Andrew Koji is the lead role in 'Warrior,' the Bruce Lee-inspired action series.
ASAM NEWS After just three episodes, Cinemax has given the green light to Warrior for a second season, Deadline reported The show from director Justin Lin and Banshee co-creator Jonathan Tropper is inspired by the late Bruce Lee, whose dream for the program died when his life was cut short.
The story is based on writings of the martial arts legend and pushed forward by his daughter, Shannon Lee.
“Bruce Lee’s vision is alive and well,” said Len Amato, president of HBO Films. “Warrior combines high-energy martial arts with wit and brains. We’re thrilled to renew such a great show for a second season on Cinemax.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a renewal after just three episodes is extremely quick.
Warrior is set around the tong wars in Chinatown in the late 1800s. It's cast is dominated by Asian actors, that include Andrew Koji, Jason Tobin, Olivia Cheng and Dianne Doan.
Here's a first look at the official trailer for the upcoming Warrior series inspired by the notes of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee and -- I can't wait -- it looks awesome.
Set at the times of the Tong Wars in the late 1800s in San Francisco, the series follows a martial arts prodigy originating in China who moves to San Francisco and ends up becoming a hatchet man for the most powerful tong in Chinatown.
“As Warrior comes together, I can’t help but feel the pride of correcting a wrong and helping bring Bruce Lee’s dream project to life,” said director Justin Lin. “We have assembled a cast of incredible actors from all over the world including our talented lead, Andrew Koji, an exciting discovery out of the UK," Lin told Deadline.
“The martial arts genre a lot of times has been relegated to B-level action. And that’s not something we wanted to do. Going off of Bruce Lee’s original material, we wanted to build something that is character-driven, that has important themes and that also takes place in a part of American history that rarely gets talked about. That to me makes it something you haven’t seen before.”
From what we've seen, the martial arts action could rival that of Into the Badlands, which takes place in a dystopian future of America and stars Daniel Wu.
The premiere on the Cinemax network is set for April 5 and has initially been set for 10 episodes. Gearing up for the Warrior's premiere, Cinemax produced this great little 4-minute documentary on the iconic Bruce Lee. Enjoy!
Andrew Koji will play the lead character in 'Warrior.'
IT LOOKS like another Asian-themed TV series with Asian/Asian American characters is going to be a hit based on its pedigree and a 'teaser' trailer released last week. Cinemax just released a "Teaser" of Warrior series that will hit the small screen in 2019 and it looks powerful.
Justin Lin (Fast & Furious), who is co-executive producer with Bruce Lee's daughter Shannon Lee, will be directing some of the episodes (but, not the pilot) Here's the official synopsis:
“Inspired by an idea from martial-arts legend Bruce Lee, this gritty, action- packed crime drama is set during the brutal Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century. Filming in Cape Town, South Africa, it follows a martial arts prodigy who immigrates from China to San Francisco under mysterious circumstances, and becomes a hatchet man for one of Chinatown’s most powerful organized crime families. Produced for CINEMAX by Perfect Storm Entertainment, Tropper Ink Productions and Bruce Lee Entertainment; created and executive produced by Jonathan Tropper under Tropper Ink Productions; Justin Lin and Danielle Woodrow executive produce on behalf of Perfect Storm Entertainment; Shannon Lee executive produces for Bruce Lee Entertainment.”
The late martial arts icon, Bruce Lee, had created the project for Warner Bros. but the studio, saddled with a lack of imagination, rejected it. He kept the rejected project in the family garage and the treatment was considered lost. The project was meant to serve as a precursor to a the 1970s Warner Bros. television series “Kung Fu,” which was also Bruce Lee's idea but, we know how that racist miscasting went.
“As Warrior comes together, I can’t help but feel the pride of correcting a wrong and helping bring Bruce Lee’s dream project to life,” Lin told Deadline. “We have assembled a cast of incredible actors from all over the world including our talented lead, Andrew Koji, an exciting discovery out of the UK."
“The martial arts genre a lot of times has been relegated to B-level action," addied Lin. "And that’s not something we wanted to do. Going off of Bruce Lee’s original material, we wanted to build something that is character-driven, that has important themes and that also takes place in a part of American history that rarely gets talked about. That to me makes it something you haven’t seen before.”
According to Deadline, the cast includes Andrew Koji as Ah Sahm, a martial arts prodigy who travels from China to San Francisco and ends up becoming a hatchet man for the most powerful tong in Chinatown; Olivia Cheng as Ah Toy, Chinatown’s most accomplished courtesan and madame; Jason Tobin as Young Jun, the hard-partying son of a powerful tong boss; Dianne Doan as Mai Ling, a beautiful and ruthless Chinese woman who, through sheer force of will, has achieved a position of power in one of the tongs; Kieran Bew as Officer “Big Bill” O’Hara, a hard-drinking Irish cop charged with forming a Chinatown squad; and Dean Jagger as Dan Leary, the unofficial godfather of the Irish community of San Francisco and leader of the Workingmen’s party.
Shannon Lee told the Los Angeles Times that she was excited to see where the show was headed. “Season 1 is just the beginning. We’ll hopefully get the opportunity to play the long game here and really get into some extremely interesting stuff, which we already have planned.”
Andrew Koji and Olivia Cheng will head the Warrior cast
THE LATE BRUCE LEE's idea for about a martial arts expert in the Old West is on its way to becoming a TV series thanks to Justin Lin, who has been working on the project for four years.
“As Warrior comes together, I can’t help but feel the pride of correcting a wrong and helping bring Bruce Lee’s dream project to life,” Lin said. “We have assembled a cast of incredible actors from all over the world including our talented lead, Andrew Koji, an exciting discovery out of the UK.
Cinemax has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to 19th century crime drama titled Warrior, according to Deadline. Inspired by the writings and work of martial arts icon Bruce Lee, the series is slated to begin production on Oct. 22 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Warrior is described as "a gritty, action-packed crime drama set during the brutal Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century. The series follows Ah Sahm, a martial arts prodigy who immigrates from China to San Francisco under mysterious circumstances, and becomes a hatchet man for one of Chinatown’s most powerful tongs (Chinese organized crime family)."
The cast includes Koji as Ah Sahm, a martial arts prodigy who travels from China to San Francisco and ends up becoming a hatchet man for the most powerful tong in Chinatown; Olivia Cheng as Ah Toy, Chinatown’s most accomplished courtesan and madame; Jason Tobin as Young Jun, the hard-partying son of a powerful tong boss; Dianne Doan as Mai Ling, a beautiful and ruthless Chinese woman who, through sheer force of will, has achieved a position of power in one of the tongs.
Justin Lin
The show was developed based on handwritten notes from Bruce Lee that were brought to light by his daughter, Shannon Lee.
“As a show that proudly bears the imprimatur of Bruce Lee, it’s our intention to deliver not only explosive martial arts action – which we will – but also a powerful and complex immigration drama that is as relevant today as it was in the 1870s,” Jonathan Tropper told Deadline in a statement.
“I’ve always admired Bruce Lee for his trailblazing efforts opening doors for Asians in entertainment and beyond,” said Lin.
Growing up as a Bruce Lee fan, I've heard the stories that the martial artist had a concept for TV that would have starred Lee. As I heard the story, Hollywood decision makers didn't think U.S. audiences would accept an Asian leading man. As the story goes, Lee's concept was intriguing enough that someone "thought up" a show starring a white actor pretending to be Asian. The result was Kung Fu starring David Carradine.
“When Shannon shared with us her father’s writings: rich with Lee’s unique philosophies on life, and through a point of view rarely depicted on screen – Danielle and I knew that Perfect Storm had to make it," said Lin.
“The martial arts genre a lot of times has been relegated to B-level action," said Lin, who is best known for his work the Fast and Furious franchise and Star Trek Beyond movie. "And that’s not something we wanted to do. Going off of Bruce Lee’s original material, we wanted to build something that is character-driven, that has important themes and that also takes place in a part of American history that rarely gets talked about. That to me makes it something you haven’t seen before.” A premiere date for Warrior has not been announced, but it’s expected to launch in late 2018/early 2019. ________________________________________________________________________________
Left to right: Vera Sung, Jill Sung and Thomas Sung,
DO YOU LIKE David and Goliath stories? How about stories about injustice? Scapegoating? Racism? Put them all together and you get a story - the American Dream turned into a nightmare for a Chinese/American family.
Contrary to popular belief, the government did go after one bank in the mortgage loan crisis that brought the U.S. to the Great Recession.
You've heard of the investment bankers, Countrywide, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and the bundlers on Wall Street.
The government chose to make an example of Abacus Federal Savings Bank, a privately owned bank that serves New York's Chinese community. It is the 2,531 largest bank in the country.
Its story, "Abacus: Small Enough Jail" will air tonight in a documentary on Frontline (check your local listings.)
“We are pleased that this story will have a chance to reach an even wider audience,” says Thomas Sung, the founder of Abacus Federal Savings Bank. “For us, this was never just the story of our family bank. It’s a cautionary tale about the larger struggle for justice in our community.”
It’s a little-known chapter from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression: In 2009, shortly after the housing market crashed and the markets melted down, the owners of a small community bank in New York City’s Chinatown discovered fraud within their loan department.
The bank’s owners, the Chinese/American Sung family, fired a loan officer — and reported the fraud to their regulators at the federal Office of Thrift Supervision.
But two-and-a-half years later, the bank was accused of mortgage fraud by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office — making Abacus Federal Savings the only U.S. bank to be prosecuted in relation to the financial collapse and the first bank indicted in New York since 1991.
Why did Abacus face charges, while the biggest banks on Wall Street all avoided prosecution for fraud related to the sale of bad mortgages?
That’s the question at the heart of Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, the newest film from acclaimed documentary director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters). Fresh off of a robust international film festival run and national theatrical release, the documentary has its national broadcast premiere tonight on FRONTLINE.
In vivid detail, Abacus chronicles the Sung family’s quest to clear their names, the district attorney’s case against the bank — and how 19 of the bank’s ex-employees, largely immigrants, were treated by the justice system.
In the attached clip, go inside the day of the indictment, when 12 ex-employees of the bank who refused to plead guilty were arraigned, handcuffed to each other, and in the words of one of their attorneys, “herded like cattle” down courthouse hallways.
“Reporters in this town were treated to this extraordinary photo opportunity, this almost Stalinist looking chain gang” of Asian Americans, says journalist Matt Taibbi.
The Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr., says there were security issues behind the decision to march the former employees through the court’s hallways in handcuffs. “It was very unfortunate, but it happened,” said Vance.
But others who were there say the move was designed to humiliate.
“They actually staged it so much so that three of the people that were in that chain had already been arraigned, had already posted bond and were out awaiting trial,” investigative journalist David Lindorf says in the above clip from Abacus.
For one observer, the scene was particularly personal.
“I had never seen that in my entire time at the DA’s office,” says Chanterelle Sung, whose father, Thomas, is the bank’s founder. She had worked at the office as a prosecutor for seven years — in the very division that would end up prosecuting her family’s bank.
The story has attracted the attention of Hollywood director Justin Lin who wants turn it into a feature movie. “This is a quintessential American story told from a point of view that is rarely seen on screen. The Sung family’s collective act of courage needs to be told, especially now,” said Lin.
Get the full story on the case against Abacus, how the trial played out, and what it all says about America’s financial and justice systems in "Abacus: Small Enough to Jail," premiering tonight, Tuesday, Sept.12 at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. CST on PBS stations (check local listings) and online.
Actress Fan Bingbing depicted Empress Wu Zetian in an earlier movie.
TWO NEW television shows with Asian or Asian/American casts are in various stages of production.
EMPRESS: New 'Game of Thrones?'
Game of Thrones producer Christopher Newman isn't waiting until that fantasy drama to end in a couple of years. He's looking at the story of Wu Zetian, China's only female empress.
Empress will tell the storied tale of the only female empress in the history of China — Wu Zetian, who ruled during the Tang dynasty (618-906 A.D.), a time of relative freedom for women. The proposed series will follow her ascent through the court of Emperor Tai Tsung; life as his favorite concubine — and ultimately her rise to power.
Newman has signed a deal with Starlight Media and K. Jam Media to develop and produce Empress, which has been commissioned as a 13-episode drama. Producers
The $70 million production is currently uncast and is set to begin in Sichuan, China, in late 2017 with a premiere eyed for 2018.
WARRIOR: Bruce Lee project
Cinemax has given a pilot order to Warrior, a crime drama based on original material written by Bruce Lee. Warrior has been a passion project for both the late martial arts icon's daughter and Fast & Furious director Justin Lin who is executive producing the pilot with an eye to direct, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the aftermath of the Civil War, Warrior tells the story of a young martial arts prodigy, newly arrived from China, who finds himself caught up in the bloody Chinatown Tong wars.
The story is based on notes left behind by the late martial artist and discovered by his daughter Shannon Lee, who also acting as a co-producer.
