Acclaimed director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is hitting pause on his Bruce Lee biopic. Speaking at a recent event in China, Lee admitted that his biopic is extremely complex for a variety of reasons and has been put on hold due to “creativity, funding, and copyright” issues, though he still hopes to make the film. He added that he aims to find a new way to shoot it and achieve a “breakthrough in visual presentation.”
Unlike his recent ventures into 3D and high-frame-rate filmmaking, Lee indicated the film would be shot in a more traditional cinematic style. He had previously acknowledged the challenges of shooting in 3D and questioned its value, bluntly stating, “3D is bad.” (via World of Reel).
For now, Lee has hopped onboard Old Gold Mountain, a film set at the twilight of the American “Gold Rush,” tackling the journey of two orphaned immigrants.
The now-paused biopic for Sony’s 3000 Pictures – penned by award-winning writer, Dan Futterman (Foxcatcher) – would have starred the filmmaker’s son, Mason Lee, who is perhaps best known for his roles in 2011’s The Hangover Part II and 2017’s Legend of the Demon Cat. Back in 2023, it was reported that Mason spent five+ years training and learning Bruce Lee’s fighting style in order to accurately portray the legend (via Movieweb).
“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,” Ang Lee told Deadline in 2022. “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.”
Bruce Lee would have been produced by Lawrence Grey, Shannon Lee (Bruce’s daughter), Ang Lee, Ben Everard and Brian Bell, with Elizabeth Gabler and Marisa Paiva overseeing the project.
Throughout the years, many actors/martial artists have portrayed Bruce Lee in many different projects from around the world, including Mike Moh (read our interview with him), Philip Ng (read our interview with him), Jason Scott Lee, Danny Lee, Danny Chan, Aarif Rahman, Ho Chung-tao (aka Bruce Li), Huang Kin Long (aka Bruce Le), Kim Tai-chung, Leung Siu-lung, Stephen Au Kam-Tong, and David Wu Dai-Wai. For more on this subject, read our article, They Call ‘Em Bruce: People who played Bruce Lee.
Only time will tell if Bruce Lee ever gets off the ground. Until then, we leave you with our personal favorite Bruce Lee biopic, Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth:
I wonder how they will tackle this biopic this time. Hope there’s some amount of scenes that include a young Brandon and Dan Inosanto.
Well, I hope everything works out in the best way. I’m a little concerned about the involvement of the Bruce Lee Estate. People say their involvement on the documentary, “Be Water” ended up making the film biased and not as objective as it could have been. The same thing could happen here.
Lets hope this the Ang Lee of Eat Drink Man Woman and Crouching Tiger and not the Ang Lee of Hulk and Gemini Man
“Accepted as neither fully American nor fully Chinese”…
Well, Hong Kong (Chinese people in fact) accepted him first…then after Hollywood began to look at him with…interest.
I like Lee’s Hulk a lot. Not even sorry for it.
Enter the Dragon is getting an anniversary theatrical re-release. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2297070337/?ref_=bo_hm_RELEASE_DATE_CHANGES_WIDGET_3
Uni uploaded a scene from Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. https://youtu.be/Z9wRTt_Ojbo?si=TZPaPNVHQ8uXwDQu
Sonny should be able to fork out 20 million dollars for the movie. Don’t really need a big budget.
At this point if I hear Shannon/the Lee Estate were backing this project why would I want to see it, anyway? It’s not like they’ll endorse an honest Bruce Lee bio, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was about as honest & fact based as Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth or Bruce Lee: His Last Days, His Last Nights, are Shannon & company now suddenly interested in telling some kind of true story of Bruce Lee? I’d be much more interested in seeing a new Bruce bio if it wasn’t produced and/or approved by Shannon.
I thought same, Shannon was only 4 years old when her dad passed away and barely remembers him and often refers to her mom for recollections. Personally i thought “Dragon” was a disaster for so many reasons. I’d prefer input from a Lee historian who has studied Lee’s bio for years than just rely on his daughter who merely just gets involved for profit rather than give homage with respect to what her Dad stood for and was in reality
If this movie happens eventually, I hope Mason Lee keeps up his training and immerses himself into the role. It would be ideal for this movie to tell a more accurate story, but if it ends up being a “Hollywood tale,” so be it. Anyone who watched Dragon way back when and expected a history lesson was setting themself up for disappointment.
Same here. An Ang Lee biopic is what we need. I just hope the Lee estate will keep their paws off it. Otherwise, the whole movie will be one giant “be like water” tale.
That’s what I insinuated earlier. From the earlier reports, it seems like they’re still gonna be involved whether the film makers like it or not.
Ang Lee has been talking about making this for years. The writers strike or whatever held it up. But now another excuse? Maybe excuse is harsh word, but now another reason for the delay?
It reminds me of when you are eagerly anticipating a boxing match between 2 great boxers, and a week before fight its cancelled because of an injury in training to one of the boxers.
Seriously this needs to get made. Dragon Bruce lee story was ok as a film, but i never got impression that a better Bruce lee biopic couldnt be made!
Dragon..The Bruce Lee Story, was TERRIBLE!! I was so excited for that movie when it came out, and was soooo disappointed. The storyline was bad, Jason Lee was comical, and he fight sequences not very good! Hopefully And Lee will be able to portray Bruce, in the way he deserves…honestly…even with all his warts.. like we all have!
Are we getting the Ang Lee of Crouching Tiger and Brokeback Mountain or the Ang Lee of Hulk and Gemini Man? This project could go either way but probably in the latter category if its anything like the nepo baby passion project of M Night’s Trap
Just a heads up, the article says Ho Chung-tao twice and I think you meant Wong Kin-Lung (aka Bruce Le), but it reads Ho Chung-tao (aka Bruce Le) after Ho Chung-tao (aka Bruce Li). As for the project, if the Lee estate was involved, what would be the “copyright issues”?
Thanks, Albert. Noted and changed. =)
“Copyright Issues” ?!!? I’d like elaboration on that one.
The words ‘be like water’ probably weren’t mentioned in the script enough times =)
I’m making a Bruce Lee biopic right now. Would love to cooperate with Ang Lee