Jackie Chan in a new role

The upcoming film The Foreigner, featuring Chinese action star Jackie Chan and Irish actor Pierce Brosnan, is a revenge story about Quan (played by Chan), a Chinese restaurant owner in London and a former member of the special forces, whose daughter is killed in a bomb blast. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Chan's opponent in the film is Irish actor Pierce Brosnan, who plays Hennessy, a British government official. This is the first time that these two icons are together on the big screen.

Recalling a scene in which Quan confronts Hennessy via telephone, Chan says: "He arrived at the set at 6 am just to help me with my lines. He had no scenes to shoot that day. That professional spirit should be learned by young actors today."

Chan also says that the duo had to deal with a tough director.

That man is Martin Campbell, the New Zealand filmmaker who worked with Brosnan in the James Bond film Golden Eye (1995).

Casino Royale (2006), the highest-grossing James Bond film in history, is also among Campbell's best-known works.

"He's very serious and stays in front of the camera for almost the whole day," says Chan.

"I've never seen a director as diligent as that.

"He also used to ask us to rehearse in front of him the night before, like we were newcomers to the film industry. But I admire this attitude."

But at the Beijing event Campbell jokes that he "stole" some scenes from a Chan movie when shooting his own productions like a scene of fencing training in The Mask of Zorro.

"I could not imagine someone better than Jackie to play this role," he says. "It's emotional. It's about loss and grief."