A Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel? Ummm…
I know I said I wouldn’t be posting anything this month, but I gotta respond to this…
Per the good folks at Deadline:
“ The Weinstein Company has set a May production start in Asia on a sequel toCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There is a script by John Fusco, and TWC is in talks with veteran Chinese director Ronny Yu. Harvey Weinstein is producing.
The new film is derived from the same source material as the Ang Lee-directed 2000 film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and three other Academy Awards. Lee isn’t involved in this one, which is based on Silver Vase, Iron Knight. That is the fifth book in the Crane-Iron Pentalogy by Wang Du Lu.Crouching Tiger was the fourth book in the series. Fusco, whose credits includeSpirit, Hidalgo and The Forbidden Kingdom, is an avid follower of Wu Sia, the centuries-old genre of Chinese fiction that this series is part of.
“This was an opportunity to explore a lifelong passion I’ve had for Wu Sia, and if there wasn’t continuing source material, I would never have gotten involved,” Fusco told me.
The sequel continues to revolve around Yu Shu Lien, the character played in the original by Michelle Yeoh. It’s not immediately clear yet which actors will reprise, but some likely will. “This introduces a new generation of star-crossed lovers, and a new series of antagonists in a battle of good and evil. It has a Knights Errant quality. There is an alternate universe in the books, a martial forest that exists alongside the real world, full of wandering sword fighters, medicine men, defrocked priests, poets, sorcerers and Shaolin renegades. It’s so vast and rich, and I found characters from the second and third books in the series to create a most interesting stew while being as true to the source material as I could be.”
TWC and Sony had battled several years ago over the rights to the books left behind by the author, who died in 1977. Reports quoted his son, Hong Wang, saying his family made very little money from the original film, and that they went out to make another deal. TWC feels it walked away with those theatrical rights and is going ahead with its film, which has a budget north of $20 million.
Casting will get underway after the director signs, and for his part Fusco expects a return from Wo Ping Yuen, the legendary fight choreographer responsible from the high wire action work in the original. They worked together on Forbidden Kingdom . Fusco separately scripted Marco Polo for Electus/Weinstein Co and Starz, as well as the feature Highwaymen, which has John Lee Hancock attached to direct a retelling of the Bonnie & Clyde story from the vantage point of Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, who was called out of retirement to head the manhunt. Liam Neeson is eyeing that role. He also adapted the rise of Elvis Presley pic Last Train To Memphis for Fox 2000 and Steve Bing, based on the Peter Guralnick novel. Fusco’s repped by UT”
January 24, 2013 at 8:03 pm
I have to admit that I didn’t like the original, for all that it has obvious strengths. I’ve always been a bit puzzled as to why I don’t like it more than I do (great cast, choreography by Yuen Wu Ping, beautiful production values) but the film grated on me for some reason. And I know that many felt very differently about this film and loved it very much. I guess I’m not as worried about a sequel as you. I am going to post this on the Heroic Sisterhood page – I am sure people there will be interested in this news.
January 24, 2013 at 8:57 pm
I think the #1 point of this article is the part where the family of the novelist hasn’t made much (any?) money from the original, and that TWC is willfully ignoring the family’s possible right to move on to a fairer deal elsewhere. If that is all accurate, plus considering your point that CT,HD sequel without Ang Lee – and with a much more mainstream/commercial director like Ronny Yu (though he did a decent job with Jet Li’s wu xia “Fearless”) – maybe you SHOULDN’T be hoping that this movie turns out good. Maybe it’s best for it to cost TWC a lot of money it’ll never get back. But that’s extremely unlikely. The movie, however good, will definitely be a money maker, at least internationally if not in the USA. But I don’t know. This smells of cash in sans true creative passion. Even Fusco sounds workmanlike in his thoughts – i.e. there’s more source material so okay let’s adapt it. Not terribly thrilling, that.
January 25, 2013 at 12:51 pm
Dave: Greetings and Peace —-insightful, vivid and “strong” narrative comments. Those Big Money Boys are extremely insensitive to anyone making money except themselves. I know of a certain Financial Products Corporation in Chicago who would literally “take” writing products from individuals who were powerless to prevent this type of a thing from taking place. The poor souls were trying to making a living; and, were powerless to fight powerful Corporations. This certain Financial Publishing Company had a battery of lawyers who would make sure that anyone who came against them would suffer as that battery of attorneys would “break” vulnerable persons financially, psychologically, and emotionally. I hope I conveyed the essence of what I was trying to say. When I think about those evil doers I get very emotional.
January 30, 2013 at 11:30 am
Making this film without the consent of the family is just one more problem I have with this film. My gut feeling tells me this is just a money grab. I could be wrong.
January 24, 2013 at 11:45 pm
Yeah, gotta agree. Even though the books (I didn’t know even existed) contain a lot more material, the movie was completely self contained and really doesn’t seem to ask for any sort of sequel/prequel.
January 25, 2013 at 12:44 pm
I concur with your assessment and evaluation.
January 26, 2013 at 9:35 am
I can’t really see this as a good thing. It might be fun, but I don’t think it’ll get anywhere close to the original. Especially because this sounds like it will be a Western-produced film, so expect lots of CG instead of dope wire-work. I don’t know, man, I have no faith that this will be of the same caliber. I’d love to be wrong, but I just don’t see it happening. Thanks for breaking the news!
January 30, 2013 at 11:31 am
When Kiai-Kick reboots itself next month this will most likely be brought up in our podcasts, so stay tuned!