It seems as though the Weinstein Company are about to start production on a new Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon film, following on from the previous film it will continue the journey of the character Yu Shu Lien played by Michelle Yeoh in the original film.

It had been planned a number of years ago to create prequels to the film but court action between studios and authors rights meant that it never happened but now, some six years later, it seems as though it might finally happen.

Back in March 2006 we heard that there might be a prequel or two as well as some form of stage show when the Weinstein's bought the rights to Wang Du Lu's novel series Crane - Iron Pentalogy of which five were written and the fourth was the story for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and their plan was to turn to the earlier works.

However in April of the same year Columbia came out and said that they had a verbal agreement with the author's son and they were entitled to the rights to the books, enter the courts.

A year later the issue was still in the courts and Columbia were seeking some US $200 million from the whole debacle and there was no sign of the stories getting anywhere near production.

Until now when we hear through Deadline that there's going to be a sequel and that John Fusco has written it adapting from the fifth book in the Wang Du Lu series entitled Silver Vase, Iron Knight. Fusco write Crossroads, Young Guns, Thunderheart, Hidalgo and The Forbidden Kingdom, all of which suggest a strong match with the core of the story. Not only that but Fusco is apparently a long time follower of what is called Wu Sia, the Chinese fiction genre that these works fall within.

Talks are underway with director Ronny Yu so it does sound as though Ang Lee won't be returning to direct the sequel. Yu has more recently directed the Western films Bride of Chucky, The 51st State, Freddy vs Jason, Fearless (Filmstalker review). Oh dear things were looking bad until the last one, but the real draw is all the work he's done in his native cinema industry, many films far more suited to a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel.

Mind you, Ang Lee did a wonderful job with the original, will he?