Philip Ng Cast as Bruce Lee in BIRTH OF THE DRAGON
A new Bruce Lee movie started shooting yesterday, and it was announced that Philip Ng (New Police Story, Bodyguards and Assassins) will be taking on the role of the legendary martial artist.
The story is set in the mid-1960s and focuses on the fight between Lee and Wong Jack Man. The story is told from the point of view of one of Lee’s students, Steve McKee, who is being played by Billy Magnussen. After the fight, Lee reinvented himself and his fighting style of kung fu.
Shaolin Master Wong Jack Man will be played by Yu Xia, and the rest of the cast includes Jinging Qu as McKee’s love interest and Jin Xing as a crime boss.
The film is being directed by George Nolfi from a script written by Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen J. Rivele, who have worked on films such as Ali and Nixon. The director had this to say in a statement:
“Birth of the Dragon is a rare opportunity to make an action film with rich characters based on real events and real people. It’s a story about people from the East and West transcending their differences to work together, which is obviously a very timely story.”
Producer Michael London added:
“We’re thrilled to be telling one of the great untold stories in martial arts history, especially at this unique moment when China and Western audiences are opening up to each other as never before. To work with a Chinese film company like Kylin on a story that has so much significance in China has been a wonderful collaboration, and, we hope, the first of many.”
It seems like this will be Ng’s highest profile role to date. He looks the part, and it will be interesting to see how his martial arts skills compare to Lee's.
I’m such a huge fan of Lee, and it’s great that we are going to get to see another movie based on part of his life.