We Pictures recently announced that critically-acclaimed Asian director Peter Chan Ho-sun will both produce and direct "Li Na: My Life", the biopic of China's first and only tennis ace with a Grand Slam trophy in her repertoire. Chan will be collaborating with Na on this project, with the tennis legend serving as consultant.

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In an interview with Variety, Chan reports how he admires Na for her iconic character. "Everything she stands for is so atypical of conventional Chinese behavior, and so typical of the generation of people born in the 1980s," Chan told reporters, "This is the generation that today is calling the shots."

While Chan's We Pictures handles production of "Li Na: My Life", his We Distribution firm will handle pre-sales outside China. There are also talks of the film being partially backed by Alibaba Pictures, the film branch of the popular e-commerce giant Alibaba. Nevertheless, even with the online retail giant's involvement, Chan plans to limit Alibaba's Yulebao crowd funding to 10 percent of the production budget, the rest of the money coming from other Chinese investors and distributors.

To this day, Li Na is China's only Grand Slam champion, as she won both the French and Australian opens. Moreover, she is regarded as highly as being the world's second greatest tennis player. In the press release announcement, Chan is quoted to have said: "She broke rules and defied conventions and, against all odds, became a legend. I'm mesmerized by what she has been able to accomplish and what she represents as a symbol of hope for millions of people around the world."

Perhaps aptly enough, an article in the Wall Street Journal mentions that casting the role of Li Na would be a delicate challenge for Chan. It could go either of two ways: he could cast an A-list celebrity and have her trained on the tennis court, or cast a tennis player and train her in acting. Either way, the tennis legend herself hopes that "Li Na: My Life", will touch the hearts of many and inspire them to believe in themselves, as well as in their dreams.

Tagsli na, Peter Chan, tennis, biopic