Brad Pitt’s foray into “gun-fu” action has another legend behind it: Jackie Chan.

Pitt said he channeled Chan when starring in David Leitch’s “Bullet Train,” an adaptation of the Japanese novel “Maria Beetle” by Kōtarō Isaka. Pitt plays an assassin who boards a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto with the mission to collect a briefcase onboard while fending for his life against other trained killers, portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Bad Bunny, Joey King, and Zazie Beetz.

“We always talk about Jackie Chan, how much we love Jackie Chan,” Pitt told Entertainment Tonight of filming the action-comedy, in theaters August 5. “He’s like our Charlie Chaplin, he’s just so underrated. And it’s so amazing the stuff that he’s pulled off. So to do something in that vein, with the comedy infused into the fights, I’ve never done that before!”

Director Leitch...