Ang Lee To Direct His Son Mason Lee In A Bruce Lee Biopic

Taiwanese-American filmmaker Ang Lee has long established his unique style of moviemaking by effectively moving in and out of genres and cultures over the past 30 years of his career. Lee began his cinema journey with a string of family dramas that explored parent-child relationships, same-sex marriage, and the importance of family traditions with 1991's "Pushing Hands," 1993's "The Wedding Banquet," and 1994's "Eat Drink Man Woman," respectively (via IMDb). He then turned his talents to adapting the work of Jane Austen from a script by Emma Thompson with 1995's "Sense and Sensibility," before focusing his attention on 1970s American suburbia with the searing drama "The Ice Storm" in 1997. Lee then went on to create one of the most celebrated martial arts films of this century with 2000's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, the filmmaker would continue crafting one contemporary classic after the next with the likes of 2005's "Brokeback Mountain" and 2012's "Life of Pi." It is Lee's consistent mastery of diverse and wildly different subject matter that makes the announcement of a new film from the director an exciting prospect, which is the case with the Bruce Lee biopic he is set to make, with his son Mason Lee starring as the late martial arts megastar (via Deadline). Here is what we know at this point.

According to Variety, Sony's 3000 Pictures will be developing a Bruce Lee biopic with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" filmmaker Ang Lee in the director's chair and his son Mason Lee starring as the "Enter the Dragon" actor. Producers Maris Paiva and Elizabeth Gabler will be overseeing the production and "Foxcatcher" co-writer Dan Futterman will write the script. Mason Lee has previously starred in such titles as "The Hangover Part II" and "Lucy." Speaking of her excitement regarding the project, Gabler stated, "'Bruce Lee' is a longtime passion project for Ang and a deeply emotional story depicting the triumphs and conflicts of one of the foremost real-life action heroes of our time." The producer then revealed how she and the studio looked forward to the film.

Bruce Lee tragically died at the age of 32 in 1973 due to a build-up of pressure in his brain. In a statement released by Ang Lee, as first reported by Deadline, the "Ride with the Devil" director said of the project, "Accepted as neither fully American nor Fully Chinese, Bruce Lee was a bridge between East and West who introduced Chinese Gung Fu to the world, a scientist of combat and an iconic performing artist who revolutionized both the martial arts and action cinema." The director then shared how he was looking forward to telling Bruce Lee's story based on the admirable attributes, both physical and artistic, that he possessed.