JET LI BRINGS PEACE TO THE GHETTO

Much has been made about Jet Li's decision to give up martial arts movies in favor of less violent fare, but that doesn't necessarily mean the movies he's making in the future are better. In fact, they might be a whole lot worse.

According to the Shanghai Youth Daily, Jet Li has two projects for 2006: a sequel to his video game, RISE TO HONOR, and A MONK IN NEW YORK.

A MONK IN NEW YORK is a project that Jet Li developed with KISS OF THE DRAGON screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen back in 2001 with Corey Yuen doing the action duties. At the time, Miramax reportedly paid Jet Li $10 million to appear in the film, but later they dropped out and the rights reverted to Li. Now it looks like he's going to really do it and he has full creative control of the project.

The story? It's about a Tibetan monk played by Li (so far so good), who wins a trip to New York (still going strong) and brings peace to an inner city neighborhood. Okay, maybe I'm jumping the gun when I say "Argh!" but maybe not.

(Thanks to Wu Jing.org for the tip off)