Luc Besson’s biopic about Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi now has a new, official title. The Lady has replaced Into The Light and having read the synopsis, it actually makes more sense.Starring Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi and David Thewlis as her late husband Michael Aris, The Lady details their love story as well as her political work. Find out more after the jump.Filming began on October 18 and will end on January 18, taking cast and crew from Thailand to Burma, England and France. The Lady is being produced by Virginie Besson-Silla and Andy Harries and will be distributed through Besson’s studio EuropaCorp. No release date has been set yet but it has been announced for 2011.Here is the official synopsis from EuropaCorp, translated from French:

THE LADY is an extraordinary love story, that of a man, Michael Aris, and above all an exceptional woman, Aung San Suu Kyi, who will sacrifice her own happiness for that of her people.

Yet the infinite love that binds them will not vacillate despite the separation, the absences, the isolation and the brutality of the ruling military junta in Burma. THE LADY is also the story of a woman who became one of the modern icons of the fight for democracy.

THE LADY is an original screenplay by Rebecca Frayn, written after three years of research and interviews with Aung San Suu Kyi’s entourage, which allowed her to reconstitute for the first time ever the real story of Burma’s national heroine.

The couple’s unwavering devotion to one another as well as to their cause seems to fascinate. They married in 1972 in the UK and had two sons. An academic and a lecturer in Asian history, Dr. Aris helped establish a Tibetan and Himalayan Studies center at Oxford and campaigned tirelessly alongside his wife for democracy. He died of cancer on his 53rd birthday in 1999 and hadn’t seen his wife since 1995 simply because the Burmese government refused to grant him a visa.

The greatest love story ever told? It sounds a bit vanilla, but I’m hoping Besson will strike a balance between her pro-democracy work and her private life.

Here are the first official images from the film plus a set photo of Besson [via EuropaCorp and The Guardian]:

First and sixth photos, Vincent Perez © 2010 EuropaCorp - Left Bank Pictures - France 2 Cinéma