COMMANDO Star Vidyut Jammwal Returns In JUNGLEE, The Latest From DREAM WARRIORS Director Chuck Russell

It isn't too often that the worlds of Hollywood and Bollywood collide, but when they do, it's often too weird to believe.

Today India's Junglee Pictures dropped the full trailer for their upcoming action film, Junglee (Wild), starring Vidyut Jammwal (Commando) and directed by Chuck Russell. Jammwal is best known on these pages for his performance in 2013's Commando, a film whose stunt work had the performer's name mentioned in the same breath with actors like Tony Jaa. Unfortunately for him, Jammwal's next few roles have been duds, including the sequel to Commando, so fans like me have been waiting for a reason to cheer and I have my fingers crossed that this will be it. 

In the "pro" column for Junglee is the man behind the camera, the director of the best Nightmare on Elm Street film, part three, Dream Warriors. To call this an odd pairing would be understating it, Hollywood directors have a very dicey history making Indian films in India, the last time anyone significant tried it was Jennifer Lynch's disastrous Hisss, a film so bad, a documentary about it's implosion did the festival rounds a few years back. From the look of the trailer, though, Russell seems to have a decent grasp of what he's doing here, and with some solid action background (Schwarzenegger’s Eraser among other things) he might be able to pull this off.

The film itself looks pretty well steeped in Bollywood tropes, bandits, romance, etc..., but the action does look solid, and hopefully they don't have nearly as much CG and wirework fighting as Commando 2, because Jammwal is most effective when he's showing what he is truly capable of. The film tells the story of a man who grew up with a beloved pet/friend elephant who returns home from the big city as an adult to find that his friend is being hunted. He's not having it, and he takes on the poachers with feet and fists a-flyin'. Sounds a bit like Tony Jaa's The Protector (Tom Yum Goong), but I'll let it slide for now. The action in the trailer looks like it could be fun, we will find out for sure when the film opens in April. 

For now, take a look at the trailer for Junglee!