Zhang's "Flower" blooms for Sony Pictures Classics

International stars Chow Yun-Fat ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") and Gong Li ("Memoirs of a Geisha") soon will be returning to American shores.

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up North American and Latin American rights to "House of Flying Daggers" director Zhang Yimou's martial-arts romantic drama "Curse of the Golden Flower."

The feature, shooting in China, follows the medieval saga of a dysfunctional royal family led by a king (Chow) and queen (Gong) engaged in power struggles with their three sons and each other.

Zhang's "Daggers" and "Hero" action choreographer, Tony Ching Siu-Tung, returns for similar duties on this film, which also reunites the director with Gong ("Raise the Red Lantern," "Shanghai Triad"). This is the director's ninth project with Sony Pictures Classics, which hasn't yet set a release date for the film.

"We feel 'Curse of the Golden Flower' will be a culmination of Zhang Yimou's great career," SPC co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard said. The execs worked with Kong on "Daggers" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," SPC's biggest hit.