With Sony Picture's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon setting all sorts of box office records for foreign language films (see the article), it's only natural that other Hollywood studios are looking for their own Chinese martial arts films to release. Miramax Films, which does a good job of staying on top of trends, has obtained the rights to the Chinese language film Legend of Zu, which stars Zhang Ziyi (who played the beautiful and willful young princess in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and Sammo Hung (Martial Law). The Legend of Zu was directed by Tsui Hark, a pioneer of historical martial arts films who directed Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain, in 1983, which like the current Legend of Zu film was adapted from the 64-volume Legend of Zu novel. The fight scenes in The Legend of Zu were choreographed by the master of martial arts conflict, Wuen Wo Ping, who performed similar chores on Crouching Tiger, The Matrix, and countless other films.
Miramax has imported a number of foreign films for stateside release and has followed the customary U.S. practice of dubbing them in English. The success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which is subtitled, should be an object lesson for Miramax. The Legend of Zu is currently in the final stage of post-production, which means that it could be released in the U.S. before the end of the year.