Production begins on 'The Legend of Chen Zhen'.

Production of The Legend of Chen Zhen began this week with the usual press conference launch on Sunday.

Donnie Yen will play the lead character, "I have played Chen Zhen on Fist of Fury TV series 15 years ago, so I'm particularly ambitious about this role. In terms of action, I have confidence of presenting a whole new Chen Zhen. I hope this will engender another wave of wushu trend, and hope for this to become a classic."

Excellent. We all know Yen's admiration for Bruce Lee and his previous experience with the role so we thought this film was heading in the right direction. Until...

Andrew Lau describes the main character as a superhero, one who is not only a master of martial arts, but will transform himself, taking up the onus of saving the entire city. And it will combine Donnie Yen style kungfu with special effects to create a superhero film. Gordon Chan says that this is not a remake, but a reinvention of the fictitious character.

The Fist of Fury / Fist of Legend story ends with Chen staging his own death to achieve peace for his people before being whisked away to live out his life in hiding. And that's where Andrew Lau comes in ...

According to WuJing.org this new story picks up seven years later with Chen returning to once again struggle against Chinese collusion with the Japanese, with the collaboration this time occurring in the criminal underworld. Also playing key roles will be Shu Qi and Anthony Wong while Gordon Chan serves as producer. Martial arts choreography? That's being handled by Yen himself and given how much Donnie idolizes Bruce Lee I think it's probably time to dust off the original film to see where he's going with this ...