Just before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA dual strikes commenced in Hollywood, cameras were set to roll on director Ang Lee's (Life of Pi, Brokeback Mountain) upcoming Bruce Lee biopic.
Sadly, the production is at a standstill until the two guilds can hammer out a deal with the AMPTP.
While speaking to Collider, at TIFF, the biopic's producer, Lawrence Grey (Pain Hustlers), revealed that Bruce Lee's final film, Enter the Dragon, would be the centerpiece of the movie.
"What we realized was that the time period of Bruce's life around the making of Enter the Dragon was a moment where so many different thematic threads were connecting, and there was a confluence of an incredible amount of drama and conflict in his life. So, we use that as sort of an axis around which to revolve his world. From there, I think the director would say it's a kaleidoscopic journey through his life. It has a traditional non-narrative structure and is really thematically and experientially connected."
Ang Lee has cast his own son, Mason Lee (Nî de hun yin bú shì nî de hun yin, Reclaim), in the role of the Jeet Kune Do master for the upcoming biopic. Just before the WGA strike started, the movie's script was finished.
Dan Futterman (Capote, Foxcatcher) turned in the latest draft of the screenplay which previously had Jean Castelli (Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk), Alex Law ( Echoes of the Rainbow), Mabel Cheung (Traces of a Dragon), and Wells Tower (Pain Hustlers) all lend their pencils to the biopic at various points.
In a press release statement made at the project's announcement back in November 2022, Ang Lee remarked, "Accepted as neither fully American nor fully Chinese, Bruce Lee was a bridge between East and West who introduced Chinese Kung Fu to the world, a scientist of combat and an iconic performing artist who revolutionized both the martial arts and action cinema."
He continued, “I feel compelled to tell the story of this brilliant, unique human being who yearned for belonging, possessed tremendous power in a 135-pound-frame, and who, through tireless hard work, made impossible dreams into reality.”
The project is coming after Bruce Lee's daughter, Shannon Lee, was very critical of her father's depiction in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
Shannon is also part of the creative force developing a Bruce Lee anime, which is set to debut in 2024/25.
Bruce Lee explodes onto the screen in the film that rocketed him to international superstardom, Enter The Dragon. Recruited by an intelligence agency, martial arts student Lee(Lee--Fists of Fury, The Chinese Connection) participates in a brutal tournament at a remote island fortress in an attempt to gather enough evidence to convict the international drug-trafficker responsible for the murder of Lee's sister. In the now-classic fight-to-the-death finish, two men enter a mirrored maze, but only one will exit...