There's a pretty good chance that you'll get a TV series
in the States called
Is it where, you use, what, the martial arts
-BRUCE LEE: Well-- -in a Western setting?
Uh, that was the original idea.
♪ (WESTERN MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
(SWORD RINGS)
In the late 60s, my father was being considered
for a lead role in a TV series about a martial artist.
He was passed up because it was believed
that a Chinese man could not be a lead.
BRUCE:
Bruce Lee had an accent
and he was as cool as anything gets, but I think
the suits at that time would not have been comfortable
with putting a young Asian American lead on the air.
Business-wise, it's a risk, and I don't blame them,
and I don't blame them. I mean, in the same way,
it's like in Hong Kong, if a foreigner come and be--
and became a star, if I were the-- uh, uh--
the money-- the man with the money,
I probably would have my own worry
of whether or not the acceptance would be there.
And so, he decided to write his own show.
Bruce Lee thought it was time in America
to have a television show about kung fu,
so he had this notion of a show set in America
where a Chinese man comes to America
in search of his sister, and ends up
that fish out of water story about a kung fu prodigy.
It was obviously a martial arts vehicle
for him to star in, and ultimately,
The Warrior
Let me ask you, however, about the problems that you face
as a Chinese hero in an American series.
Have people come up in the industry and said,
"Well, we don't know how the audience
are gonna take a non-American."
Such question has been raised. In fact, it is--
it is being discussed, and that is why
is probably not going to be on.
It was a big disappointment for him.
He was sort of struggling to be accepted in Hollywood,
and be able to make that mark that he really wanted to make.
BRUCE:
I had, uh, heard the urban myth that Bruce Lee had an idea
of doing a Western, and that always kinda stuck with me.
This treatment and the fact
that my father had written this show
was always sort of part of the Bruce Lee lore,
and people who know a bit about Bruce Lee
have heard about this, and Justin was definitely
one of those people. When we got together,
I showed him the drafts of the treatment
and the drawings and all those things.
It was amazing to kind of have experienced and heard the myth
but finally have the typed papers in my hand.
DANIELLE WOODROW:
he had colorful images, he had notes on score.
He has a little moment where he took out a pencil,
colored pencil, and wrote all over one word, "colorful."
He like, literally, changed the word.
Just really great, there was so much life in it.
He's so prolific. There's the eight pages,
but then there's the room full of boxes of writing,
and he was relentless in trying to figure things out
and developing philosophies.
And I knew at that point that if we could build it right,
it was to really honor the spirit
of what he was trying to do.
BRUCE:
SHANNON LEE:
so he was looking at a time frame for this show
that took place in the late 19th century
in San Francisco's Chinatown community.
He was very directed and very focused
about his intention to show
an authentic representation of a Chinese person.
JUSTIN LIN:
those ideas were so ahead of its time,
and I think we wanted to kinda celebrate and embrace that.
Themes of Chinese will be quite interesting
for the next few years.
I mean, not that I'm politically inclining toward anything,
-you know what I'm saying? -PIERRE BERTON: I understand that,
-I'm just wondering-- -But I mean, once the opening
(STAMMERING) of-- of China, you know.
I mean, that, it will bring more understanding.
-BERTON: Yeah. -More things that are, hey,
like different, you know.
And maybe in the contrast of comparison,
some new thing might grow,
so therefore, I mean, it's a very rich period to be in.
Though it's like 40 years later, we wanted to make sure
the spirit of what he was doing was captured,
and that the process also kinda mirrors
what he was trying to do.
SHANNON:
so I was very young, but I am so grateful
for the fact that he was such an expressive human being.
I have all of these writings and interviews and footage
and things that really give me a glimpse into who he was
as a human being, what his process was,
what he thought, what he believed.
-(LAUGHS)
to see this show come to fruition,
and to be able to honor my father
and his legacy in this way
is more meaningful than there are words to say.
(SWORD RINGS)