The Weinstein Company is developing a sequel to the classically awesome Ang Lee directed martial arts film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon! The film production will start shooting in this coming May in Asia. The script for the film was written by John Fusco (Young Guns, Hidalgo, The Forbidden Kingdom), and the studio is looking at hiring Chinese director Ronny Yu (Warriors of Virtue, Bride of Chucky, Freddy Vs. Jason, Fearless) to develop the project, so Ang Lee won't be back to continue the franchise.
The movie is based on the same material for the Academy Award winning film. According to Deadline, it's based on Silver Vase, Iron Knight, which is the fifth book in the Crane-Iron Pentalogy by Wang Du Lu. Crouching Tiger was based on the fourth book in the series. Fusco had this to say in a statement,
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.
The sequel revolves around the character Yu Shu Lien, who was played by Michelle Yeoh in the original film. There's no word on if any of the actors will be reprising their roles though. Fusco also went on to explain,
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.
As soon as the director officially signs on they will start casting the movie. I absolutely loved the first film, and I hope the sequel ends up being just as awesomely majestic. It has to have the same quality of production value as the first film. Anything less than that would be a shame. I'm excited to see how it turns out!