Promo Art Revealed For Wong Kar-Wai’s ‘The Grand Master,’ Iconic Martial Arts Actor Bruce Leung Joins Film

Here’s a look at some early promo art for Wong Kar-Wai’s forthcoming biopic of legendary Wing Chun performer, the Ip Man, titled “The Grand Master.”

Starring regular Wong collaborator Tony Leung Chiu-wai as the titular character, best known as a mentor of the late Bruce Lee, the film began shooting last December after a training accident delayed the planned September start. As of June this year however, casting calls were still being put out for future shooting — clearly evidence of Wong’s slow and methodical production techniques.

As well as Leung Chiu-wai, Wong has put together a strong cast including Zhang Ziyi (“Memoirs of A Geisha,” “House of Flying Daggers,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), who replaced Brigitte Lin as Ip’s wife, as well as the likes of Zhao Benshan, Song-Hye-kyo, Julian Cheun Chi-lam and Chang Chen. Another late addition to cast is iconic martial arts actor Bruce Leung, who revealed in an interview last month that he will play one of the masters of Wing Chun. Leung appeared in a significant number of martial arts pictures throughout the ’70s and ’80s and also featured in Stephen Chow’s 2004 action-comedy “Kung Fu Hustle.”

It remains to be seen if/when production will even conclude so it’s probably far too early to discuss theatrical releases. That said, though, a Lunar New Year release in China has been long rumored. If so, Cannes 2011?