Was Shrine of Ultimate Bliss (Stoner) actually intended to be Bruce Lee's next film?

[Josh Baker]

Was Shrine of Ultimate Bliss (Stoner) actually intended and set up to be Bruce Lee's next film, or is this a story that has been misconstrude over the course of time? I find it hard to believe it was anything more than just an idea/suggestion by Raymond Chow at the time of Lee's passing, with no actual set in stone outline.

What's the actual history behind this? Does anybody know?

Cheers

✌

Edited June 25, 2020 by Josh Baker

[DragonClaws]

On 6/25/2020 at 2:27 PM, Josh Baker said:

What's the actual history behind this? Does anybody know?

 

Here's a few detials from Wikipedia, I cant say how true/authentic this information is?.

 

 

Quote

Originally, The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss was to star not only Lee, but also Japanese film star Sonny Chiba as well. The film was to pit Lee against "The Western Adversary" played by James Bond star George Lazenby. Lazenby had been signed to a multi-picture deal by Lee and Chow during Game of Death and was to star in that film, as well as two subsequent films with Lee. The film's original tagline was "It's Lee! It's Lazenby! It's Bruce Versus Bond!".^{[citation needed]}

Warner Brothers was going to co-produce and distribute the film before Lee's sudden death and was going to give The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss a large worldwide release, a $10,000,000 production budget and a $10,000,000 worldwide marketing budget (which was astronomical at that time – as a comparison the 1974 James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun also a 1974 release had only a $7,000,000 production budget and a $6,000,000 worldwide marketing budget). Forecasts for The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss' worldwide box office gross were around $400,000,000. This based on Lee's previous two films. Enter the Dragon (1973) cost just $850,000 to produce and also had a $10,000,000 worldwide marketing budget, and in turn it grossed more than $265,000,000 worldwide at the box office (through 2006), making it the second highest grossing movie worldwide of the year 1973, behind The Exorcist.^{[citation needed]}

Slource- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shrine_of_Ultimate_Bliss

 

[Josh Baker]

43 minutes ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Here's a few detials from Wikipedia, I cant say how true/authentic this information is?.

 

 

Slource- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shrine_of_Ultimate_Bliss

 

Yeah I dont know if this is the most accurate information,thank you anyway for you help...my original point is that it didnt seem to fit with the timeline and that they would've had all these details ironed out before Bruce died...I dont know though...

[DragonClaws]

10 hours ago, Josh Baker said:

my original point is that it didnt seem to fit with the timeline and that they would've had all these details ironed out before Bruce died...I dont know though...

 

Dont forget the hap hapzard style of filmaking that was popular in Hong Kong at the time. They were often making up the plot/script as a movie was being made.

 

Sonny Chiba was flying to Hong Kong, to talk with Golden Harvest about appearing in the movie.

 

[Josh Baker]

21 minutes ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Dont forget the hap hapzard style of filmaking that was popular in Hong Kong at the time. They were often making up the plot/script as a movie was being made.

 

Sonny Chiba was flying to Hong Kong, to talk with Golden Harvest about appearing in the movie.

 

That is true, but I dont think Chiba signed a contract or anything...at most they were probably in preliminary negotiations 

[Josh Baker]

On a side note I think either way Shrine would've been Bruce's last film for Golden Harvest...he would've jumped ship to do a deal between Warner and Concord as soon as possible, after the massive success of ETD, one that was more financially beneficial to him and wouldnt have included Chow screwing him over, through Lee's own admission. 

I dont know if Chow actually did screw him over, I'm just going by what Lee said.

[Takuma]

On 8/6/2020 at 9:44 PM, Josh Baker said:

That is true, but I dont think Chiba signed a contract or anything...at most they were probably in preliminary negotiations 

I remember Chiba said somewhere that he only learned about Bruce Lee's death when he arrived in Hong Kong.

My personal theory is that he perhaps didn't "fly to Hong Kong for negotiations", but rather they were supposed to meet while Chiba was in Hong Kong for Tokyo Seoul Bangkok Drug Triangle (which was partially filmed in Hong Kong, and which also featured Nora Miao btw although in Thailand scenes only). Tokyo Seoul Bangkok was released in Japan September 15, 1973, which meant that they were probably filming in Hong Kong around July or August (production schedules were extremely quick back then). Lee died July 20, so the time frame matches perfectly.

This is my own speculation, though. I can't find any confirmation one way or the other.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Takuma

[ShawAngela]

2 hours ago, Takuma said:

Tokyo Seoul Bangkok Drug Triangle

Is it the name of the movie ? Is there any dvd release of this movie ? I'm curious about it, knowing that Nora Miao played in it, even if it's a short role, from what I understand.

[Takuma]

7 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

Is it the name of the movie ? Is there any dvd release of this movie ? I'm curious about it, knowing that Nora Miao played in it, even if it's a short role, from what I understand.

There is no physical release available, I'm afraid.

Here's my old review from 2017:

https://sketchesofchiba.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/tokyo-seoul-bangkok-drug-triangle/

[DragonClaws]

On 8/6/2020 at 7:47 AM, Takuma said:

This is my own speculation, though. I can't find any confirmation one way or the other.

 

You might be onto something there, shame we cant ask Sonny Chiba about this subject.

 

 

On 8/6/2020 at 5:44 AM, Josh Baker said:

That is true, but I dont think Chiba signed a contract or anything...at most they were probably in preliminary negotiations 

 

There must have been a lot of projects/offers flying around during at that time.

[Cognoscente]

After being forced to do a movie with a white co-star for ETD, I can't imagine Bruce wanting to do a movie where he's seen to be carried on the shoulders of a former Bond.

[Josh Baker]

4 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

After being forced to do a movie with a white co-star for ETD, I can't imagine Bruce wanting to do a movie where he's seen to be carried on the shoulders of a former Bond.

At least not for an American production that's for sure...

[DragonClaws]

On 8/7/2021 at 11:37 AM, Cognoscente said:

After being forced to do a movie with a white co-star for ETD, I can't imagine Bruce wanting to do a movie where he's seen to be carried on the shoulders of a former Bond.

 

20 hours ago, Josh Baker said:

On 8/7/2021 at 11:37 AM, Cognoscente said:

 

At least not for an American production that's for sure...

 

Some sources say it was a strong candidate for being one of his next movies. After the success of Enter the Dragon, he would have been given a much larger role.

[Cognoscente]

Jim Kelly claimed that Bruce told him that he wanted to cast him in his next movie, or rather his next English language movie if you cast aside the Shaw movie. Perhaps Bruce had big plans for Jim to be in Green Bamboo Warrior.

[DragonClaws]

10 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

Jim Kelly claimed that Bruce told him that he wanted to cast him in his next movie, or rather his next English language movie if you cast aside the Shaw movie. Perhaps Bruce had big plans for Jim to be in Green Bamboo Warrior.

 

He could have worked well in either movie. Which ever project Bruce Lee choose to do, he was about to hit his most active film making years in the mid 70's.

Edited August 8, 2021 by DragonClaws