Variety is reporting that Warner Independent Pictures is prepping a remake of the 1973 Bruce Lee vehicle Enter the Dragon.  Kurt Sutter, a writer/producer on the FX network's award-winning series The Shield, is writing the film and will make his directorial debut helming the remake of the film that made Bruce Lee a worldwide star.  Sutter plans to emphasize the noir aspects of this saga of a martial artist who infiltrates a crime empire by participating in brutal underground martial arts fight club events. 

 

The original Enter the Dragon was Hollywood's first Kung Fu movie and the willingness to remake the film signifies growing interest in martial arts cinema on the part of Hollywood's studios.  Earlier this week the Weinstein Company, which has created the Dragon Dynasty label and released new DVD editions of a number of martial arts classics, announced the creation of a $285 million fund for the development of eleven theatrical and ten direct-to-video Asian-themed movies including a live action version of Mulan and new projects from Infernal Affairs co-director Andrew Lau and director/actor Tony Jaa (Ong-Bak; Thai Warrior).