I’ve railed before about the over-abundance of period martial arts films and the lack of their modern-day counterparts especially when it comes to truly talented screen fighters like Donnie Yen and Jet Li. It looks like that drought is coming to an end though thanks to the recent announcement that Yen has wrapped production on a film called Special Identity. And now the news gets even better. Li is in post-production on Badges of Fury from director Wang Zi Ming, and the icing on the ass-kickery-flavored cake is that he’s joined by Wu Jing and Collin Chou in the tale of detectives hot on the trail of a serial killer. Like Yen and even Jackie Chan, Li has been on a period kick making movies set in long ago times celebrating Chinese history and whatnot. Kiss of the Dragon and Danny the Dog (aka Unleashed) are his last really good ones, but they’re eight to twelve years old. Li and Chou have faced off before in The Bodyguard from Beijing, and while it featured some wire work the final fight between them is pretty sweet. (Check it out here.) Equally impressive are Wu’s fight skills on display most notably in the phenomenal alley fight against Yen in SPL. (Watch it here.) The plot line for Badges of Fury (previously known as The One Cop) is as follows:

If movies have taught us anything it’s that not enough filmmakers title their work as an homage to the venerable and beloved Police Academy film series. But they’ve also taught us that it’s never a good thing when military types and scientists collaborate. Yes, even Asian ones. City Under Siege opens in an underground bunker during WWII as a group of frightened men are led into an observation room. Also in the room? A mutated and muscle-laden man who proceeds to kill each and every one of them. Cut to the present day and we’re introduced to Sunny (Aaron Kwok), a clown at the local circus who imagines himself as a legendary knife thrower. But Zhang (Collin Chou) and his cronies are the circus’ real stars, and they treat Sunny like a second-class citizen. Which is still better than clowns deserve to be treated. The group goes treasure hunting in the hills and accidentally get spritzed by a chemical which begins to mutate them all in painful ways but which also gives them superhuman powers. Imbued with abilities to match their attitudes they leave Sunny for dead and head into the city to wreak havoc, rob armored trucks, and cause mayhem wherever possible. Sunny’s alive of course, and as the only mutant with a sense of right and wrong he heads into town to square off against his former c0-workers. Toss in an engaged couple brought in to investigate supernatural crimes (the extremely talented Wu Jing and Zhang Jingchu), a

If Chou isn’t referring to Ninja Assassin, the Wachowski Brothers may have another martial arts trick up their sleeve for audiences to look forward to.