Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2 could be in trouble. Not long ago the Weinstein brothers announced their company Weinstein Co., had acquired the rights to the “Crane-Iron Pentalogy”, the series of books on which the original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is based. It seems that Columbia Pictures disagrees, and they claim they own all things Crouching.
Columbia’s reps say they picked up the rights to all four books last year, and sealed it with an oral agreement. You’d think a multi-million dollar corporation would have the sense to get it in writing, but apparently they didn’t. Columbia claims they got the rights from one Dr. Hong Wang, the same guy Weinstein got them from. Except the Weinstein Company actually has his signature on a piece of paper, while Columbia has absolutely nothing. In fact, Hong Wang and his representatives say they’re flat out lying.
For anyone eagerly awaiting more CTHD, forget it. It doesn’t sound like Columbia Pictures is willing to let this one go without a fight, even though they aren’t exactly dealing from a position of strength. The Weinstein brothers have already filed a lawsuit to stop Columbia from using the books as a source for moviemaking, and have also challenged Columbia execs to a floaty sword battle to be held next Tuesday in the branches of a tall tree. CTHD 2 looks well on its way to being lost in a dizzying array of boorish legal battles, of the type that kept Spider-Man out of movie theaters for several decades before Sony finally sorted things out and got their movie done.
