Trivia / The Forbidden Kingdom

• Acting for Two:
  • Lui Yifei plays Golden Sparrow and an Identical Stranger in the closing Bookend.
  • Jet Li plays the monk and the Monkey King. Justified, considering the monk is actually just one of the Monkey King's magical clones.
  • Jackie Chan as Lu Yan and Old Hop. Also justified, since they're actually the same person.
• Billing Displacement: Neither the posters, nor the trailers ever mentioned Jason. The only hint that he was there at all was his appearance in fleeting images in early trailers, which only served to confuse people.
• Casting Gag: An unintended version with Shūichi Ikeda, already the designated dub voice of Jet Li, voicing a clone.
• Creator's Oddball:
  • John Fusco predominately writes westerns or at least neo-westerns.
  • Meanwhile Rob Minkoff is the guy behind things like Stuart Little, The Haunted Mansion (2003) or Mr. Peabody & Sherman, so him directing - or at least trying to direct - a wuxia really stands out. Allegedly, most of the fight scenes were done by the 2nd unit and assistant directors, with him not even present at the set.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Just like his character, Michael Angarano went through Training from Hell. Though somewhat athletic, he did not know kung fu and had to learn it during the shooting of the movie. Some of the stuff went a little like this:
  Kung Fu Master: Your legs aren't flexible enough. We need to work on your flexibility.
  Michael Angarano: Okay, so does that mean I'm going to be do stretching exercises?
  Kung Fu Master: No, muscles adapt quicker when they're growing anew. Two of my disciples will pull your legs so your muscles rip apart and we'll work on your flexibility as the muscles grow back. You won't be able to walk properly for the next two weeks though.
  Michael Angarano: Wait, wha-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! IT HUURTS!!

And three weeks later, Michael Angarano could do a full split.

• Dueling-Stars Movie: If anybody tells you they saw this movie for a reason other than to see Jackie Chan vs. Jet Li, they're probably lying.
  • They might be watching it for the Designated Girl Fight between Liu Yifei and Li Bingbing.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Jet Li, as the Monkey King, is a grinning, giggling trickster. This is precisely the opposite of almost every other role of his.
  • The same goes double for Shūichi Ikeda in the Japanese dub for the same character.
• Typecasting: Played straight in that both characters are martial arts experts, but averted with Jackie Chan playing a somewhat serious immortal and Jet Li playing a more comical monkey king.
• Working Title: Just to cement what was the real intent of making the movie, it entered production as The J & J Project.

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