It's time once again for another thrilling round of pin the project on the director! We are unabashedly, enormous, massive, stupendous and ridiculous fans of Yuen Wo Ping. You think? And so any news of his continued work in martial arts films is welcomed with open arms and big childish grins on our faces.

Beijing-based Perfect World announces that they have signed up Yuen Wo Ping to direct 《新笑傲江湖》 New Swordsman / New State of Divinity (tentative). Perfect World representative says that as they haven't finalized the script, which is in the third draft, the cast has not been determined, in spite of rumors of Takeshi Kaneshiro being invited to play Linghu Chong, Zhou Xun as Ren Ying Ying and Jay Chow as Asia Invincible.

Described as a unique all-new wuxia film with radical visuals, the story traces Linghu Chong's exploits when he gets accused and expelled by his master for stealing Lin family's Bixie Swordplay Manual after mastering Lonesome Nine Sword Techniques, a peerless form of fencing that counters any other skills by means of spotting and striking at opponents' vulnerabilities, that a reclusive Huashan elder Feng Qing Yang imparted to him in secret.

Production for New Swordsman, which reportedly has a budget of 200m yuan, begins no earlier than late February next year.