You might think that Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and endless assorted films/TV movies have covered the martial arts icon’s life on screen in perfect detail, but people still want to take parts of his time on this Earth as inspiration for their movies. Birth Of The Dragon** is one such endeavour, and Adjustment Bureau director George Nolfi has stepped aboard to call the shots.
Biopic specialists Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen Rivele have been developing this one for a while now, at least since last year, cooking up a story based on a real-life event in Lee’s life. The plot is inspired by the true story of Bruce Lee’s historic 1965 duel with Wong Jack Man, China’s most famous kung fu master at a time when San Francisco’s Chinatown was controlled by Hong Kong Triads. The story of the match is told from the perspective of Steve Macklin, a young disciple of Lee, who ultimately joins forces with Lee and Wong to battle a vicious band of Chinatown gangsters. We're pretty sure that bit is somewhat fictionalised.
Though it sounds a little bit like fan fiction come to life, it should offer something different from a standard biopic, territory that has been covered extensively in the case of Lee. Nolfi should be starting the cameras rolling next year, once he’s found someone to shoulder the responsibility of playing Bruce…