Shanethefilmmaker
Shanethefilmmaker
Since: Jan, 2012
Aug 18th 2011 at 7:36:49 PM
•••
Why isn't there a WMG page on here. You'd think with a guy like Lee this would be a smorgage board of wild mass guessers.
Edited by Shanethefilmmaker
The Kung Fu situation.
According to Fred Weintraub's memories (producer of Enter the Dragon), and to Matthew E. Polly's Bruce Lee's biography (the first authoritative one), Kung Fu was the creation of Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander. They were paid for a movie script that would become the series pilot in 1969. Bruce Lee auditioned for the leading role and was rejected for several reasons, including accent and race. He did author a series' treatment which would become The Warrior, for which he was offered a development deal, but after the success of The Big Boss he preferred to focus on his movie career. Although similar, his idea was quite different from what became Kung Fu. It was a sort of Dante's Peak vs. Volcano situation.
Sources:
Fred Weintraub. https://www.scribd.com/book/131190162/Bruce-Lee-Woodstock-And-Me-From-The-Man-Behind-A-Half-Century-of-Music-Movies-and-Martial-Arts
Matthew E. Polly. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Bruce-Lee/Matthew-Polly/9781501187636 (Excerpts can be read at Google Books)
Synthesis of the situation: https://www.martialjournal.com/the-truth-about-the-creation-of-the-kung-fu-tv-series/