Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Sony

A prequel to martial arts classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – called The Green Destiny - is in the works, but Oscar-winning director Ang Lee won't be at the helm.

According to Film Aukland the prequel is set to film later this year in New Zealand with the original film's martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping directing and Michelle Yeoh reprising her role from the original.

In 2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became a cultural phenomenon, introducing much of the Western world to martial arts filmmaking, and spawning films like Hero.

Film Auckland's deputy chairman Alex Lee told Radio New Zealand: "Over the last 18 months it's been very quiet and it's nice we're finally getting traction. It's a production that will require a vast number of resources, facilities, technicians and crew."

New Zealand is no stranger to big films, following the monumental success of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. James Cameron is to make his three Avatar sequels there as well; one of the big reasons is the huge financial incentives the country offers.

"It's quite clear that until the decision to increase the incentives for international films to come to New Zealand we were just not competitive," continued Lee.

Crouching Tiger grossed $213.5m (£127m) worldwide and won four Oscars. It was the film that made Ang Lee's career and he has since gone on to win two Best Director Oscars for Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi.

Variety reported that Michelle Yeoh would reprise her role as Yu Shu Lien and that The Weinstein Company would co-produce with New Zealand's Iron Knight Productions. It's not yet clear if Chow Yun-fat will return as the film's star.