It's been 3 weeks since EL CARTEL was passed off back to the inhouse writers and I haven't been given any work by the studio. But luckily, my old boss called me that very same night to hire me for another new project, one that I truly love.Other than the time I was hired to write the Tagalog scripts of SLAM DUNK, I don't think I ever wrote another script that I was such a fanboy about.
THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE is a drama series produced in mainland China about the life of the legend, the martial arts man himself, BRUCE LEE. I first heard of this series when I was watching the Discovery Channel, they held a huge competition in China called "The Next Kung Fu Star" and the winner was going to star as the lead in this show.
When I found out the studio bought this series to be dubbed, I was quite excited, but when I found out that they hired another writer for the Tagalog version, I was pretty disappointed. But I was glad to find out that they wanted me for the English version. Although out of the 30 episodes, I was only tasked to write 6, I had the most fun writing a script in such a long time! After writing for a year about romantic couples facing all sorts of adversity and drug dealing traitors ratting each other out to the DEA, I'm finally writing about something I have been fascinated with all my life - Kung Fu on the big screen and Bruce Lee.
The show had a lot of interesting stories and factors that any fanboy would love. People from his real life were had onscreen presence, from his wife Linda, his son Brandon and daughter Shannon, friends and students Taky Kimura, Jesse Glover and Filipino friend Dan Inosanto [who was played by a Chinese guy, WTF! If you know nothing about Bruce Lee, you'd never guess this character was Filipino], including his nemesis opponents in the martial arts world like kenpo master Ed Parker and wing chun grandmaster Wong Jack Man! I had a blast researching my facts and names of real people in his life, I never had so many notes in my scripts explaining martial art disciplines, moves, techniques, and even philosophical inferences.
The show also had Hollywood actors playing roles, Michael Jai White was in it, Gary Daniels and Ray Park [who played Chuck Norris] are some of the big names in this show. And Linda Lee's actress looks a lot like Kelli Williams [Lindsay Dole] of THE PRACTICE.
I was also glad that my coworkers liked my script. Well, they said they did. They said it was so obvious I was a Bruce Lee fanatic. Some of them even asked for copies of his movies, which I was happy to oblige. Anytime you meet someone with similar interests as you can't be all bad... besides, some of them wanted it so they can study their roles. So I also made them copies of whatever Bruce Lee bios and docus I had. And over the years, there were quite a few of them.
And I was glad that the translation they provided was pretty decent. I wasn't given fansubs on a bootleg burned DVD this time, and I truly appreciate that. I never approved of using fansubs for dubbing of legally acquired shows. I always believed they should spring for decent translations and do it right.
My last episode is due monday... I sure wish there was more. But it was definitely fun while it lasted.
