Madame Tussauds Hollywood Unveils New Bruce Lee Figure Alongside The Legend's Daughter Shannon Lee, And The Bruce Lee Foundation (Photo : Getty Images/Vivien Killilea)
Before Jackie Chan, there was Bruce Lee, the most famous Chinese martial artist until his life was cut short by cerebral edema in 1973 at the age of 32. A biopic of the actor is being produced by Bruce Lee Entertainment which is run by Shannon Lee, his daughter.
Authorized Biopic
To be directed by Indian director Shekhar Kapur, “Little Dragon” is an authorized biopic of the legendary martial artist. The movie would dramatize the Hong Kong social and political forces that shaped Bruce Lee in the 1950s when he was a teen into the most famous martial artist of all time and a modern-day philosopher, Variety reported.
To prepare for the production of the film which would be shot in Malaysia starting in June, Shannon Lee researched into the youth and formative years of her father. Past movies such as “The Grandmaster” by Wong Kar-wai and “Ip Man” by Wilson Yip and Herman Yau had touched on those aspects of the actor’s life.
The result is the “Little Dragon” screenplay by Shannon Lee and Kapur who is also the upcoming movie’s executive producer. Mary Vernieu is the U.S. casting director for the film which Tim Kwok of Convergence describes as a movie that would be a deep personal exploration of Bruce Lee before his disciple and inner power made him into the ground-breaking icon that goes on until now to inspire people throughout the world.
Tapping into Actor’s Inner Wisdom
Kapur said in a statement, “It is important that audiences today can relate their own lives to the journey of Bruce Lee, who manages to tap into his inner wisdom and harness his true destiny before it was too late.”
According to Maxim, before Bruce Lee became an action star, he was a hard-living, street-fighting troublemaker in Hong Kong in the 1950s.
