Bruce Lee, one of China's most enduring pop culture icons, is set to be reborn in a lavish, 40-part television series.

The new, 40-part TV series about the life of martial arts icon Bruce Lee is set to air in 2008.
(Columbia Pictures/Associated Press)

China Central Television, the country's national broadcaster, began filming of The Legend of Bruce Lee this weekend in Shunde, a city in the southern province of Guangdong, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Though his ancestors hail from the southern province, Lee was born in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong.

The upcoming series will also film in Hong Kong and in the U.S., to which Lee returned to start his career as an actor.

Actor Chan Kwok-Kwan, who has studied kung fu for years and bears a striking resemblance to the kung fu icon, stars as Lee.

In an interview with Xinhua, Chan expressed mixed feelings about playing the Chinese icon who helped popularize martial arts around the globe and continues to be celebrated today.

"I'm nervous and also excited," Chan said, "I will do my best."

Chan, who also goes by the English name of Danny Chan, has appeared in hit director Stephen Chow's films, notably as the Bruce-Lee look-alike goalie in Shaolin Soccer and a well-manicured gang leader in Kung Fu Hustle.

He added that Lee has been his role model since childhood.

The series is to be completed for broadcast in 2008, as part of the Chinese cultural blitz Beijing has planned in preparation for its run as host of the Olympic Games.

Lee died suddenly in 1973. The 32-year-old actor was later found to have suffered a swelling of the brain. His death came just weeks before the release of his Enter the Dragon, considered by many the defining film of the martial arts genre.

With files from the Associated Press.