‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ TV Series in Development

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Michelle Yeoh in ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’. Photo: Sony Pictures Classics.

Preview:

A new ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ TV series is in the works.
It’ll adapt Wang DuLu’s Crane-Iron Pentalogy novels.
Jason Ning and Ron Moore are working on the show.

Back in the year 2000, Ang Lee brought sweeping romance and impressive fight scenes to screens, adapting Wang DuLu’s Crane-Iron Pentalogy series of books to Oscar-winning effect in ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.’

“A timeless story of strength, secrets and two warriors who would never surrender.”

PG-132 hrJan 12th, 2001

Showtimes & Tickets

It was followed by a straight-to-home entertainment sequel, ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny,’ released in 2016 and directed by Yuen Wo-ping, who was the action choreographer for the original.

But since then, there hasn’t been much movement on other adaptations, at least until now, with word via Deadline that Prime Video is moving forward with its TV take, which has been in development since 2022 with Jason Ning involved as executive producer.

Ning, who created ‘The Brothers Sun’ for Netflix, is under a deal with Sony Pictures Television, which owns the rights to the ‘Crouching Tiger’ novels after releasing the Lee movie, and they in turn are partnered up with Prime Video.

New to the project is experienced showrunner Ronald D. Moore, who got his start writing ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ and has since gone on to the likes of the successful ‘Battlestar Galactica’ re-imagining and ‘For All Mankind,’ and has period drama experience via ‘Outlander’.

What’s the story of ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’?

(L to R) Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh in ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’. Photo: Sony Pictures Classics.

Here’s the official logline from the series:

“Amidst stunning landscapes and spectacular action, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon follows Shu Lien and Mu Bai, two star-crossed warriors, as they struggle between forbidden love and the pull of modernity — caught between preserving their way of life or embracing a future together.”

And with five novels in existence, there is plenty of material for the series to draw from –– the 2000 movie, in fact, took elements from several books in Wang DuLu’s work.

Who could star in the ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ TV series?

(L to R) Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh in ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’. Photo: Sony Pictures Classics.

The show has yet to reach the casting stage; or at least to the point where deals are starting to be made.

Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fat played the two lead roles in Lee’s film, which also starred Zhang Ziyi.

While it’s likely that the series would want to start afresh with a group of new talent or rising stars, but given that Yeoh was one of the leads in Ning’s ‘The Brothers Sun,’ there’s a good chance she’ll be involved in some way, even if she doesn’t reprise her role from the movie directly.

Whoever does end up in the ensemble will need to be ready for extensive training and preparation, since a hallmark of the movie –– and therefore presumably the show –– is the complicated, balletic wuxia fighting scenes.

What else is Jason Ning working on?

Ning had been part of the team developing Marvel Comics property ‘Silk: Spider Society’ into a series alongside ‘The Walking Dead’ veteran Angela Kang, but that was scrapped by Sony and Amazon last year.

Ning’s previous TV jobs include writing gigs on ‘Lucifer,’ ‘The Expanse and ‘Mrs. Davis,’ and he’s also developing a series based on Wesley Chu’s novel series ‘War Arts Saga,’ set in a world where martial arts are magic, and a grandmaster takes a spoiled would-be hero under her wing to fulfill his destiny of defeating an immortal god-king and ending a centuries-long war.

Uta Briesewitz is attached to that one as director, but it’s in limbo right now.

What else does Ronald D. Moore have in the works?

The busy Moore has several projects that’s either helped to launch or is overseeing right now, including ‘Outlander’ prequel series ‘Blood of My Blood’ (due on Starz this year) and ‘Star City,’ a spin-off that re-imagines the ‘For All Mankind’ alt-history story through the lens of the Russian space service.

He’s also the head writer on a series adaptation of the ‘God of War’ video games and has been developing a show that offers a fresh take on the ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ story for Disney, with ‘Wicked’ director Jon M. Chu board.