When it came to finding the star for his Bruce Lee biopic, Ang Lee decided to keep it in the family.
The Oscar-winning director cast his 32-year-old son Mason Lee to play the late martial arts expert, marking the third time Mason will appear in a feature film directed by his father. The movie—eponymously titled Bruce Lee—is currently in development, with Dan Futterman attached to the project as a screenwriter.
Ang noted that the drama will center around the identity and career of Bruce—known for films such as Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon—who is highly regarded as the pop culture icon that helped popularize martial arts in late 1960s and early 1970s.
“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,” Ang said in a Nov. 30 press release. “I feel compelled to tell the story of this brilliant, unique human being who yearned for belonging, possessed tremendous power in a 135-pound-frame, and who, through tireless hard work, made impossible dreams into reality.”