In discussion for at least three years, Ang Lee’s biopic about martial arts legend Bruce Lee appears to be struggling to get the go-ahead from Sony Pictures.
A director who’s repeatedly switched genres over his career, Ang Lee hopes to return to the martial arts realm of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with a biopic about Bruce Lee. In a recent interview with Deadline, however, it sounds as though the untitled film is stuck in pre-production.
In his feature about Lee, journalist Mike Fleming Jr says that, at the time of meeting the director, “he is struggling to hit a budget number and a green light from Sony Pictures.”
The Bruce Lee film first became public knowledge in December 2022, when it emerged that Mason Lee – Ang Lee’s son – was to play the legendary martial arts star, who died in 1973 aged 32. It was said at the time that Mason Lee had already been in training for about three years in order to accurately portray Lee’s nimble, aggressive fighting style.
In his Deadline interview, Ang Lee has said that he wants to “revolutionise” action filmmaking again, much as he did with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – his 2000 martial arts drama starring Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh. Featuring stunning choreography from Yuen Woo-ping, it was nominated for 10 Oscars and won four. As Ang Lee points out, Bruce Lee’s style was markedly different from the dance-like, wire-enhanced action in Crouching Tiger, however; the fights in such films as The Way Of The Dragon (1972) and The Big Boss (1971) were more grounded and direct.
“It’s very different from Crouching Tiger, more like Sense And Sensibility in an ass-kicking form,” Ang Lee said. “Bruce Lee was the first and probably only person, even now, that put expression and thought into his fighting instead of just dazzling you. Nobody had done that with such dramatic effect, such a visceral impact.”
In 2023, it was reported that Lee’s film will focus on the making of Enter The Dragon – Bruce Lee’s signature film, and the last to be completed before his sudden death. Producer Lawrence Grey said of the project at the time:
“What we realised was that the time period of Bruce’s life around the making of Enter The Dragon was a moment where so many different thematic threads were connecting, and there was a confluence of an incredible amount of drama and conflict in his life. So, we use that as sort of an axis around which to revolve his world. From there, I think the director would say it’s a kaleidoscopic journey through his life. It has a traditional non-narrative structure and is really thematically and experientially connected.”
Ang Lee has directed some acclaimed films over the past 35 years, including the aforementioned Sense And Sensibility (1995), Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Life Of Pi (2012). His two most recent films weren’t hits, however; war drama Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016) and action thriller Gemini Man (2019) didn’t overly impress critics or audiences.
Here’s hoping that Lee can finally get his martial arts biopic going at Sony; Bruce Lee’s story is a fascinating one, and as the 1970s recedes into history, it’s worth reminding younger movie-goers just how important the actor and martial artist was to cinema.
If you’re after a zesty exploration of just how big a deal Bruce Lee was in the 1970s, do check out Enter The Clones Of Bruce – a documentary that explains why a generation of would-be action stars were coaxed into copying Lee’s look and style.
More on Ang Lee and Mason Lee’s film about Bruce Lee as it comes in.
