Jackie Chan to appear in Expendables 3

The Rush Hour star is to team up with fellow aging action heroes in Sylvester Stallone's new film

Kung fu hero Jackie Chan is to team up with fellow Eighties and Nineties action man Sylvester Stallone in the next Expendables film.

The Hong Kong born actor confirmed that he will appear in the Expendables 3 during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

"Sly [Stallone] had invited me to be in [The] Expendables 2 but I was too busy filming CZ12 and couldn't make a commitment to the film,” Chan said, according to reports in Cinema Online.

“But he did extend his invitation to the third movie, which I agreed on the condition that I will be appearing as more than just a minor role with a few scenes.”

Chan claims also to have influenced the format of the next  Expendables film.

He told the director it should be a more “buddy buddy” film in the vein of Chan’s hugely successful Rush Hour franchise – Stallone is reportedly reworking the film to that effect.

The franchise has previously brought together aging action men Stallone, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

When The Expendables 2 was released in September its strongest sales came from China where it netted $53,090,000 despite a poor box office performance across the rest of the world. The film proved more popular there than The Dark Knight Rises which was released around the same time.

Chan’s involvement in the next instalment of the franchise is a further indication of Hollywood’s concern with the lucrative Far East market.

Last month movie studio MGM was forced to use digital trickery in its latest remake Red Dawn to transform an army shown invading small-town America from Chinese to North Korean over fears of a backlash.

China has a cap on the numbers of foreign films it shows, and refuses to screen those that criticise the country or its Government.

Despite its worldwide success Skyfall, the latest James Bond film, has no release date in China due to a scene in which the Chinese are referenced as torturing a former secret agent. Men in Black 3 was also cut to remove Chinese villains.

Production on The Expendables 3 is expected to commence next year.

Chan also revealed he might soon be reunited with his Rush Hour co-star Chris Tucker in a movie preliminarily titled Skip Tracer.

"The script is currently viewed by Chris Tucker," he said. "Personally, I feel that if he were to pick it up, it would be better if we turned it into Rush Hour 4 but I do think that three movies for the franchise is a perfect ending. It would be better to start a new buddy movie with someone new.”