Martial artist and "IP Man" star Donnie Yen has officially joined the cast for the sequel of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Cinema Blend reported.
Coming off the success of his "IP Man" films, Yen is starting to be recognized as an international star. For this year alone, the Chinese actor has seven films under his belt, including the "Crouching Tiger" sequel.
The second installment, dubbed as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon II: The Green Destiny" will be directed by Chinese filmmaker and martial arts choreographer, Woo-Ping Yuen.
The sequel will be based on "Iron Knight, Silver Vase," the fifth book of Chinese author Wang Dulu's "Crane Iron Pentalogy" series. The first "Crouching Tiger" referred to the fourth book in the series, Screen Rant reported.
It will follow the story of Jen Yu, the character played by Zhang Ziyi in the first film, and Iron Knight, the son of Dark Cloud who was played by Taiwanese actor Chang Chen. In the sequel, Iron Knight and a girl known as Silver Vase were switched at birth.
Yen will play a character known as Silent Wolf while Michelle Yeoh will reprise her role as Yu Shu Lien. It is not yet confirmed whether Chow Yun Fat will return in the sequel but his character, Lu Mu Bai, plays an important role in the book.
Production will start in June of this year.
Last year, Entertainment Weekly reported that Zhang was in negotiations to return as Jen Yu but sources close to the production claimed that her role would be portrayed as flashbacks to explain what happened to her character after the first film's ending.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was released internationally in 2001 and grossed $8,647,295 in box office sales. It was positively received by Western audiences and garnered numerous awards such as Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, and Best Cinematography during the 73rd Academy Awards.