Toronto International Film Festival

Jackie and Chinese Zodiac will making an appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday September 9th. TIFF runs from September 6 - 16 2012 TIFF is a charitable cultural organization with a mission to transform the way people see the world through film.

In Conversation With... Jackie Chan

Actor, director, martial artist, comedian, action choreographer and entrepreneur - Jackie Chan has done it all. This unique interactive session will showcase clips from Chan's impressive oeuvre and give the audience an exclusive sneak peek at his upcoming project, Chinese Zodiac.

Programmer's Note

The artistic heir to Harold Lloyd and Bruce Lee, actor, director, writer, producer, comedian, stuntman, action choreographer and martial artist Jackie Chan is a force to be reckoned with just attempting to list his various roles as a filmmaker leaves one breathless. We will thus be sure to save up plenty of energy for our very special Mavericks session with this uniquely charismatic and inexhaustible multi-hyphenate, who'll discuss his life and career on the eve of the release of Chinese Zodiac, his forthcoming film as actor, writer, director, producer, et cetera.

Chan was born in Hong Kong in 1954. Already exploding with vivacity as a small child, he was nicknamed "Cannonball." He attended the China Drama Academy, where he studied under the great Yu Jim-yuen, along with such future luminaries — and collaborators — as Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. Chan appeared in films as far back as Big and Little Wong Tin Bar in 1962, when he was only eight. In 1971 he appeared in the martial arts masterpiece A Touch of Zen, and soon after was working as Bruce Lee's stuntman. When his first starring roles failed to impress at the box office, Chan went to Australia, where he briefly attended college and worked construction. However, by 1978 Chan found his commercial breakthrough under legendary director and fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping. Yuen gave Chan the title role in Drunken Master, and Chan gave a startling performance buoyed by an unprecedented blend of comedy and lightning-fast fighting prowess. A one-of-a-kind star was born.

The Drunken Master, Police Story and Armor of God franchises brought Chan international success. His Hollywood stardom was then cemented with Rumble in the Bronx and the Rush Hour series. In these films Chan would deftly play fish-out-of-water roles, yet his characters were uniformly dignified and dazzling. During this period he also began his career behind the camera; appeared on various television shows; launched a successful recording career as a singer; and founded the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation, which offers scholarships to young people, and the Dragon's Heart Foundation, designed to assist children and the elderly in remote areas of China.

Here's a question for our Mavericks session: Is there anything Jackie Chan hasn't done? Give the man some time. He isn't even sixty yet. And he moves like a man half his age. Not that anyone moves like Jackie Chan.

Cameron Bailey

SOURCE: TIFF SCHEDULE