The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss
The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss, also known as Stoner, A Man Called Stoner, and Hong Kong Hitman Chinese is a 1974 Hong Kong action film which was produced by Raymond Chow and directed by Huang Feng. The film was originally scheduled to be Bruce Lees next film after Game of Death. However Lee died while filming Game of Death in 1973 and that films release date was delayed by five years.
Originally, The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss was to star not only Lee, but also Japanese film star Sonny Chiba as well. The film was to pit Lee against The Western Adversary played by James Bond star George Lazenby. Lazenby had been signed to a multipicture deal by Lee and Chow during Game of Death and was to star in that film, as well as two subsequent films with Lee. The films original tagline was Its Lee Its Lazenby Its Bruce Versus Bond.Warner Brothers was going to coproduce and distribute the film before Lees sudden death and was going to give The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss a large worldwide release, a 10,000,000 production budget and a 10,000,000 worldwide marketing budget which was astronomical at that time as a comparison the 1974 James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun also a 1974 release had only a 7,000,000 production budget and a 6,000,000 worldwide marketing budget. Forecasts for The Shrine of Ultimate Bliss worldwide box office gross were around 400,000,000. This based on Lees previous two films. Enter the Dragon 1973 cost just 850,000 to produce and also had a 10,000,000 worldwide marketing budget, and in turn it grossed more than 265,000,000 worldwide at the box office through 2006, making it the second highest grossing movie worldwide of the year 1973, behind The Exorcist. ........
Source: Wikipedia
