S. majors, but studios have been waiting for footage."

Click here for the Variety article

Photos:

15 snapshots taken from the Berlin Set (JackieChanKids.com)

More shots from beach (Yahoo! News)

Pictures from the press conference in Cannes (Sina.com)

Great thanks to Marie M and Mary D

12 pictures taken at Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin.

Click here

Thanks to Mark Singh

Jackie Chan's diary has been updated through May 4th and more pictures have been added.

Click here

According to Variety, Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Cleese will play cameo roles in Jackie Chan's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS. Hal Lieberman, the producer of TERMINATOR 3 is also producing 80 DAYS. I wonder what roles they will take. Kathy Bates has already linked herself to the project with the role Queen Victoria.

Click here for report by Variety

Click here for report by CommingSoon.net

Jackie Chan's diaries have bee updated through April 20th:

 Click here

Diaries from March 31st to April 6th have been added: Click her

Click here for pictures taken at Jackie Chan's birthday party

Jackie Chan has shown us more pictures taken in Thailand.

Click here

Jackie Chan's diary from March 17th to 30th has been posted on Jackie Chan's official site:

March 17   March 18   March 19   March 20   March 21   March 22   March 23   March 24   March 25   March 26   March 27   March 28   March 29   March 30 (note: not all dairies are linked from the homepage)

According to Beijing Youth, when Studio Babelsberg, the Berlin based company assisting the production, was recruiting extras, over six thousands people showed up. The studio had to limit the audition time for each candidate to no more than four minutes.

Here (left) is the first shot of Jackie Chan and his old buddy Sammo Hung, who is doing a cameo in the film. According to two Hong Kong paper, Oriental Daily and Sing Pao, they are in a "Chinese village". But, the cart just does not look very Chinese - the wheels are too big. Since the set build in the Thai island Krabi also includes Indian, Malaysian and American sectors, I am also worried about the designers did not get the first two sectors right. Anyway, according to Oriental Daily, nearly US$4 million has been spent on building the set and they are only going to stay there for three weeks. According to The Hollywood Reporter, effect shop Rhythm & Hues (DAREDEVIL, X2, CAT IN THE HAT) will cater the a large portion of the film's CG shots (thanks to Marie M).

Jackie Chan' dairies from March 8th to 16th have been posted at his official site: click here (Thanks to Marie M and "pinoy") He mentioned Hong Kong super model turned actor Maggie Q and Japanese Pancrase wrestler Kengo are playing two Scorpion Agents.

Jackie Chan has decided to routinely provide us diaries and pictures from the of the 80 DAYS project, just like what he did for us during the filming of SHANGHAI KNIGHTS. According to the diary, a "Chinese village" was built at Krabi in Thailand. Not much of the "village" was shown but from the shot Jackie Chan taken with that black pig, we can see that it is a typical tropical "village". Only the far south tip of China reached the tropical zone. I am just hoping they can do it right and please don't make it looks like they are using the same set from PLATOON. Once again, they altered the history just to preserve Jackie Chan's hair. At that time (the Qing Dynasty) all men were supposed to shave their foreheads.

Click here for part one of Jackie Chan's Diary

Click here for shots taken on location in Thailand

Thanks to Marie M and "pinoy"

Studio Babelsberg in Berlin, the one has been picked to make much of the film happening, has posted an update on its website. According to the update, the shooting has already started in Thailand last Friday and the production will be moved to Studio Babelsberg three weeks later.

Click here for the update

Thanks to Marie M, who found the link on Wendy Page's site

Five exclusive photos of how Jackie Chan was transformed to the character he will play:

According Screen Daily, actress Cécile de France has joined the cast. He will play "Monique, a disillusioned French artists who hitches a ride".

Click here for the report by Screen Daily

Thanks to Marie M and JF

According to Hong Kong's The Sun, Jackie Chan has asked Karen Mok and Marsha Yuen to join the cast of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS. Both of them have martial-art experience and both of them speak fluent English, witch is essential. Karen Mok has played Jackie Chan's bride in the upcoming THE TWINS EFFECT and Marsha Yuen is the daughter of Cheng Pei-Pei (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) and the sister of Eugenia Yuan. Jackie Chan said he wanted to make the film more like a Jackie Chan's movie rather than a Hollywood movie, therefore the female co-stars would be cast by himself personally. Jackie Chan is also one of the producers of the movie. Shooting will start soon but we do not know the exact schedule.

According to Variety, veteran British Jim Broadbent has signed up to play Lord Kelvin, who will try to prevent  Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan from traveling around the world in 80 days. The movie, based on, or maybe just loosely based on, the famous novel by Jules Verne, will be helmed by Frank Coraci, the director of Adam Sandler's THE WEDDING SINGER and THE WATERBOY. Did I hear Adam Sandler? Looks like there will be a lot of cameos in 80 DAYS. Variety suspects Adam Sandler might be in and Owen Wilson, Jackie Chan's co-star in two SHANGHAI flicks, told Empire Magazine he and his brother Luke might play the Wright Brothers in the film.

Click here for the Variety article

Thanks to Marie M

According to someone called "GP", Hugh Grant is no longer related to the project and the role Phileas Fogg will be played by Steve Coogan. According to an earlier report, Hugh Grant's insisting on altering the script has delayed the project.

Click here for the original report

SHANGHAI KNIGHTS -  producer Roger Birnbaum and co-star Owen Wilson

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS - director Frank Coraci

Thanks to Marie M, "jocky chan" and "Bee" 

According to SciFiWire, Jackie Chan's character in AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS has been further tailored for him.

Click here for the article

According to Yahoo! Movies, the release date of Jackie Chan's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS has been set as November 21, 2003.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS Page by Yahoo! Movies

Thanks to Cass

According to Hong Kong media, Hugh Grant, cast to play Fogg in AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, wants the script altered based on his idea. As the result, Jackie Chan will collect US$1 million delaying fee each month.

About no shooting it in China, Ching Pao reports, Jackie Chan wanted to shoot it in China but the American producer(s) had bad memory of being fooled in China and had planned to shoot the Chinese scenes in Thailand.

A German company has asked Jackie Chan to shoot a movie in 14 days with US$ 20 million pay plus bonus. He said, "so easy to make money, that's crazy!" He has asked the company to rewrite the script then will decide whether to take it or not.

Shooting of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS will begin next January but according to Jackie Chan, the part in which his character and Fogg's traveling in China will not be shot in China. At the première of THE TUXEDO, Jackie Chan told Hong Kong's The Sun, "the Mainland Chinese company jacked up the price when they saw it was a foreign production. Producers of this film were fooled and they canceled the shooting in Beijing or Shanghai. Really not a good thing." Hong Kong's Ching Pao reports the 80 DAYS will stay in Thailand for three months and hire more than three hundreds local workers. Probably all Asian scenes, including the Chinese scenes, will be shot entirely in Thailand. This means quality of this film will be discounted because whenever the Hollywood makes Chinese scenes outside China, something will go wrong. Jackie Chan admitted he will collect at least US$ 25 million from the project, including bonus.

According to Taiwan's Unite News, Jackie Chan just received an interview by a "Toronto based medium". He said Hugh Grant was in talk for playing Fogg in the upcoming AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS. According to JC World, starting date of the filming has been pushed back to November, one month later than originally planned. In the interview, he revealed shooting of THE BELLBOY will start next month in Las Vegas. Most interestingly, Jackie Chan said he would join Roberto Benigni in an untitled project. He also expressed a very wild wish - playing a Jedi in the next STAR WARS movie. Although the STAR WARS has a lot of Asian influences, so far all Asian faces in the movies are a few extras.

The one really came out of nowhere and is moving faster than all other Jackie Chan projects in development, TITANIUM RAIN, BELLBOY, RUSH HOUR 3, NOSEBLEED...

According to Paramount Pictures, the film will be "executive produced by Jackie Chan's longtime Hong Kong based managers, Willie Chan and Solon So. Legendary producer Edward Saxon ('Silence of the Lambs', 'Philadelphia'), has also joined the project."  Principal shooting will start in Prague this October.

The original news release by Paramount Pictures

Note: the report of Paramount Pictures announcing the project at a news conference in Montréal with Jackie Chan in attendance is false. Thanks to Marie M for the correction.

Variety and Comingsoon.net report Paramount has picked AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, financed by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz's Walden Media. Frank Coraci (THE WEDDING SINGER, THE WATERBOY) will helm this movie, written by Michael D. Weiss and David Titcher. In this so far the wildest interpretation of the same name book by French sci-fi literature pioneer Jules Verne, Jackie Chan's character will be the focus of the film, who is "teaching Fogg (a London inventor) to open his mind to the different cultures he encounters en route to winning his bet" of traveling around the world within 80 days. The role of Fogg has yet to be cast. Jackie Chan told Richard Cooper from Screen Power, the official Jackie Chan magazine, the shooting will start in October in Prague.

Variety Report

ComingSoon.net Report

Thanks to Lisa C, Cass Fung and Marie M

More News On Jackie Chan's Journey Of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (Various) June 21, 2002