Warner Bros want Deadpool 2 director David Leitch to helm Enter The Dragon remake.
It’s kind of a given that Hollywood loves nothing better than a remake these days, but let’s be honest, how many actually work out for the best?
Beloved classics such as RoboCop, Total Recall and (ahem) Point Break have all been given the rehash treatment over the last few years with mostly poor results and now comes the news that the trend is set to continue with Variety reporting that Deadpool 2 director David Leitch is in early talks with Warner Bros. to direct a remake of Bruce Lee’s 1973 martial-arts action classic Enter the Dragon.
Whilst the film is very much in the early stages of development, here at Film ‘89 Towers we’re preying that this idea doesn’t come to fruition. To try and replicate the iconic role portrayed by its star would be quite frankly both near impossible, given Lee’s extraordinary skills and screen presence, and also insulting to his memory. Enter The Dragon isn’t a film known and beloved for its unique concept but for the uniquely talented man for which the film merely served as a star vehicle to introduce him to western audiences so what’s there to recreate?
The original film made a star of Bruce Lee outside of Hong Kong and China and was directed by Robert Clouse. Lee was joined by co-stars John Saxon and Jim Kelly. The film was released in Hong Kong just six days after Lee’s death at the age of 32 and is rightly regarded as a classic with it being selected in 2004 for preservation in the National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Just the thought of this makes me sick to my stomach. If I hear of this advancing to any point beyond a mere idea, I will start an online petition to ask Shannon Lee to do everything in her power to stop it and to preserve her father’s memory and legacy. Some things are simply untouchable and if we have learned anything from the many attempts at biographical movies of Bruce Lee’s life, it is that there is no man on the face of the earth today who could ever do him justice.
Let Master Lee rest in peace, allow his family to keep their dignity and please put a stop to any idea of remaking ANY of his films.