The Early 1970s Era

[commander0077again]

(Bruce) Lee, of course, was scheduled to appear in TMWTGG as the Lt. Hip character ... he would have overshadowed Sir Roger.

Excuse me, commander0077again, but where exactly did you come up with THAT little factoid? Because I don't believe any of it for a second, thanks to a useful little thing I call common sense that wins out over this trend of wishful thinking that I'm seeing far to much of on this Board lately. So unless YOU have an actual reference link to verify this as an actual FACT rather than just a wish, I'm just not interested.

Yesh, Barry, I thought this was rather well known in the Bond community. I've read it in numerous sources over the years. Will try to ferret them out. In the meantime, for those who may be interested in the interim: 1/ at the time Bruce Lee was on the verge of being the highest paid movie star in the world; for his first (and only)American-made production, Enter the Dragon his salary exceeded Steve McQueen's, the reigning box office champ. The two were friends, and there was a professional rivalry. Suddenly, Steve's friend and sometime martial arts teacher was going to dislodge him! (they were so close that when Lee was struggling in Hollywood, McQueen offered to buy a house for him; Lee refused, but McQueen did direct his business manager to help Lee find a property. 2/ Also at this time Lee was being approached by Italian producer Carlo Ponti to star with Sofia Loren 3/ even Elvis' people were approaching him to co-star in an action film; but that would be in the back burner, since that would be like Lee starring with Elvis in a musical. Added to all the above, of course Lee was a hot property worldwide, even before ETD was released (he, of course died before its release), but one can surmise even from this circumstantial evidence that EON very well knew who Bruce Lee was; they wanted to cash in the latest craze; we can see 007 had a side kick in Lt. Hip. 'Obviously' if the biggest martial arts star (and soon box office champ) in the world appeared in a Bond picture, that would be a big feather in EON's cap. As Robert Clouse (and others), the director of ETD said, "If Bruce had lived he would've been untouchable. He really could do it, unlike other action stars." It's sort of like seeing Sean Connery and Jackie Stewart together. We love Sir Sean, but certainly, in the real life magnetism department, JS is much nearer to a 'Bond.' Also, I am going to insert a nugget that may be some 00s' minds ... whether Lee was the real thing. For starters, you can look up boxing great and boxing historian Sugar Ray Leonard. In interviews (video, too) he says, "Look up 'icon' in the dictionary. That's Bruce Lee.... he was so fast, so charismatic..." (He derived his jab from watching Lee's films).

[Kristatos]

Certainly, I've heard this rumour before. I don't know if there's any truth in it (I suspect not, given Lee's stature at a time when the Bond films were cutting back their budgets), but it's not something that the commander just pulled out of his ass. It would have been nice to see all three Lee brothers (Bruce, Christopher and Bernard) together in the same film.

[Count_Lippe]

Bruce Lee died in July 1973, so it's probably just a rumour that he was to appear in The Man with the Golden Gun.

Live and Let Die premiered in June 1973 so they couldn't already have decided about casting in the next film?

[commander0077again]

Well, I've emailed some Bruce Lee historians, and see what they can recollect. It would be interesting to contact George Lazenby. He arrived in Hong Kong probably early 1973. Now, again, I will recollect magazine article(s) I've read on this: George said he arrived with basically just a toothbrush (of course, being humorous), and went to Lee's film company, Golden Harvest. Lee wasn't the first person he saw, an executive. OHMSS happened to be playing in HK at the time. So someone found Lee and asked him, "Hey, you want to meet James Bond?" One funny story is that Lee was driving around and Lazenby was waiting at a bus stop. "George! What are you doing waiting for a bus?" and picked him up. On the casting of TMWTGG. It's certainly likely that EON was throwing around names in 1972-73. Note that LALD ran with the 'Blaxploitation film' and TMWTGG would feature the latest craze, kung fu films, so it's not a big stretch to be the fly on the wall at EON: Executive to Cubby: "Do you know about Bruce Lee?" "What, do think I live in a cave? Yeah, I know where you're going. OK, let's brainstorm on this....." Exec: "He's on everyone's radar in Hollywood. And, guess what, George Lazenby --" "George!" "Yes, George ... is going to co-star in Lee's next film." "What the ....!?" Cubby gets on the phone: "Who's the writers for Moore #2?" Reply: "Blah blah blah...." Cubby: "Have them come in, with some ideas on Bruce Lee." On phone: "Holy moly, Bruce Lee! I was just on the phone with Hong Kong, he's taken over the entire Asian market, do you know that he's doing something with Warner Bros.?" Cubby: "Do you think I live in a cave?" (Commander0077 apologizes for running off at the brain... )

[Count_Lippe]

My impression is that Bruce Lee was a big star mostly on the Asian market before the release of Enter the Dragon, although his films The Big Boss and Fist of Fury were exported to western markets (or Fists of Fury and The Chinese Connection as they were called in America) and were shown in grindhouse theaters.

Enter the Dragon made Bruce Lee a big star in the west also, although at this time he was already dead.

That the Bond producers would want Bruce Lee in their upcoming film even before he was a big name in the west is unlikely I think.

The martial arts genre as a whole had been a popular movie genre since 1970-71 (there were many other films besides the ones with Lee) but were restricted to grindhouse theaters in the west.

It's possible the Bond producers wanted to include some kung fu movie touches in one of their films even before Enter the Dragon became such a hit, but it's more likely that this came about after that film had been shown in the west. Enter the Dragon is said to have been the film that singlehandedly started the kung fu movie craze in the west.

George Lazenby was to star in one of Lee's films, but since Lee died this was not to be. Lazenby did make movies with two other big names in the Hong Kong film industry though. He did The Man from Hong Kong with Jimmy Wang Yu, who had been in a series of successful kung fu movies. And he did Stoner with Angela Mao Ying, who played Bruce Lee's sister in Enter the Dragon, and who had also been in a series of successful kung fu movies. She was even nicknamed the "Queen of Kung Fu movies". Lazenby also did a film with both of these people called A Queen's Ransom.

[commander0077again]

Referring to what is known as 'Hollywood buzz' Hollywood (and world cinema) is a 'small town' in that everyone knows what's hot; Lee got very big in Asia in a couple of years. By the time Warner Bros. had signed him, he was on everyone's radar (at risk of repeating myself); the fact that his salary was bigger than Steve McQueen acknowledges this. I read interviews of Enter the Dragon filmmakers ... when it was completed (but didn't even have a score) Warner Bros. execs went bananas. You can be sure that at least by that time, the 'buzz' was on. Hollywood knew what they had. I think a similar case could be said when Dr. No was completed, the studio knew what they had, even though its star was not a major name at the time. Imagine if Sean Connery was already the biggest name in Europe, for example. That would just add more buzz: "This is a great film, and we have this star who's going to break big worldwide." Even before ETD was filmed, when it was announced Warner Bros. was in the picture, Lee's star went nova.... of course, if he had lived it would've gone to super nova.

[Count_Lippe]

You're just making things up commander0077again.

Enter the Dragon was a low budget production, because most people at Warner Bros didn't believe in the project, that became a massive hit.

Bruce Lee wasn't on everyone's radar in Hollywood, he was fairly well known though since he'd already been in the American TV series The Green Hornet before he went to Hong Kong.

I've never heard he got a higher salary (for Enter the Dragon) than Steve McQueen, but I read somewhere he would have been the highest paid actor for some upcoming film.

I've also never heard of any plans to cast Bruce Lee in a James Bond film.

I think somebody must have gotten things mixed up, former James Bond Lazenby was to be in a Bruce Lee film, not Bruce Lee was to be in a James Bond film.

[Barry Niven]

And more importantly, Bruce Lee was so deeply driven and ambitious about doing his own thing by then that there's no way he would've regressed to the demeaning role of a SIDEKICK in a James Bond movie, "International Exposure" or not. Especially after his own disenchantment with Hollywood's *limited* opportunities for him that drove Lee back to Hong Kong in the first place. Hell, Lee even got to Direct Way of the Dragon where he defeated Chuck Norris. CHUCK NORRIS. And you expect a Rising Star like Bruce Lee to go from THAT to an ineffectual, non-descript, Asian equivalent of Felix Leiter in TMWTGG? I don't think so.

So once again, still not buying any of this wishful-thinking "what-ifs?" from all these alleged "sources" and "insiders" who I don't know, never met, and aren't convincing me with what amounts to little more than third-hand heresay. I'll stick with my own internal bull$#!+ detector, thank you very much.

[commander0077again]

Well, (he said thickly) at least M is in my camp: "If 0077 said he read it, that's good enough for me." Of course, just because something is in print doesn't make it so; at the time it struck me as credible, because of the interviewee's credentials. Will just have to see what Z Branch comes up with. One interesting lead is around 1972 James Coburn flew to Hong Kong with a 20th Century Fox executive to meet with Lee to pitch a film to him.

http://www.bruceleedaily.com This site is 'new' to me, although I've seen the Coburn story in other places.

[commander0077again]

Not to beat a dead horse, since this is a Bond site ... but I've just received an email from a Lee historian; I don't know if I should disclose his name without permission. I'll just say that he has top credentials as a researcher. He writes that he hasn't heard anything about BL being approached by EON. However, he does agree that BL was definitely on the 'radar' of filmmakers: 1/ Carlo Ponti offered him $2 million to appear in 'anything.' What would $2M 1972 be in today's money? 2/ Warner Bros. offered BL a contract for life! (the exclamation point is a direct quote, as is his parting shot: "So you are right about BL being on the radar."

[Count_Lippe]

Re Carlo Ponti, he was an Italian producer, and remember Lee filmed Way of the Dragon in Rome as well, maybe they even met?

Ponti did 2-3 movies in Italy that mixed martial arts and spaghetti western or martial arts and comedy in the early 70s. Italy had a large genre movie industry in the 60s and 70s as you perhaps know.

Ponti probably wanted to include Lee in one of his films of this kind, and this could also have been successful by the way.

There were even films co-produced by studios in Cinecitta Rome and studios in Hong Kong in the 70s.