Bruce Lee Is Getting An Official, Family-Sanctioned Biopic

Bruce Lee is the ultimate cinematic badass. You can make arguments for a handful of others to take that throne, but it’s nigh on impossible to come up with one truly knocks him out of the top spot. Over the years there have been a number of biopics—the wildly inaccurate Dragon, Manfred Wong’s Bruce Lee, My Brother (aka Young Bruce Lee and a few other titles), and he even shows up in the Ip Man films—but now we’re getting an official story complete with backing from his family.

When you talk about action, martial arts, crazy stunt work, and anything that falls into that realm, Bruce Lee is a name that always comes up. Even though his life was tragically short, he died at 32, and his filmography is equally truncated, few figures have been as influential to modern action. Enter the Dragon still stands as one of the greatest martial arts movies of all time, and if you’ve ever fantasized about ripping out a fistful of Chuck Norris’ chest hair, The Way of the Dragon is for you.

Shannon Lee, Bruce’s daughter, is on board as a producer, and in a press release, she said:

There have been projects out there involving my father, but they’ve lacked a complete understanding of his philosophies and artistry. They haven’t captured the essence of his beliefs in martial arts or storytelling. The only way to get audiences to understand the depth and uniqueness of my father is to generate our own material and find amazing, like-minded partners to work with…Many don’t know that Bruce Lee was also a prolific writer and a creator of his own unique art and philosophy. That’s what we want to show – not just his kick-ass physicality, but the depth of his character and beliefs.

Sure, his movies are kickass, but a big part of why Lee has remained such an icon for so long is that he was much more than just a movie star. He strove to break barriers, he approached every situation with the soul of philosopher and poet, and he blazed new trails when there wasn’t one readily available or he just didn’t like where the preordained paths took him.

His death, and the subsequent death of his son Brandon, also an actor and badass in his own right who died filming The Crow, has been the subject of too many conspiracy theories to recount. Basically, Lee’s story is super interesting and seems like perfect fodder for a big Hollywood movie. As long as they can find someone to play his physicality, spirit, and charisma, which isn’t going to be an easy task.