BEIJING, Mar 9 (AP) -- The grandson of a late Chinese kung fu master is waging a legal battle against the producers and distributors of a new Jet Li film, claiming the movie misrepresents and dishonors its real-life subject, the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday.

Huo Shoujin, the grandson of deceased kung fu expert Huo Yuanjia, filed a lawsuit in the Beijing Haidian District People's Court on Tuesday demanding filmmakers issue a written public apology to the Huo family and halt the worldwide release of the film, Xinhua said.

The movie, titled "Fearless" in English and "Huo Yuanjia" in Mandarin, traces the master's evolution from a vain fighter keen on total domination to one who uses fighting as a means of self-betterment.

The grandson claims the film contains numerous fabrications about his grandfather's life and besmirches his reputation, the report said, without giving details.

Earlier media reports said that in the movie Hou has no descendants but in actuality had seven grandsons and 11 great-grandchildren. The family was also unhappy that Huo was portrayed as a wealthy man with servants when he actually had a working class background, the earlier reports said.

According to Jet Li's official Web site, the film has already been released in China, Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand and is scheduled to debut later this year in France, Germany, Japan, Korea and the United States.

The younger Huo may also file suits against the film's screenwriter Wang Bin, and Jet Li, who acted and also invested in the project, said Xinhua.

The film's production company, The Beijing Film Studio under the China Film Group Corporation, and distributor Anle Film Company are named as defendants, it said.

Phone calls Thursday to the Huo family's lawyer were not immediately returned.