THE STORM RIDERS II Is A Go

Love the idea or hate it, the sequel to megahit The Storm Riders will be directed by the Pang Brothers. Given their dismal track record post-The Eye, it's got to worry fans a bit.

The Pangs have proven their ability of handling big-budget special effects extravaganzas, with Re-Cycle, and I think we can safely say there's no doubt The Storm Riders II will be visually arresting. It's already been noted at the Hong Kong Filmart that it will be the first HK film to shot exclusively with blue screen, and the aim is to have the visual bravura of 300. All well and good, but let's just hope the Pangs will bring back the storytelling finesse of their early movies.

There's also the fact that late last year, Andrew Lau, who directed the first movie, was unaware that a sequel by the Pangs had been rumoured, and he revealed that he had, for two years, been working on a sequel himself. The Pangs' version is said to have no relation to the original (except for the leads Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng), but Lau's is a direct continuation. Not sure what happened to that.

Apart from the return of Kwok and Cheng, the sequel will also star Simon Yam, Nicholas Tse and Charlene Choi.

The original Storm Riders, adapted from the legendary Ma Wing Shing's comicbook series Wind And Cloud, ranks up there with some of the best comicbook movies ever. I always thought they had the idea for Arnie and the coffin in T3 after seeing Aaron Kwok kicking ass carrying a coffin!