Yahoo Movies Ang Lee Casts Son Mason as Bruce Lee in 'Longtime Passion Project' About Legendary Martial Artist
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Ang Lee is taking on the life of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee for his next project, and it's going to be a family affair.
On Wednesday, Deadline reported that the Oscar-winning director has signed on to direct a biopic titled Bruce Lee, centered around the actor and martial artist — whom Ang, 68, has no relation to — that will star Ang's son, actor Mason Lee, in the titular role.
Screenwriter Dan Futterman (2005's Capote) is currently writing a screenplay for the movie that has been written and re-written multiple times, according to Deadline.
Ang, who won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 73rd Oscars in 2001 for the martial arts action movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, has been "working quietly" on the project for years now, according to the outlet.
In a statement obtained by Deadline Wednesday, Ang described Chinese-American Bruce Lee, who died in 1973 at 32, as a "bridge between East and West who introduced Chinese Kung Fu to the world."
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"Accepted as neither fully American nor fully Chinese, Bruce Lee was a bridge between East and West who introduced Chinese Kung Fu to the world, a scientist of combat and an iconic performing artist who revolutionized both the martial arts and action cinema," Ang told the outlet of Bruce Lee's legacy in a statement.
"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," the director added.
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Mason Lee most recently appeared in this year's Taiwanese drama Reclaim and previously had a role in 2011's The Hangover Part II.
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According to Deadline, 32-year-old Mason has been in Asia training to portray the legendary martial arts figure for the last three years.
In a statement obtained by the outlet Wednesday, Sony's 3000 Pictures executive Elizabeth Gabler described the upcoming film as "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."
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"All of us at Sony and 3000 Pictures are proud to help Ang and his filmmaking team create what we believe will be an extraordinary theatrical event," Gabler added.
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Bruce Lee was notably portrayed onscreen recently by actor Mike Moh in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 movie Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood for one scene that Bruce's daughter, Shannon Lee, criticized as a "caricature" of the real-life man.
"He comes across as an arrogant a–hole who was full of hot air," Shannon, an actress and martial artist herself, told The Wrap in 2019. "And not someone who had to fight triple as hard as any of those people did to accomplish what was naturally given to so many others."
