The working title is "League of Extraordinary Martial Artists." It's an obvious play on the popular movie and series, "League of Extraordinary Gentleman," which chronicles the events when legendary great superheroes get together to defeat a great evil.
Of course, this is just a working title and as everyone knows, Martial Arts movies are always subject to multiple name changes and names upon release. But, just like its current namesake, this new Martial Arts movie pairs all-time Martial Arts superstars together on one screen.
The story starts out with the world approaching December 12, 2012, the end of the Maya calendar and where many claim will be the end of the world. On this day, aliens appear over the skies of the world. In a Mortal Kombat themed storyline, they challenge earthlings to defeat them in hand-to-hand combat. To the aliens, we are some sort of pleasure arena like the gladiators of ancient Greece and are pitted against the ugliest creatures the universe has to offer.
In some strange alien fairness, the leader captures Morgan, a young boy who must choose the champions of Earth. This boy, infatuated with Martial Arts, naturally chooses the Martial Arts legends. To make appearances in this movie are greats such as Chuck Norris, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Donnie Yen, Steven Segal, Jean Claude Van Damme, Michelle Yeoh, and many other well-known Martial Arts movie stars. Each star will represent a different style of Martial Arts. There is even a CGI'ed version of Bruce Lee that will make an appearance in the fights. How they explain this, I'm uncertain at this time but I look forward to seeing the Legend in action again.
What makes this movie even more interesting is that the directors have left open a few "spots" for up-and-coming Martial Arts stars. They are going to spend the rest of this year touring around the country in an American Idol fashion to audition Martial Artists to participate. The Martial Artist will be narrowed down to 20 contestants who will compete on a to-be announced TV series to select the final 5 to appear in the movie. So that they don't delay the release, the movie will actually be filmed with stand-ins for the 5 stars who will be electronically edited into the final take.
In addition, the directors have already announced that for Martial Arts fans of the world, the age-old question of which style is best will finally be answered. In one of the last scenes of the movie, the different styles will actually be forced to fight one another and the ultimate style will be revealed.
The aggressive timetable for this movie has been set to be released in theatres on April 1 2012. I for one am looking forward to seeing this movie and all I can say is…
Happy April Fool's Day! (… One can only dream…)
