Jackie Chan has had one of the most storied and successful careers in the history of action cinema; becoming one of the most powerful box office draws in his native China before he branched out into a global presence - one that will be rewarded this year with an honorary Academy Award. Rather than slow down in his advancing years, the 62 year-old martial-arts legend continues to book new high-profile projects as actor, producer and occasionally director.

The most recent such booking? Five Against A Bullet, a new action movie from director Joe Carnahan. Set in a small Mexican town under siege by the forces of a powerful drug cartel, the film's story centers on a team of five elite bodyguards assigned to protect the son of the town's murdered mayor (who is running to take over the office himself and wage war on the cartel). Chan is presumed to have signed on to portray one of the five bodyguards - a role that may carry over into future sequels, as the film's producers are believed to be positioning it as a potential franchise, following the bodyguards to further assignments.

Little else is known about the current state of the project in term of its screenplay - which, as reported by Tracking Board, Carnahan is currently revising, based on an earlier draft by Alex Litvak (The Three Musketeers [2011]). The project has been in development at multiple studios for several years, with Bruce Willis at one point attached to star as far back as 2010 - with a variety of other actors and filmmaking teams having circled the production since then.

The A-Team - Joe Carnahan and Liam Neeson

Best known for directing action movies such as The A-Team and Smokin Aces, Carnahan also helmed the acclaimed Liam Neeson wilderness survival-thriller The Grey and the cult 2014 action/thriller Stretch. Canahan is currently gearing up to begin production on the third Bad Boys film (officially titled Bad Boys for Life) in March of next year, but he's also writing the upcoming video game movie adaptation Uncharted (which currently has Shawn Levy attached to direct).

Chan will next be seen as a globetrotting archaeology professor in the big-budget Chinese/Indian co-production Kung-Fu Yoga; an immigrant restaurant owner in London coping with the aftermath of a terrorist attack in The Foreigner; and in a leading role in the action comedy Railroad Tigers. He's also slatted to appear in the Chinese science-fiction film Bleeding Steel for director Leo Zhang.

Source: Tracking Board