If you’ve never seen one of the previous two Ip Man films, you’ve deprived yourself of some of the best martial arts ass kicking – and punching, oh the punching! – ever caught on film. In the films (at least in the original two; not counting the lesser prequel) martial arts superstar Donnie Yen portrays the titular wing chun master who was not only an actual historical figure, but just so happens to have been the real life master of a certain other martial arts superstar you may have heard of: Bruce Lee.
Up until now, the character of Lee has only appeared in the films as a young boy, but for the upcoming Ip Man 3 Yen and franchise director/producer Wilson Yip have decided to go with the daring route of creating a fully CG rendered adult Lee due to them not finding an actor that could portray the legend to their liking. Whether this works or not is still completely uncertain, as we have yet to see a single frame of the character.
What we do get to see today though, is the first full length trailer which gives us a proper look at the other, possibly even more unbelievable addition to this series: Mike Tyson. The former heavyweight boxing champ and ear d’ouvres connoisseur was Yen’s favourite boxer and so he enticed him into playing the film’s baddie, an American real estate developer who also happens to be a brutal street fighter. Because that makes sense. But who cares about logic when you get a titanic clash like Yen vs Tyson, hey?!
Check it out below!
Damn, I can’t wait for that fight!
Along with the trailer we also have some new images which show off more of Yen and Tyson, along with rising star Max Zhang (The Grandmaster, SPL 2).
UPDATE: Since originally writing this article, it was spotted by Twitchfilm that at the 10-second mark of this trailer, we actually get a very, very brief glimpse of a character that could be the CG Bruce Lee, complete with his trademark nose-thumbing action. And if that is him, then it actually looks surprisingly good!
UPDATE 2: There are now conflicting reports that that is a CG Bruce Lee. IMDB lists Kwok-Kwan Chan (Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle) as playing Lee in the movie, but all the latest news reports and press releases still refer to the CG version. It is known that Bruce Lee’s estate were contesting the use of a fully CG Lee in the movie, so it could be that they came to some compromise and used the young actor who already has quite a resemblance to Lee, but no official announcement has ever been made.
Ip Man 3 opens in Hong Kong on Christmas Day. No word on a further international release yet.
Last Updated: November 12, 2015
CypherGate
November 12, 2015 at 17:42
I am so so so excited for this!!! I really do hope they do justice to this movie and the CG model of Bruce Lee cause its one really tough challenge to pull off convincingly!