Plot
Neil Shaw is an operative for the United Nations's covert SAD, using espionage and quasi-ethical tactics to secure peace and cooperation. In Hong Kong, Shaw infiltrates a Chinese New Year party held by Chinese business mogul David Chan and covertly hacks an office laptop of a North Korean Defense Minister, and blackmails him with the misappropriation of U.N. aid money, in exchange for continuing negotiations with South Korea. Shortly after being discovered, Shaw fights his way out of the party and suffers a gunshot wound to his shoulder during extraction.
Six months later, a shipping container full of dead Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong turns up on the New York docks the same week as China's trade agreement with the U.S. Shaw's boss, Eleanor Hooks, suspects Chinese ambassador Wu's connection with the Chinese Triad, and assigns Shaw to plant a tracking device on Wu during a banquet held by Chan. During the trade agreement banquet, Wu is gunned down, Chan is shot in the arm, and Shaw pursues a masked gunman. During the pursuit, Shaw's teammate Robert Bly corners the gunman but perishes, and Shaw is arrested by the NYPD. In the middle of a prison transfer, FBI agent Frank Capella's van is disabled by a roadside bomb, and an unconscious Shaw is captured by Triad members to be framed for the murder and disposed of. Shaw regains consciousness and frees himself from captivity, only to find his last remaining team member, Jenna Novak, murdered by a Chinese hitman. Shaw kills the hitman, recovers the audio file, and secures weapons and equipment from Novak's hidden armory. Shaw seeks Julia Fang's help after reading a news article stating Shaw's innocence. Shaw manages to save Fang from an ambush by a Chinese hitwoman at a hospital.
With Fang's aid, Shaw finds a Triad-owned bakery serving as a front for a gentlemen's club, setting up an unlikely alliance with Capella, and retrieving video footage of Chan's role in derailing the trade agreement. Fang delivers the evidence to Hooks while Shaw confronts Chan at the same hotel where the banquet is being held. Chan is shot dead by a masked gunman while being interrogated by Shaw. The pursuit ends when Shaw finds a scanner that is tuned to a tracking device embedded in Shaw's gunshot wound before being ambushed by Bly. Bly reveals himself as the assassin at the banquet and also engineered the tracking device implant from an earlier basketball game injury. Hooks reviews the evidence and reveals that she and Chan were the masterminds behind the conspiracy. A disgusted Fang tries to leave but attempts to hide from Bly only to be locked in a bathroom. Shaw eventually figures out Hooks's role behind the conspiracy and approaches Capella with his findings. Shaw surgically removes his tracking device and uses Capella's business card to give the Triads a business proposition. Shaw breaks into the U.N. building and enters into a shootout and hand-to-hand fight with Bly, where the latter dies after falling on a shard from a broken glass pane. The following day, Shaw calls Hooks in her limousine and lectures her about karma, revealing that Shaw's business proposition to the Triads was to assassinate Hooks for her betrayal. Shaw fakes his death before reuniting with Fang in France but is monitored by an unknown spy.
Production
On June 1998, it was reported that Jet Li had entered into seven figure deal to star in The Art of War for producer Dan Halsted which would be a co-production for [[Oliver Stone]|Oliver Stone's]] Illusion Entertainment and Dick Wolf's Wolf Films to be distributed by Universal Pictures and Alliance Films. [5] The film was to follow a secret agent for the United Nations who becomes wrongfully accused of assassinating World Leaders and must then find the real killer to clear his name. [5]
In February 1999, Elie Samaha and Stone entered into a three-picture co-financing deal which included The Art of War and would now be produced by Franchise Pictures, Stone's Illusion Entertainment, and Wesley Snipes' Amen Ra Films with Snipes also set to play the lead after Li dropped out. [6] Stanley Tong was in negotiations to direct with distribution to be handled by Morgan Creek Entertainment and Warner Bros. via their output deal with Franchise Pictures. [6] By April, Christian Duguay was set to direct. [7] In May, Stone left the project as an executive producer following the disillusion of his company Illusion Entertainment instead preferring to focus on his own directorial efforts with projects under the company to continue under the stewardship of producer Dan Halsted. [8] By August of that year, it was reported that Donald Sutherland had joined the cast. [9]
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