The last time we saw Donnie Yen as Wing Chun master Ip Man, he was fighting a fictional boxer played by the late English actor Darren Shahlavi.
For the upcoming third instalment of the movie, Donnie Yen will reprise his role as the legendary martial artist. This time, however, he’ll be paired with real-life (albeit former) boxer, Mike Tyson.
Pegasus Motion Pictures announced that the heavyweight pugilist and aspiring Hollywood star, with roles in “Scary Movie 5” and the “Hangover” series, has signed on for “Ip Man 3.”
Tyson will apparently play a property developer who moonlights as a street fighter. We all know it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there and only the strong with good property portfolios survive.
Ip Man, AKA Yip Man, was a Chinese martial artist who popularised Wing Chun, with one of his most famous pupils being Bruce Lee. Ip was born in Guangdong but moved to Hong Kong and opened Wing Chun schools in 1949.
Producer Raymond Wong reportedly came up with the idea of having Yen and Tyson duke it out on the big screen after a social media conversation between Tyson and Weibo fans two years ago, when the boxer asked, “Who is the best fighter in China?”
Someone, naturally, answered: “Donnie Yen.”
According to Hollywood Reporter, Wong said that there will be some “explosive” fight scenes between Yen and Tyson.
We are, however, far more interested in the on-screen chemistry between Master Ip and a young Bruce Lee, who will apparently be computer generated.
That’s either going to be awesome or eye-gouging.
Principal photography for the USD36 million movie is set to start today in Shanghai. According to IMDB, the movie will be released in Hong Kong in December of this year.
We can’t wait!
Photo: Eduardo Merille via Flickr
