It’s been several years in and with martial arts and multi-media heiress Shannon Lee steering at the helm at Bruce Lee Enterprises. Her late father’s unattended writings now the source of inspiration for fascinating TV and film to come, Cinemax now brings us the mini-teaser for Warrior which airs in 2019.
Conclusively, I couldn’t be more proud of Koji this week, and that brings us to the longstanding developments of Cinemax’s upcoming ten-episode martial arts drama, Warrior which is set to go before cameras in South Africa on October 22. Netflix series Fauda helmer Assaf Bernstein is directing from a script by Banshee creator Jonathan Tropper, in turn inspired by the unproduced work of late martial artist multihyphenate, entertainer and film legend Bruce Lee, and has since been shepherded by daughter Shannon Lee, founder and CEO of Bruce Lee Enterprises. Lee is executive producing as will Tropper via his Tropper Ink Productions banner, and Lin along with Danielle Woodrow hailing from Perfect Storm Entertainment.
“Warrior follows in the spirit of the tradition of adrenalized Cinemax dramas that we established with Strike Back and Banshee,” said Antholis, listing the network’s two most successful original series to date. “We are brimming with excitement for this unique martial arts series combining Bruce Lee’s inspired conception with the immense storytelling talents of Jonathan Tropper and Justin Lin.”
Well this is fancy!
Cinemax is reportedly beefing up efforts toward developing a Bruce Lee-inspired serial crime drama titled Warrior. Fast And Furious franchise helmer Justin Lin is poised to executive produce and potentially direct the pilot from a script by executive producer, Banshee co-creator Jonathan Tropper which centers on an anti-heroic, gifted fighter who is thrown into a crisis that undermines his quest for revenge.
The series was the first of several projects that began conception early on as Lin pacted with Chinese media magnate Bruno Wu for the launch of TV enterprise, Perfect Storm Entertainment a few years ago. The project is based on Lee’s earlier writings which never saw the light of day after his death in 1973, until they were discovered by Shannon Lee, daughter of the iconic film legend and CEO of Bruce Lee Enterprises, prior to jumping aboard with Lin and Wu and introducing it to Cinemax.
The series is another meaty add-on to the forthcoming roster for Cinemax with its currently successful line-up of action-heavy shows with Banshee getting ready for new season and Strike Back premiering its forth and final season soon. The series also serves as a reminder of the prospects that await as Lee herself is getting ready to assemble what she deems as the “definitive” Bruce Lee biopic.
It’s busy times indeed. There’s plenty of Bruce Lee-releated material in development other than the aforementioned, so fans of the late film legend should be quite excited. In the meantime, Lin’s latest producer credit on the June 26 release of American/Asian cross over road comedy, Hollywood Adventures, while his pilot for the second season of True Detective airs on June 21.
Lin is also directing Star Trek 3 which has a July 8, 2016 release.
In seperate TV-related news, NBC has reportedly dropped the pilot for its own series similarly-titled Warrior, which may see its new home at Fox instead.
Stay tuned.