Chinese Studios Reveal Plans for AI-Powered Remakes of Classic Kung Fu Movies from Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li

Hollywood studios and craftspeople may be busy agonizing over the proper role of AI’s potential within the film industry, but Chinese studios aren’t slowing down.

Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li and a legion of the all-time greats of martial cinema are about to get an AI makeover. In a sign-of-the-times announcement at the Shanghai International Film Festival on Thursday, a collection of Chinese studios revealed that they are turning to AI to re-imagine around 100 classics of the genre.

Lee’s classic Fist of Fury (1972), Chan’s breakthrough Drunken Master (1978) and the Tsui Hark-directed epic Once Upon a Time in China (1991), which turned Li into a bone fide movie star, are among the features poised for the treatment, as part of the “Kung Fu Movie Heritage Project 100 Classics AI Revitalization Project.”

There will also be a digital reworking of the John Woo classic A Better Tomorrow (1986) that, by the looks of the trailer, turns the money-burning anti-hero originally played by Chow Yun-fat into a cyberpunk, and is being claimed as “the world’s first full-process, AI-produced animated feature film.”

The big guns of the Chinese industry were out in force on the sidelines of the 27^th Shanghai International Film Festival to make the announcements, too.

They were led by Zhang Pimin, chairman of the China Film Foundation, who said AI work on these “aesthetic historical treasures” would give them a new look that “conforms to contemporary film viewing.”

“It is not only film heritage, but also a brave exploration of the innovative development of film art,” Zhang said.

Tian Ming, chairman of project partners Shanghai Canxing Culture and Media, meanwhile, promised the work – expected to include upgrades in image and sound as well as overall production levels – while preserving the storytelling and aesthetic of the originals– would both “pay tribute to the original work” and “reshape the visual aesthetics.”

“We sincerely invite the world’s top AI animation companies to jointly start a film revolution that subverts tradition,” said Tian, who announced a fund of 100 million yuan ($13.9 million) would be implemented to kick-start the work.

Project partners also include the China Film Foundation’s Film and Urban Development Special Fund, and Quantum Animation, the studio behind A Better Tomorrow: Cyber Frontier.

Advances in AI have been a topic of keen discussion at China’s largest festival, which kicked off proceedings on opening night with a video montage that spliced imagery generated via the technology into scenes from cinema classics such as the Audrey Hepburn-Gregory Peck classic Roman Holiday.

The country’s leaders have been quick to throw their weight behind emerging technology. On July 10, 2023, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and several other government departments launched a set of official guidelines under the title, “Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services,” before issuing a followup — “Measures for the Identification of Synthetic Content Generated by Artificial Intelligence” — in March this year. The agencies said the moves would “promote the healthy and orderly development of artificial intelligence.”

Also on hand Thursday was Zhai Xuelian, secretary general of the China Science Fiction Industry Investment Alliance, who joined the chorus of official approval for the initiative.

“[It] has shown us the infinite possibilities of the integration of traditional culture and future technology, and also the future development direction of traditional classic film and television, which is to use the new generation of science and technology as a fulcrum to allow the world to better experience the traditional charm and vitality of Chinese culture,” she said.