Ang Lee to Direct, Filmmaker’s Son to Play Martial Arts Icon

Ang Lee, the Oscar-profitable director of “Life of Pi” and “Brokeback Mountain,” is established to direct a film about Chinese American martial arts legend Bruce Lee.

Ang Lee’s son Mason Lee is hooked up to star in the movie, which is in development at Sony’s 3000 Shots. Dan Futterman, who wrote “Capote” and “Foxcatcher,” is adapting the script. Jean Castelli, Alex Law and Mabel Cheung and Wells Tower wrote previously variations of the screenplay.

Bruce Lee, who died in 1973 at the age of 32, experienced a quick but long lasting presence in Hollywood as an actor, director and martial arts expert. His movies, like “Fist of Fury,” “Enter the Dragon” and “The Way of the Dragon,” as very well as the Tv sequence “The Inexperienced Hornet,” popularized martial arts throughout the world in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

“Accepted as neither absolutely American nor Completely Chinese, Bruce Lee was a bridge amongst East and West who launched Chinese Gung Fu to the entire world, a scientist of battle and an legendary doing artist who revolutionized both equally the martial arts and motion cinema,” Ang Lee claimed in a assertion. “I sense compelled to tell the tale of this amazing, exceptional human staying who yearned for belonging, possessed remarkable electric power in a 135-pound-body, and who, via tireless tricky do the job, made difficult goals into actuality.”

Lawrence Gray, Shannon Lee, Ang Lee, Ben Everard, and Brian Bell will provide as producers. Elizabeth Gabler and Marisa Paiva are overseeing the task for the studio. The even now-untitled film reunites Lee with Gabler, Paiva and Sony Pics chairman Tom Rothman after working jointly on 2012’s Oscar-successful adventure drama “Life of Pi.”

“’Bruce Lee’ is a longtime enthusiasm project for Ang and a deeply emotional story depicting the triumphs and conflicts of a single of the foremost genuine daily life action heroes of our time,” Gabler explained. “All of us at Sony and 3000 Shots are proud to support Ang and his filmmaking workforce make what we feel will be an amazing theatrical celebration.”

A embellished filmmaker, Ang Lee’s motion pictures have scored at the box business in addition to accumulating a number of Academy Awards: like 4 for “Life of Pi,” 3 for “Brokeback Mountain” and two for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” His other credits incorporate “Sense and Sensibility,” “Hulk,” “Lust” and “Billy Lynn’s Lengthy Halftime Stroll.”

Mason Lee, who is 32, has appeared in “Billy Lynn’s Extensive Halftime Walk” and “The Hangover Element II.” He most not long ago starred in the Taiwanese intimate comedy “Stand By Me,” Hong Kong drama “Limbo” and “Who Killed Cock Robin.”

Ang Lee is repped by CAA, Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham and Slate PR. Futterman is repped by UTA and attorneys Frankfurt Kurnit. Grey Issue is represented by UTA and legal professional Jamie Feldman at Lichter Grossman.

Deadline Hollywood initially claimed the news of Bruce Lee’s forthcoming biopic.

This story initial appeared on Variety.com.