Now this is interesting news. Just last week when Matt covered the best fights of movie history, he cited the battle between Norris and Bruce Lee from ‘Way of the Dragon’. It’s a cool movie. Maybe not the best of Lee’s output, but a martial arts fan must give it due respect. As they also must Stephen Chow. This guy has been churning out spoofy, high-camp antics for decades and he’s a spirited and canny director to boot. Kung-Fu Hustle is one of the best comedies of the last ten years and some of his older work, including The Mad Monk, is just pure, joyful zaniness.

When we last heard, Chow was signed on for The Green Hornet, and when that fell apart, he has jumped onto directing ‘Tai-Chi’, a film based off of Lee’s Way of the Dragon. The word is that Jack Black and Anne Hathaway are also on-board for it, and since Chow is helming, expect it to not be a straight remake, but possess plenty of charm and insanity.

Chow will also play the starring role, which in the original film was a dishwasher who also moonlighted as a Tai Chi Master, bringing his skills to bear when a gang starts terrorizing the town. Yea, I know, sounds like every other martial arts movie from the time period. But Way was all down to the style and execution, and if it’s one that Chow has going for him, it’s style.

Consider me excited for this one. What do you think? Need a reminder to the awesome of Kung-Fu Hustle? Behold!

Kung-POW

Taiwanese actor-singer and all-around-good-looking chap, Jay Chou, has been cast as Kato, Green Hornet’s sidekick in the upcoming big-screen adaptation of the cult ’60s show The Green Hornet.

Chou replaces Stephen Chow who left production for reasons unknown but presumably sound. Chou, who is evidently a chart-topping artist at home, was seen in The Curse of the Golden Flower and Initial D.

“[Chou] is incredibly unique and charming and fights like a wild dog,” said Hornet director Michel Gondry.

Chou steps into a role made famous by legendary martial artist Bruce Lee.

The Green Hornet has been plagued with trouble since pre-production when Chow backed away from directing duties. The Kung Fu Hustle director intended to stay on as Kato but ultimately decided to leave for what is believed to be “irreconcilable differences.”

Cock joke practitioner Seth Rogen is set to play the Green Hornet and co-wrote the script with his right testicle Evan Goldberg. (Now you can see why Chow may have left…)

Cameron Diaz and Nicolas Cage have recently been added to the growing cast.

You can check out Chou and his kicks in the flaccid Hong Kong actioner Dunk, which Variety said “lacks the nonsense humor and cartoon action of hits like Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer, Chou is attempting to fill in as Hong Kong’s latest action star.”

I am not just Kato, I am..anybody now!

Stephen Chow, who originally was going to direct The Green Hornet and ended up just being Kato in the updated film version of the television show, has abandoned ship. What has been described by the studios as simply “mutual and amicable decision by both sides to move on”, it looks like there’s been some trouble with having Chow on the film to begin with.

The feature version of this hit late 1960s television series stars Seth Rogen as the debonair Britt Reid, Cameron Diaz as the female lead/most likely love interest and now nobody at all as his sidekick of sorts, Kato. Still unmoved for its July 2010 release date, and for initial filming to begin within September, Columbia Pictures will have to scramble to get themselves another badass martial artist actor of sorts to slide into the role. In this reporter’s opinion, it’s better for this to happen a couple of months before filming commences rather than a couple of weeks beforehand.

Columbia has moved Michel Gondry’s upcoming adaptation of TV’s The Green Hornet back two weeks to accommodate Denni Dugan’s comedy, Grown Ups. Green Hornet will be moving from June 25, 2010 to July 9, 2010 while Grown Ups moves from March 12th to a spiffy new June 15th date.
Columbia is hoping to rake in some cash before the third entry in the tween vampire series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, drops in to swoon suburban goth girls.
The Green Hornet stars Seth Rogen as newspaper publisher Britt Reid. When not working to save his daily from the evil of the economy, he puts on a green mask and saves damsels.

Fuzzy face.

Dugan’s Grown Ups stars the fabo cast of Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider and the lovely Ms. Salma Hayek. The story is about five best friends from high school who reunite 30 years later on a Fourth of July weekend.

Dugan has also directed Big Daddy and Happy Gilmore.

Thanks to ERC via /Film