Jackie Chan to star in mountain epic Climbers

Jackie Chan is to star in mountain climbing epic movie 'Climbers'.

The 64-year-old actor will appear alongside Wu Jing in the upcoming action film - helmed by Hong Kong filmmaker Daniel Lee and produced by the Shanghai Film Group - about the first Chinese mountaineers to conquer Mount Everest, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The movie will tell the story of the real-life expedition of Wang Fuzhou, Gonpo and Qu Yinhua, who made the first ever ascent up Mount Everest's North Ridge in 1960 and notably left a small statue of Chairman Mao on the mountain before returning to rescue another member of their group who was unable to make the whole journey.

The other two climbers in the group will be played by Jing Boran and Hu Ge, whilst Zhang Ziyi will also be part of the cast as a Chinese meteorologist who assists the expedition.

Shooting on the project is underway in China and is expected to be released on China's patriotic holiday National Day of the People's Republic of China or during Chinese New Year in 2020.

Action legend Chan will soon reprise his role as Detective Inspector Yang Naing Lee in a new 'Rush Hour' film alongside Chris Tucker as Detective James Carter in a fourth instalment in the buddy cop franchise.

The series kicked off in 1998 with Brett Ratner's first film which saw the two police officers from Los Angeles and Hong Kong respectively thrown together to bust an international crime syndicate. The last film, 'Rush Hour 3', was released in 2017.

Spilling that the two stars are actively "working on a few things for the script" for a new sequel, Tucker, 47, said: "It's not in pre-production. We're working on a few things [for] the script. Jackie wants to do it. I want to do it. The studio wants to do it.

"We're trying to get it together. It looks like it's coming together."