Do we really need another movie about the life of Bruce Lee? Yes. I'll admit it -- I'll always be curious about Bruce-related movie projects. The latest one in the works is Birth of the Dragon, which will focus on Bruce Lee's career-defining, legendary 1965 no-holds-barred fight with kung fu master Wong Jack Man: QED & Groundswell Productions Team For Bruce Lee Origin Movie.
When I say legendary, I mean that the fight has been fodder for a great deal of myth and legend, even in the movies. You'll remember Jason Scott Lee's turn as Bruce Lee in 1993's Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, which also dramatized its own version of the fight. I imagine it wasn't quite as dramatic as the movie made it, but hey, that's what movies are for. I guess this is Hollywood's latest take:
Written by Oscar nominees Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen Rivele, the film focuses on the Oakland fight that launched Lee to martial arts stardom, which happened against the backdrop of the Hong Kong Triads’ criminal control of San Francisco’s Chinatown. The film will also detail a team-up between the two legends to take on the Triads. The fight with Jack Man was the last official one of Lee’s career before he headed into acting, competition and building his martial arts philosophy.To be clear, this movie isn't supposed to be a biography about Bruce Lee, or even a definitive (in other words, accurate) account of the fight. They're dramatizing the conflict, and weaving some more legend around it with fight scenes, Triads and other fun stuff. Why not? Hell, make a movie about Bruce fighting vampires. He's already become a kind of a mythic pop culture folk hero anyway. Call it next-gen Bruceploitation.
Of course, the big question: what actor will take up the crazy challenge of playing the young Bruce Lee? I guess we'll see. More here: Movie about Bruce Lee's most legendary fight is in the works.