The writers of Ali and Nixon have been hired to write an “origin story” about Bruce Lee. Well, sort of. It actually sounds more like the origin of a story where Bruce Lee becomes some kind of crime-fighting Van Helsing, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

QED International and banner Groundswell Productions are aiming to tell a Bruce Lee origin story with Birth of the Dragon, tapping scribed Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen Rivele to pen the tale.
Birth of a Dragon, according to QED and Groundswell, is inspired by the true-life duel between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man, who was China’s most famous Kung Fu Master. The no-rules fight took place in San Francisco in 1965, when the city’s Chinatown was controlled by Hong Kong Triads.

Okay, so far so good… They already did a version of that in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, based on Linda Lee’s book, but I’d love to see a less biased version…

The writers are using this true event as a jumping off point for a wider canvas action movie in which Wong and Lee team up to battle a band of Chinatown gangsters.
“Stephen Rivele and Chris Wilkinson have taken a little known chapter in the life of Bruce Lee and used it as a jumping off point for a bold, exciting story about the making of an international legend,” said QED CEO Michael London in a statement. [THR]

Well sure, why depict a real, unique story with interesting characters and inherent drama when you can just slap the names on a Bruckheimer movie that everyone’s already seen? A movie about Bruce Lee? Pf, no one’s going to want to see that! Not unless you can turn it into a Chinese Gangster Squad with Kung Fu. It’s got the blandness people love, with the meaningless name recognition they demand.

Studio thinking at its finest.

[banner image via]

I just found this letter to and response from Bruce Lee – whose 72nd birthday would’ve been today -  via the always fantastic LettersofNote. I put Bruce Lee in the headline because he’s got the name recognition, but the real star of this exchange is Roland Lee. The turn of phrase “Furthermore, he picked up a hammer and hit himself all over” is brilliant, and I could read it ten times over and still laugh every time. I want that worked into my epitaph somehow. “He had four loving children, having retired after working for the Illinois Railroad Company for 42 years. Furthermore, he picked up a hammer and hit himself all over.”

As to the what/where of the letter, Shaun from LettersofNote says: “In the 1960s Bruce Lee answered a bunch of fans’ letters via Black Belt magazine. Many are reprinted in this book (‘Dear Bruce Lee’).”

Anyway, great letter, and happy birthday, Bruce. We’d trade that crusty old sack of farts Chuck Norris for you in a heartbeat.

Before I watched this trailer for Tai Chi Zero, if you’d asked me if I wanted to see a steampunk kung fu movie aurally wallpapered in dub-step music (that’s the stuff that sounds like computer farts, for us older folks), I’d say no, that sounds like a nerd focus-group f*cking nightmare. Strangely, and you’ll have to take my word on this until you scroll down the page and watch it, it looks kinda good. From director Stephen Fung and fight choreography by Sammo Hung (Ip Man, Ip Man 2), it’s being described as “Kung Fu Hustle meets Scott Pilgrim,” and it’s in limited release starting today. You know, assuming you’re not all rushing off to see who’ll cross Alex Cross.

As an uncommonly gifted child, Yang Luchan had a fleshy abnormality that holds tremendous power growing on his forehead. However, being teased as the town fool, Yang’s mother spurs him to practice martial arts, and following her wishes, Yang travels to the distant Chen Village to learn TAI CHI. At this legendary village everyone practices TAI CHI and uses TAI CHI in every aspect of their lives. Nevertheless, it is forbidden for a villager to disclose TAI CHI to an outsider, which Yang learns the hard way.
One day, a frightening steam-powered machine comes to the village, lead by Fang Zijing, a childhood friend of Yuniang. He has bribed government officials to permit him to build a railway that will run straight through the village. Yang decides to join forces with Yuniang to defeat Fang Zijing and destroy the machine. This brave act may just win him the hearts of the villagers….

Two trailers below, the first has a “SPROING” sound, the second a prominent (*RECORD SCRATCH*). I think I’m in love.

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A dirty little secret of this blogging game is that I can’t post every single trailer I come across. But when I get an email saying “RZA’s directorial debut is a martial arts epic set in 19th century China and co-starring Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu,” you better believe it’s going up post-haste. Also, this banner image is RZA punching out a guy’s eyeball. Yep, that happened.

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Keanu Reeves has already begun production on his directorial debut, a kung fu picture called Man of Tai Chi, and not only does he famously know kung fu (thanks, Larry Fishburne, sorry about your daughter), he’s trying to come up with a new way to film it. There’s a proof of concept video on YouTube for the special rig he’ll be using, which is called Bot & Dolly.

Keanu says “the ambition for me was trying to get what I’ve seen done before with CGI and putting the camera in places where you couldn’t get and have the flesh and blood elements there.”

t looks like the reverse of wire fu, sort of an “in Soviet Russia, camera flies you” kind of situation. The possibilities of it aren’t exactly blowing my mind just yet, but it would allow you to make that little frame with your fingers and gesticulate wildly a lot on the set, which I bet really makes you feel like a big-time director. Also, I was able to get this exclusive photo of Keanu Reeves on the day he discovered the rig:

“You guys! You guys! Come quick!”

[vid via JoBlo]