Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow Sing-chi said he will no longer direct the Hollywood adaptation of The Green Hornet and may not star as Kato, a character made famous by Bruce Lee in the short-lived TV series.
Chow, whose credits include Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, said he wants to free up time to work with Jack Black on a comedy about a superhero.
"If I direct The Green Hornet, the superhero comedy will have to be delayed for two years," Chow said. "The timing might not be right for a superhero comedy in two years. And I want to make a movie based on an original idea."
Details about that movie were not immediately available.
ADVERTISEMENT
Columbia Pictures announced Chow's involvement in The Green Hornet in September.
A publicist for Columbia Pictures did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Chow said whether he stays on to play Kato in The Green Hornet depends on his schedule.
The original series, which debuted on the radio in Detroit in 1936, is about a debonair newspaper publisher who moonlights as a masked crime-fighter along with his martial-arts-expert sidekick.
In 1966, it was turned into an ABC television series starring Van Williams as the title character and Bruce Lee as Kato.
It ran for one season.
Chow has worked with Sony Pictures Entertainment, which runs Columbia Pictures, for several years.
Sony co-produced and released Kung Fu Hustle in 2004 and distributed his latest film, CJ7, earlier this year. Columbia Pictures said in September that its version of The Green Hornet will premiere on June 25, 2010. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Trademark and Copyright Notice: Copyright
2005, The Standard Newspaper Publishing Ltd., and its related entities. All
rights reserved. Use in whole or part of this site's content is
prohibited. Use of this Web site assumes acceptance of the
Terms of Use
and
Copyright Policy.
Please also read our
Ethics Statement.
