By Winnie Chung

HONG KONG (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Michelle Yeoh's romantic action-adventure "The Touch" is still in the editing room, but producer Mythical Films has greenlighted a $30 million sequel, likely to go into production during the coming year.

The project will reunite the original production team, which includes Yeoh as star and producer, producer Thomas Chung, director Peter Pau and screenwriters Laurent Courtiaud, Julien Carbon and J.D. Zeik.

"The decision to make a sequel came after we saw the edit done by Marshall Harvey and Peter Pau," said Chung, chairman of Han Entertainment Inc., which owns Mythical. "The more we saw, the more confident we were that when 'The Touch' comes out, it will be good. We didn't want to rush the sequel, so we want to start planning early."

Yeoh is vice chairman of Han Entertainment and CEO of Mythical.

The $20 million "Touch," a co-production of Mythical and Taiwan's Pandasia Entertainment, is scheduled for a summer release. Aside from Harvey ("Small Soldiers"), Mythical has brought aboard Basil Poledouris ("Les Miserables") for the original score. Skywalker Sound will handle sound effects.

"The Touch 2" might pre-empt Mythical's next planned project, "Hua Mulan," a period action-drama in development.

"The question of which comes first is still up in the air," Chung said. "We will have a better idea after (this month's) American Film Market."

"Hua," a live-action take on the "Mulan" legend the Walt Disney Co. tackled with its 1998 animated feature, is budgeted at $25 million-$35 million and was scheduled to start production during the third quarter of this year.

Chung and Yeoh will meet with Miramax, which has acquired North American rights to "Touch," about the sequel.

"I've enjoyed working with Miramax tremendously on 'The Touch,' " Chung said. "And indeed we would love to explore if we could work together again."

Like "Touch," its sequel will be filmed mainly in China.

"The story will not be too challenging; it will be another fast-paced action-adventure," Chung said. "The challenge for us is to scout locations in China that will give us the 'wow' factor. There are still many locations there for a great adventure."

"Touch 2" and "Hua" are joined on this year's Han Entertainment production slate by the $10 million "Jiang Shi 2002," a contemporary take on the legendary Chinese vampire (jiang shi means "vampire" in Chinese) that is in preproduction. Courtiaud and Carbon are developing the script, and shooting is expected to begin during the second quarter.

Chung, Yeoh and Zeik are also in partnership to develop "Hired Gun," an action movie set in Hong Kong that Chung describes as "Ronin" meets "The Bodyguard." The $10 million film is expected to star a "substantial Hollywood male lead."

Two other medium-budget films are in negotiation. "One is a movie with a strong moral message from a new director, and the other will be a drama by a director who had previously collaborated with me at Media Asia (the Hong Kong distribution-production group Chung headed until last year)," Chung said.

Han Entertainment also is looking to develop winning projects from a screenwriting and short-film competition organized by Mythical's Creative Development Fund, set up in April. The fund received more than 600 script entries and 1,000 short films from the greater China region.

"We were encouraged with the results," Chung said. "We believe it will be a new creative source and provide opportunities for the next generation of behind-the-scenes talent. Certain scripts are being developed, and directors are under negotiations."

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