Adjustment Bureau director to helm new Hollywood Bruce Lee biopic Birth of the Dragon

George Nolfi, who directed the sci-fi thriller The Adjustment Bureau, is now attached to helm the upcoming Bruce Lee biopic Birth of the Dragon for Groundswell Productions and QED International, Variety reports. Birth of the Dragon will be produced by QED’s Bill Block, Groundswell CEO Michael London, Janice Williams, Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen Rivele, with Kelly Mullen of Groundswell executive producing.

According to the report, producers are looking to start shooting the new film next spring.

Birth of the Dragon is inspired by the true story of Bruce Lee’s historic 1965 fight with Wong Jack Man, China’s most famous kung fu master at a time when San Francisco’s Chinatown was controlled by Hong Kong Triads. The story of the match is told from the perspective of Steve Macklin, a student of Lee’s, who ultimately teams up with Lee and Wong to battle a vicious group of Chinatown gangsters. Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen J. Rivele, writers of the biopics Nixon and Ali, are currently penning the script.

Nolfi previously wrote the films Ocean’s Twelve, The Bourne Ultimatum, Need for Speed, along with The Adjustment Bureau, which he adapted from Philip K. Dick’s novel. Nolfi is also an executive producer on the television series Allegiance, about a young CIA analyst that will air on NBC. He wrote and directed the pilot.

There have previously been a number of biographies completed on Bruce Lee, including Universal Picture’s 1993 film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, which was directed by Rob Cohen and starred Jason Scott Lee as Bruce Lee and Lauren Holly as Linda Lee. Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, executive produced The Legend of Bruce Lee, which originally ran as an extended series on Chinese television and was later shortened for DVD distribution. The Legend of Bruce Lee starred Kwok-Kwan Chan as Bruce Lee and Michelle Lang as Linda Lee.

According to IMDB, Birth of the Dragon is scheduled for release in 2015.