Although he’s a native to Hong Kong, Wayne Wang has had quite a bit of success directing features here and there in Hollywood over the years — unfortunately Maid in Manhattan was one of them, but what can you do. Coming off the quite disappointing, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, the Chan is Missing helmer has since been hired to direct the feature adaptation of Jim Yardley‘s new book, Brave Dragons. [Deadline]

The novel is about “an NBA coach who moves with his wife to the Chinese industrial city Taiyuan to coach the Shanxi Brave Dragons, one of the worst teams in the Chinese Basketball Association.” It takes a “comedic look” at NBA head coach Bob Weiss and his wife as they “discover the exotic world of China over the course of a single season in the CBA.” The Shanxi Brave Dragons, who are owned by Boss Wang, have done unthinkable things, of which, the “Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wouldn’t conceive.” If you couldn’t guess, said things involve a lot of yelling, as well as physical attacks on his players.

As for the author of the novel, he’s a Pulitzer Prize-winning South Asia Bureau Chief of The New York Times, which is pretty impressive. Wang – the director, not crazed coach, just to clarify — would be perfect for the directing project, considering the novel explores many of the culture clashes between both the US and China, which a lot of his features tend to do as well. Jonathan Price, who has had some writing experience on various TV shows, will be writing the script, with Jack Lechner, Ira Lechner and Jonathan Bing producing.

Have you read Brave Dragons? If so, are you interested in seeing it on the big screen?