George Nolfi to Direct Bruce Lee Gangster Film 'Birth of the Dragon'

About a year ago we learned there was a new Bruce Lee film on the way, but not just any old Bruce Lee film, this would be the start of a new action franchise centered on the legendary martial artist and international superstar. The film was titled Birth of the Dragon and had an impressive duo of screenwriters in Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen Rivale (Ali, Nixon), and while the film has yet to secure someone to play Lee (good luck with that), a director has been found in George Nolfi.

Nolfi last directed Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau, and he'll take the helm of a film that will take a real life event in Bruce Lee's life, that of his 1965 battle with Kung Fu master Wong Jack Man, and use it to launch a story of the two men battling against Chinese Triads. The story will be told from the perspective of Steve Macklin, one of Lee's disciples.

What sounded potentially awful has piqued my interest with Nolfi coming aboard. Obviously, a lot of it is going to depend on who they find to play Lee. Filming on Birth of the Dragon begins next spring.

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New Bruce Lee franchise in the works that's partly true, mostly bull-pucky

There have been plenty of Bruce Lee origin stories and biopics in the past, but few actually stick to the facts. Lee is a legend, and nearly all legends find some aspect of their lives shrouded in mystery. Lee is as big a legend as they come, and so...well, more mystery. That means making up stuff as you go along. But good biopics on his life have been made, including 1993's Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, even though that is also highly fictionalized. There's a new franchise in the works that will be based on a true moment in Lee's life, but calling it an "origin story" as THR does, is just hogwash.

Titled Birth of the Dragon, the film comes from screenwriters Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen Rivale, who have done some amazing biopics in the past, such as Oliver Stone's Nixon and Michael Mann's Ali. Here, they're taking Bruce Lee's 1965 fight with Chinese kung fu master Wong Jack Man and using it as the springboard to an action franchise in which the two team-up and battle a bunch of gangsters.  Um, what?

The fight, which took place at Lee's dojo, was only witnessed by a handful of people, with Lee and Wong giving very different accounts of what happened. Lee and his wife say the fight lasted about three minutes with Wong decisively beaten, even attempting to run away at one point. Wong said it lasted about 20 minutes, a claim so absurd it doesn't pass the sniff test. Whatever the case, I'm sure it didn't end with them fighting off thugs for control of Chinatown.

While it's a bit tasteless for a franchise to be launched in this way, it's not anything we haven't seen before. "Based on a true story" claims haven't meant much for quite awhile, and it's only a rung or two down the ladder to twist a person's real life into something unrecognizable.

Here's a clip from Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story which director Rob Cohen's take on the Bruce Lee vs. Wong Jack Man battle. None of it is even remotely accurate, but it's still a cool fight scene.

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