The Storm Riders are Back in a $12 Million Sequel

I had heard that the Pang Brothers had been inked to do “The Storm Riders 2″, sequel to the 1998 fantasy hit a while back, but hadn’t heard anything else since. There are plenty of news now, with Variety reporting that the film, budgeted at $12 million, will be shot almost exclusively on blue screen and custom sets, ala Zack Snyder’s “300″. The film will star Simon Yam as Lord Godless, “Dragon Tiger Gate’s” Nicholas Tse as Heart, the Twins’ Charlene Choi as Second Dream, and newcomer Tiffany T. as Chu Chu. For fans of the original, Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng, who played Cloud and Wind in the first film, will return to headline this one as well.

More:

“The Storm Riders II” will the first Hong Kong movie that is filmed exclusively on blue screen and custom-made sets,” said executive producer Daneil Lam. “Post production will be particularly important and worth putting the money into. Our goal is to produce a very visually stunning movie.”

“The Storm Riders II” is an adaptation of comic master Ma Wing Shing’s 1990s best-selling “Fung Wan”. The original pic, helmed by Andrew Lau of “Infernal Affairs” fame, did boffo B.O. in Hong Kong, [reeling] in HK$41 million a decade ago.

Production is set to commence sometime next month, with an eye toward a late 2009 release in Asia.

Meanwhile, Twitchfilm has some character concept art from the movie: