Why Jet Li’s role as Danny the dog alongside Morgan Freeman in 2005’s Unleashed didn’t open doors to Hollywood for Chinese actor

Luc Besson’s gritty, Glasgow-set action film about a man raised as an attack dog must have seemed like a good chance for Jet Li to leave his mark on Hollywood

The martial arts actor stood out even among his industry heavyweight co-stars, but the business of moviemaking ultimately took him back to China afterwards

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Jet Li as Danny in a still from Unleashed. The Chinese actor received critical acclaim for his performance alongside heavyweights including Morgan Freeman in the 2005 action film, but it didn’t make him a Hollywood staple. Photo: Universal Pictures

Matt Glasby

Published: 7:45am, 12 Feb 2024Updated: 8:17am, 12 Feb 2024

It is the unpredictable alchemy of the movies. Sometimes great talents come together from far and wide to make outstanding films; sometimes the results stand out for all the wrong reasons. At least, as with the 2005 Jet Li film Unleashed, they’re rarely boring.

Known elsewhere as Danny the Dog, Unleashed brings together an astonishing list of collaborators who give its familiar story beats of a new urgency.

Written and produced by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element), and directed by Louis Leterrier (Fast X), both Frenchmen, the film stars Chinese martial arts icon Jet Li (Hero), Hollywood heavyweight Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption) and British national treasure Bob Hoskins (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?).

Behind the scenes, Hong Kong legend Yuen Woo-ping (The Matrix) choreographed the fights, and the British trip-hop collective Massive Attack provided the sombre score.

All this and it was shot in the post-industrial environs of Glasgow – all rain-lashed factories and dank back allies – not that you’ll hear any Scottish accents.

Li had been trying to crack Hollywood since 1998’s Lethal Weapon 4 and had already appeared in 2001’s Besson-produced Kiss of the Dragon. But by the mid-noughties, the action genre was moving away from 1980s-style blockbusters into grittier territory, and he was looking to show he could act as well as kick a**.