As things stand now, the new film will reportedly tell an entirely new story, derivative from its original plot which sees two bickering Taoist sorcerors training a young desciple who wishes to pursue vengeance against the Emperor in a contest of magic. Film Business Asia writes of Yuen who reportedly says that “if the original film was meant to present an alternative form of wuxia film, the new film intends to redefine it.”.
So essentially this won’t be a remake, but a reboot which means plenty of potential changes. It could still be a period piece or a modern martial arts comedy with the same characters differently named, or just an outright new set of characters for a new story altogether. It’s all fair game to speculate over while things are early, and there’s plenty of time to do so with a 2017 release now waiting in the wings.
Hark is writing the script and producing under his Film Workshop banner with Nansun Shi while Yuen, at the helm, will be in charge of redefining the very action he and his team presented 33 years ago.
Stay tuned for more info!