Li Na’s Life Story Will Become a Film

Chinese producer and director Peter Ho-Sun Chan will direct the film about tennis icon

Chinese tennis star Li Na will have her life story made into movie.

Peter Ho-Sun Chan, one of the most prominent filmmakers of Hong Kong film industry, will take on the project related to Li Na and will try to explore different aspects of her life, the difficulties she has endured during different stages of her life and the impact she has made not on just Chinese society but the people all over the world.

“Li Na is such an icon,” Peter Ho-Sun Chan told Variety. “She had an impossible dream and found a way to turn it into reality. 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.” Chan said.

Li Na is the first and only Asian player to win a major title in professional tennis. She won the French Open in 2011 which was followed by another grand slam title Australian Open in 2014. Li Na achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 2 in February 2014 before a chronic injury forced her to retire from professional tennis later that year.

“Everything about Li is fascinating, from the way she shows her emotions, her temper, the way she called the shots with the press and her husband. This is really a story of achieving independence on her own terms and I related to it very personally,” Chan said.

The film will be based on the autobiography “Li Na: My Life”, published in December 17, 2013 and Li Na will personally help out Chan in the making of film. She appears quite satisfied with the filmmaker and the way he has been approaching.

“I am very humbled by the fact that a director of Peter Chan’s talent is going to direct it. Some of the best movies in China that have come out in the last couple of years have been made by Peter,” Li Na said. “I feel like my story is in good hands with him. I am so fortunate to have these opportunities and not for one minute do I take them for granted.”

The production will take place at the end of this year while the film is expected to release in 2016.