Wild Bunch at AFM: Grand Master Wong Kar Wai Delivers ‘The Grandmasters’

We should be getting tons of new film projects, casting news and first glimpses at some of the projects to watch out for in 2011 with the calendar’s last noteworthy film market occurring later this week. The first kernel of excitement via the materials being prepped for the American Film Market is a project, that we last reported, has its toes dipped in 2010 and 2011.

Wild Bunch is repping Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmasters (which works a lot better than “The Grand Master”, perhaps because Ip Man helped create Bruce Lee) and the tagline “In Martial Arts There is No Right or Wrong, Only the Last Man Standing” certainly adds to the complexity of the student eventually taking over the place of his teacher. You have the market poster/spread below and above is Zhang Ziyi who takes on the role of Ip Man’s wife. You can grab an eyeful of scans from this site.

Gist: Set in the 1950’s and will focus on the relationship between the teenaged Bruce Lee and his master Ip Man (Tony Leung).

Worth Noting: In the race of dueling “Bruce Lee” related pics in his 70th anniversary year, this is pegged with a domestic release next month. Which prompt the question: Will the film be delayed for a Cannes release in May? And if it isn’t delayed, will they preem in Berlin as to not have to deal with illegal copies flooding the market.

Do We Care?: Damn right we do. We’re curious to see how a master in his own right in WKW goes from strictly art-house auteur sensibility to making a film for a more “mainstream” appeal. Definitely looking forward to the first trailer which should be leaked soon enough.