Biopic about martial arts icon: Mason Lee plays Bruce Lee in Ang Lee's film

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Director Ang Lee (2016 in Taiwan): It runs in the family

Photo:

Ritchie B. Tongo / dpa

Oscar winner Ang Lee wants to shoot a biopic about movie star and martial arts icon Bruce Lee.

Mason Lee, the director's 32-year-old son, is set to star.

This was reported on Wednesday, among other things, by the US industry portals Variety and Deadline.com.

Ang Lee said it was important to him to tell the story of this "brilliant" and "unique" man who worked hard to make "impossible dreams" come true.

Bruce Lee was a bridge between East and West and revolutionized martial arts and action cinema.

Mason Lee's roles include the comedy The Hangover 2 and Billy Lynn's Crazy Heroes, directed by his father.

According to Deadline, he has been preparing for the role of Bruce Lee for the past three years.

Ang Lee is one of the most internationally recognized directors.

He had already addressed martial arts in the martial arts epic »Tiger & Dragon« (2000).

The film won four Oscars, including Best Foreign Language Film.

Ang Lee is also responsible for the award-winning films »Brokeback Mountain« and »Life of Pi: Tiger Shipwreck« (in this interview with the director you can read why he only wanted to shoot the Tiger Shipwreck story in 3D and why he had to fight against strong resistance from the studio).

Bruce Lee lived from 1940 to 1973. He made Hong Kong martial arts cinema world famous – he was the first martial arts superstar and a pioneer for Asian movie stars in Hollywood.

After his untimely death at the age of 32, he became a legend with films such as »Death Greetings from Shanghai«, »The Death Fist of Cheng Li« and »The Man with the Death Claw«.

As an Asian in show business, he fought against many prejudices in Hollywood at the time.

aar/dpa