The world tragically lost another stuntman Monday morning, in northern Beijing, China. 23-year-old Lu Yanqing was killed in what is being reported as a "bizarre" fire involving two boats, which were being used for John Woo's latest, the historical epic Red Cliff. Woo was actually not around at the time of the accident -- he was in Hong Kong -- and has not yet been quoted with any official statement.

Under the direction of the film's second unit, the scene that resulted in tragedy featured a small, smoking boat that was to crash into a large ancient warship. Upon collision, when machines began emitting more smoke, an unexpected flame shot up, killing the one stuntman and injuring another three (or seven) people. The exact cause of the fire is being investigated, but one report says the current theory is that "the crew might have accidentally ignited a flame that came into contact with inflammable gas on a boat, setting off the fire from which Lu was unable to escape."

It may be true, according to Jackie Chan, that Brett Ratner can't direct action scenes, but maybe Chan can't fight in them, either. Stuntman Bruce Law claims on his blog that he has doubled for the martial arts action star in his Chinese-language films. Although some of Chan's appeal is that he performs stunts himself, it is widely known that for insurance purposes he is required to be replaced by stuntmen in dangerous scenes shot for Hollywood-financed films. But as for his films made back home in Hong Kong, Chan is supposedly doing all his own stunts in those. Chan's spokesman, Solon So, denies the claim, though, and insists that his client only uses substitutes when working for Hollywood.

I don't completely disbelieve Law's claim. On Chan's Twin Dragons, Law is credited with car stunts, so it could very well be true that the stuntman was driving a car that one of Chan's characters is supposed to be driving. After all, Chan is a brilliant martial artist, but maybe he isn't so brilliant behind the wheel. Law's other credits for Chan films (according to the IMDb) include coordinating action scenes for Supercop 2, special effects for The Legend of Drunken Master and acting in Thunderbolt. Each of these could have required similarly simple bits in which Law had to double for Chan. It doesn't mean that Law ever performed any of Chan's really impressive stunts. Either way, though, we can all accept and appreciate that Chan is one of the greatest stunt performers ever to grace the movie screen, and as he's not getting any younger (he turns 53 on Saturday), we can tolerate him taking a break (as in rest, not bones) now and again.

Looks like the blissful juggernaut that is Lord of the Rings has opened the New Zealand floodgates, not only as a location that Hollywood covets, but also as a launching pad for a whole bunch of hard-working (yet entirely insane) kiwi filmmakers. In just the last month I've been treated to three great indies from New Zealand: the romantic comedy Eagle vs. Shark, the dizzyingly entertaining horror farce Black Sheep, and now this: a completely scrappy, wonderfully twisted, and adorably scruffy little import called The Devil Dared Me To.

The flick's got the same basic set-up as your average Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler sports comedy: Randy Cambell comes from a long line of (now-dead) New Zealand stuntmen, and he'll stop at nothing to follow in those freaky footsteps, regardless of how much suffering he must withstand at the hands of current stunt-king Dick Johansonson. With the help from a few loyal lunatics (and his one-legged girlfriend Tracy "Tragedy" Jones), can Randy rise from porta-potty duty to become New Zealand's premiere stunt-maniac? Doesn't really matter, because there's lots of crazy fun along the way.