10 Films That Had To Be Altered Because Of Real Life Tragedies

Of all the films affected by the 9/11 attacks, none were hit as hard as aborted Jackie Chan action comedy Nosebleed. The plot of the cancelled movie, which Chan himself wrote alongside Raven Metzner and Stu Zicherma, revolved around a window cleaner working at the World Trade Center who learns of a terrorist plot and attempts to stop it taking place.

While the target in the film would have initially appeared to be the Statue of Liberty, in the end Chan's character was to discover that it was actually the World Trade Center that was in danger and set about saving it from destruction in his patented stunt-laden style. Director Renny Harlin (helmer of Die Hard 2) reluctantly binned the project when a rewrite was deemed impossible.

According to a Hong Kong newspaper, Chan was actually due to begin production on Nosebleed on the very morning of the attacks, with a scene scheduled to be shot atop the North tower at 7am. Oriental Daily News reported that his life was unwittingly saved by his fellow writers, who failed to complete the script on time.

The validity of the report is unproven, however, as quotes attributed to Chan that appeared in that paper (and subsequently every newspaper in China) in which the star claims he escaped death were proven to be false.