A trio of theatre-makers with a passion for Kung Fu films are making a new stage show that they describe as a love letter to every Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee moment you have ever wanted to see up close.

Norwich-based Thunder Cake Productions is creating a show which has the working title Return of the Drunken Lotus, and the group has launched a £1,000 crowdfunding campaign to help their vision become a reality.

Thunder Cake Productions' artistic director Tom Francis is working on the project with director/producer Louise Cole and producer Tom Butterworth.

Mr Francis, who is a third level black sash master in Kung Fu, said: 'I grew up absolutely obsessed with Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee and all the greats of Hong Kong in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

'We want to take the aesthetic, stylistic traits of the Kung Fu genre of that time and we want to translate those into an on-stage experience.

'Imagine a Jackie Chan film and an episode of Spaced with Simon Pegg, smash them together and that is kind of our starting point.'

He added: 'We want to use stage combat, we want to do some very, very physical theatre, clowning, stunt-type stuff. We want to have dubbed over voices and ridiculous sound effects.'

He said they hoped to be doing a two-week R&D (research and development) residency at The Garage in June to explore their ideas and that they would present a showcase at the end of the fortnight.

'It's the start of our journey. We are developing the show to perform in 2019 and we are interested in touring it nationally,' he said.

'We want to make something exciting and relevant that will maybe explore ideas and issues in a way that will engage people who do not necessarily always think theatre is for them.'

When asked about his favourite Kung Fu movie, he said: 'It has go to be Drunken Master but I also like The Young Master - anything Jackie Chan made between 1977 and 1984/85, they are all amazing.'

People who support the crowdfunding campaign will be offered rewards that, depending on the donation, range from everything from a ticket to a scratch performance of the show to an invitation to a Kung Fu movie night to a Kung Fu taster session with Mr Francis.

For more about Thunder Cake Productions' Kung Fu theatre plans and to support the crowdfunding campaign, visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/a-kung-fu-movie-on-stageFollow @thundercake1 on Twitter and find Thunder Cake Productions on Facebook.