John Cusack and Adrien Brody to star in Jackie Chan’s Chinese historical epic

By Sam Barsanti | June 17, 2014 | 2:44am

Aux Features Film

Jackie Chan’s next project, a Chinese-language historical epic called Dragon Blade, concerns a legion of Roman soldiers that enters ancient China in search of a different legion of Roman soldiers. Chan stars as a Chinese commander who joins forces with one of the groups in order to protect his country, so the movie needs a pair of real powerhouses to star opposite him as the story’s two main white people. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it has found that in John Cusack and Adrien Brody.

Cusack will play Lucius, a Roman general who finds himself in China in 48 B.C., while Brody will play Tiberius, another Roman guy who is chasing after him. Both seem pretty excited about working with Jackie Chan, with Brody referring to it as “a dream,” and Cusack saying it will be “a great adventure.”

The film was reportedly inspired by the discovery of Roman-built ruins in Northwestern China dating back to the Han Dynasty, and it sounds like the Beijing Cultural Assets Chinese Film And Television Fund—which is paying for the movie—is hoping to make it as successful as possible by throwing $65 million at it. You can’t go too wrong with John Cusack and Adrien Brody, as far as white people go, so we think it’ll be fine. Dragon Blade is set to be released in international markets in February of next year.

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