Chinese tennis player Li Na's life story to become a film

Chinese Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Ho-Sun Chan is making a movie about Li Na, the country's biggest tennis star.

Chan's production company We Pictures said in a statement Saturday that the film will be based on Li's autobiography "Li Na: My Life" and will be released in 2016.

Li is one of China's best known athletes and became the first Asian tennis player to win a Grand Slam tournament when she captured the French Open in 2011.

Chan says "Li Na 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."

Li says "I am honored to have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tell my life story through a film."

The budget of the film is expected to be around 100 million yuan. Hong Kong filmmakers have begun ditching the trademark kungfu and gangster genres in favor of social realism in recent years.

Peter Chan's last film Dearest (2014) has become a box-office hit on Chinese mainland. It's a fictionalized take on the real-life issue of child abductions.

The film, shot in police stations and courtrooms, reflects a trend among Hong Kong directors to take on important issues confronting people in rural areas all across China. It was named the best film by college students at the 22nd Beijing College Student Film Festival this month.