Bruce Lee reportedly had a sixth kung fu film in the works prior to his death in 1973. Lee became a household name thanks to his starring role in ground-breaking martial arts films. The icon passed away in July of that year, prior to the completion of what would have been his fifth foray into the genre.
Lee, who had a career as a child actor in Hong Kong, moved to the United States in the early 1960s and struggled to get roles in American movies. After giving up on Hollywood, Lee returned to Hong Kong. While there, he made a name for himself with starring roles in The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, and Way of the Dragon for Golden Harvest, a Kong Hong studio known for producing kung fu movies. He was in the process of making yet another Golden Harvest film, Game of Death, when he was offered the lead role in Warner Bros.’ Enter the Dragon. Following Lee’s sudden death, Enter the Dragon was released posthumously in August 1973, and Game of Death was completed without him years later.
According to those with knowledge of Lee’s life, the actor had other projects in the works that would have proceeded Game of Death and Enter the Dragon. Lee biographer Bruce Thomas explains in his book, Bruce Lee: Fighting Words, that during the month before his death, the actor was in the midst of working out a deal to make a movie with Shaw Brothers Studios, which was Golden Harvest’s biggest rival in the kung fu movie industry. These negotiations occurred despite the fact that Lee was running a production company with Golden Harvest founder, Raymond Chow.
The title of the film was said by some to be Seven Sons of the Jade Dragon, but this has never been confirmed. It’s believed that the plot would have seen Bruce Lee play eight different roles, one being a father, and the other seven being his sons. Lee’s Shaw Brothers movie would have been a costume period piece, which would have been a new kind of project for the actor, but not at all surprising or unusual for the studio. In the 1970s and 1980s, Shaw Brothers had a reputation for pumping out costume period pieces packed with long and well-choreographed kung fu sequences, and plenty of sword-fighting. Though these were incredibly common in the 1970s, Lee never did get to make one of these films, as his movies were a bit more modern.
With that in mind, a Bruce Lee project from Shaw Brothers would have been an interesting experience to watch. Shaw Brothers launched a number of big names who are now favorites of kung fu movie fans, including Lo Lieh, Cheng Pei-pei, Ti Lung, the Venom Mob, Alexander Fu Sheng, and Gordon Liu; however, the studio never did get to make a movie with the genre’s biggest icon. That being said, before signing a contract with Golden Harvest, Lee actually did attempt to work with Shaw Brothers, but ultimately didn’t because he didn’t consider their original offer satisfactory. It seems that when Lee’s career took off, Shaw Brothers expressed greater interest in him. Given Shaw Brothers’ position in the industry, the studio making a movie with Bruce Lee certainly feels like something that was bound to happen at one point or another. With both being of vast importance in the history of kung fu movies, this would have been a dream partnership for martial arts fans.