Greg Berlanti Piloting A Remake Of 70’s Series ‘Kung Fu’ With Female Lead For Fox
Another day, another remake. This time it’s 70’s martial arts/western series ‘Kung Fu’ that’s getting a reboot, and it’s coming from Arrowverse master Greg Berlanti.
According to Deadline, the series will be a sequel to the original show which starred David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin monk who treks around 1880s old west America in search of his half-brother, armed only with his skill in martial arts and Taoist wisdom.
The new iteration will be set in the 1950’s and follow Lucy Chang, a Buddhist monk and kung fu master who travels America searching for the man who stole her child years before. She forms an unlikely alliance with Korean War vet JT Cullen and they travel the country, lending aid to people in need, whilst searching for her offspring.
The original series ran from 1972 to 1975, with a movie following in 1986. There was then an attempt to reboot the franchise in 1987 with Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee) playing the great-grandson of Kwai Chang Caine in ‘Kung Fu: The Next Generation’, but it failed to make it past a pilot. That was followed in 1993 with ‘Kung Fu: The Legend Continues’, which saw Carradine return, but playing the grandson of the original Caine. That version ran for 4 seasons.
On an interesting sidenote, Bruce Lee was originally considered for the role of Caine, but lost out to Carradine. There were accusations in the memoirs of Lee’s widow, Linda Lee Cadwell, that he had actually come up with the idea for the show the year before, but it was stolen by WB. This was never actually proven, and something Ed Spielman, creator of ‘Kung Fu’ strenuously refuted. He was actually preparing a lawsuit against Universal after the allegations surfaced again in 1993 movie ‘The Bruce Lee Story’. But after the death of Bruce, and then his son Brandon dying in a tragic on-set accident, Spielman decided not to pursue it further as he felt Linda had “lost enough” and he didn’t want to add to her pain. Whatever happens in the casting this time around, it’s extremely likely it will be an Asian actor in the lead role for the first time.
‘Kung Fu’ is being written by longtime ‘Arrow’ writer Wendy Mericle who will also exec producer alongside Berlanti, and Sarah Schechter from Warner Bros TV. The show has a ‘put pilot’ order, meaning Fox pay a penalty if it fails to make it to air.
