Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh, the stars of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, are to reunite for another historical epic.

Hua Mulan, a $30m period costume drama, is being produced by Hong Kong's Han Entertainment and Mythical films, Yeoh's company.

The film concerns a legendary Chinese heroine who disguised herself as a man to fight against invading tribes of Turkic nomads. The same figure got the Disney treatment in 1996, although the new film should be harder hitting.

Thomas Chung, managing director of Han Entertainment, described the project as "Braveheart meets Ran" and said that he was "absolutely thrilled to be involved in a project that brings these two icons [Chow and Yeoh] together again".

Shooting is set to start in China in August, with Peter Pau directing and Corey Yuen responsible for fight choreography.