Jet Li gave over £500,000 to the family of a stuntman who died in an accident on the set of ‘The Expendables 2’.
The movie martial arts star felt compelled to gift the huge sum of money to the relatives of stuntman Liu Kun, 26, who died from wounds inflicted by a controlled explosion that took place for a scene for the blockbuster in 2011.
The movie – which also starred Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris and Bruce Willis – was released in 2012 and Liu’s parents, Liu Zong Yu Liu and Bai Yan Mei, sued Millennium Films in a wrongful death suit, but were awarded just HK$195,000, or £19,400, after a four year court battle.
Following the ruling, big-hearted Li paid the family HK$5.8 million – which equates to just under £580,000 – to help them carry on with their lives, the Malay Mail newspaper reports.
Stallone’s stuntman was also seriously injured in the explosion which occurred in Bulgaria but survived.
Stallone, 71, created ‘The Expendables’ franchise – which brought together Hollywood action legends from different eras – and although a fourth film is in development in March 2017 it was announced that he would not be reprising his role as mercenary Barney Ross due to disagreements with Millennium Films chief Avi Lerner over the script and direction the series was heading in.
Lerner said previously: "We’ve got disagreements with Sly, but we’ve had them for over a year-and-a-half. Right now, each one has opinion. We agreed on 95 per cent of things, but there are certain things in production we don’t agree on."
An all-female spin-off movie entitled ‘The ExpendaBelles’ is also in the works with ‘Monster-in-Law’ director Robert Luketic helming the project.