Enter the Dragon – Remake could star Stephen Chow, Frank Black and Anne Hathaway

Stephen Chow is the great actor / director behind films such as Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. Chow had been due to appear as Kato in The Green Hornet film, but that all fell apart. News on the grapevine is that he is about to make his English speaking debut in a film called Tai Chi. Twitch had the news that this is to be a remake of the classic Bruce Lee film, Enter the Dragon.

If this new story is more than a rumour then the remake will co-star Jack Black and Anne Hathaway.

Channel News Asia says that Tai Chi will have a $60 million budget and will be produced by the China Film Group Corporation and “an unnamed American film company.”

The film tells the story of a Chinese migrant in the US (played by Chow) who works as a dishwasher in Chinatown and hides his skills as a Tai Chi master. He is forced to stand up to gangsters who oppress his fellow migrants and later gets invited to start martial arts schools to share his knowledge.

Chow, a big fan of the late kung fu legend Bruce Lee, reportedly went to great lengths to make sure the script was perfect. He continously refined the script for almost two years and pushed back the production date.

The only other recent news about an Enter the Dragon remake was for one starring Rain (Ninja Assassin). That one is by writer/director Kurt Sutter and titled Awaken the Dragon but things have been quiet for that one.

I still see no need to remake Enter the Dragon, but if anyone is going to do it then Chow could just be the one to do it. I do hope that he doesn’t try and make it a comedy though as that just wouldn’t seem right. As for Black and Hathaway’s involvement I could see it working, but having Black involved would again raise the prospect of this remake have some comedy elements to it. Mind you part of me would want to see him as the Jim Kelly character with the big afro, but that is a very small part of me and even that knows it is wrong. If Black was going to play one of the main characters then I suppose he has more of a resemblance to John Saxon.

If this does happen would you be happen to see a Stephen Chow version of Enter the Dragon? What would have to be in it to work and who could play the villainous Han?

UPDATED: Rain Bi Confirms He’s Still Considering Enter The Dragon Remake

Here is Rain from Ninja Assassin sort of saying he is still thinking about the Enter the Dragon remake. First mentioned this back in August.

UPDATE: Awaken the Dragon screenplay writer Kurt Sutter got in touch with ScreenRant, where he questions the claims that Rain is in line for this role.

I just wanted to update you on my status with the “dragon” remake. Unfortunately, the project was a victim of the writer’s strike and I was forced to abandon it because of my commitment to “Sons of Anarchy”. If Rain is attached, I am no longer involved in the project, nor is my original pitch (neo-noir) valid. Honestly, and I could be wrong, but I find it hard to believe that any actor is attached to this project because as far as I know it has stalled in development at Warner Bros. I fear you could be the victim of wishful self-promotion. The next time someone interviews Rain, they should ask if he’s read the script or met with the director.

Thanks to Head Hero of the brill Movies: Past, Present and Future for letting me know.

UPDATED: Rain will Awaken The Dragon. What will Bruce Lee think?

Enter the Dragon, the 1973 martial arts classic that put Bruce Lee on the map. It is pretty much spot on.

Now Latino Review has found out that Warner Bros. Pictures is considering Korean megastar Rain(Ninja Assassin – Check out the clip from that film) for the lead role in writer/director Kurt Sutter’s Awaken the Dragon, which is a noir-style remake of the original.

Apparantly it is a contemporized drama about a lone FBI agent who pursues a rogue Shaolin monk into the bloody world of underground martial arts fight clubs.

The original film starred Lee as a martial artist who is drafted by law enforcement to participate in a martial arts tournament and infiltrate a drug smuggling operation run from the host’s heavily guarded island.

Ninja Assassin is looking pretty cool, so Rain could definitely do the martial arts for the film and it sounds different enough that it may just work. How do you feel about the news?

UPDATE: Here is some footage of Rain talking about the Enter the Dragon role.