Tsui's initial film, starring Hong Kong's Leon Lai and Charlie Yeung, scored big at the box office but left some critics and viewers in mainland China perplexed as to where the story was headed.

Tsui's wife, Nansun Shi, said work was underway on a script and that they hoped to begin filming by the end of the year. There's still a lot of story to be told, Shi, who helps run Tsui's production company, Film Workshop, told The Associated Press.

Boasting a plot strongly similar to Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, Seven Swords portrays a group of martial arts experts defending a village from marauders, concluding with their departure for Beijing to meet the emperor.

One of the top Chinese-language filmmakers working today, Tsui is best known for his action and adventure fare, including the Once Upon in China series starring a pre-Hollywood Jet Li.