Ang Lee goes location hunting

Director Ang Lee has been scouring the mainland for almost a month looking for a location to shoot a new film, according to the Chinese papers. The tour has encompassed Shanghai, Beijing and Yunnan province. Lee's brother says that they are in the process of looking for a writer and a partner as well - but there's no official word yet on what the next project might be.

Will it be a prequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (with Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh)? Other sources say that the Oscar-winning director is looking for an ideal place to shoot Brokeback Mountain, a gay Western based on a novel by Pulitzer Prize winner E. Annie Proulx (she wrote The Shipping News).

It's a love story about a rodeo rider and a ranch hand set in Texas and Wyoming. Lee has also been spotted scouting out the rodeo town of Calgary, Alberta, famous for its Calgary stampede.