Internationally renowned actor Jackie Chan celebrated his birthday over the weekend by launching a Chinese reality TV series searching for energetic new movie talent.

Chinese actor Jackie Chan's new Beijing reality show will search for new action movie talent.
(Lo Sai Hung/Associated Press)

At a ceremony in Beijing on Saturday, the Hong Kong film star announced a Chinese TV competition scouting out the next new action movie star.

The show, called The Disciple in English, is being produced by Chan and BTV in Beijing.

"A lot of actors are good at fighting but [their style] is not beautiful," he told the audience.

"If you can incorporate dance with an ability to perform kung fu, that would be better."

Chan, who turned 53 on Saturday, said that more than 100,000 people have signed up for the competition.

The Disciple is scheduled to air through October, with 10 winners to appear in a movie Chan will produce in time for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Chan, the martial arts star known for the Rush Hour series and movies like Rumble in the Bronx and Drunken Master, is one of best-known martial arts actors hailing from China.

After appearing in more than 100 movies, Chan has developed a reputation for his incredibly acrobatic style, comic timing, family-friendly films and his claim to having done the majority of his own daredevil stunts.

Because of the latter, he has suffered a bevy of injuries on film sets over the years, including losing part of his hearing, breaking his fingers, toes, nose, ankle, ribs, both legs at once, several vertebrae and dislocating his pelvis.

With files from the Associated Press