Bruce Lee Elvis Presley of Kung Fu
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CCTV, China’s national television network, has plans to produce a 40-part documentary about Bruce Lee. Meanwhile, Bruce Lee’s brother, Robert, is planning a movie about him, as is one of Lee’s former students. They all have their sights set on completing the works by the Beijing Olympics.
“I believe we will see another round of Bruce Lee fever,” Wang said.
Although he has been dead 33 years, Bruce Lee remains a powerful cultural figure. What if, as people have often asked, he hadn’t died at age 32, barely a month before the release of his blockbuster film “Enter the Dragon”?
WOW this would be great. I have watched most of the Bruce Lee documentaries and spin offs but always have a hunger for more. And with new footage, pictures and documents being amassed it opens to the possibility of a great series - just hope it is in English.
Its a great shame the true wealth and recognition sometimes only comes after the death of the Star. And it seems like recognition was an important factor to Bruce and for his work in getting Asian Culture into the Western thinking.
Not to mention the BIG BUCKS and what it does to the creative juices within the artist as with the almighty dollar allows them the freedom to produce the type of film they want to do without the ’suits’ getting in the way.
Managing Lee’s estate
The estates of dead celebrities hadn’t yet amassed the staggering licensing fees that they do today, when, say, Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe can generate millions annually. “In the early years, there really weren’t things to license,” Cadwell said. “There were key chains or a puppet doll that looked like Bruce,” but little else.
Although Roesler doesn’t represent Lee’s estate, he sees the martial-arts star’s earning prospects as good. “He is an icon that is known throughout the world, and when you have someone like a Bruce Lee or a James Dean, someone who has a very strong name recognition, their myth and their legend seems to grow over the years and they can maintain a very consistent revenue source.”
Indeed, although he achieved stardom three decades ago, Lee’s fame has hardly dimmed. He is still regarded as one of the most influential martial artists of the 20th century, a precursor to kung fu stars such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chuck Norris.
In his teens, he had formal martial arts training in Wing Chun kung fu under a master teacher in Hong Kong. Lee’s style was known as Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist). He was famous for a combat technique called the “one-inch punch.”
Source http://seattletimes.nwsource.com
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