Just days ago Devin reported that Stephen Chow was out of the director’s chair for Seth Rogen’s The Green Hornet, and now an AP article suggests he may also bail on the character Kato. Instead, he’d rather do a superhero movie with Jack Black.
“If I direct The Green Hornet, the superhero comedy will have to be
delayed for two years,” Chow told AP, which also says that the deciding factor with respect to playing Kato will be scheduling. “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.” Which is interesting, as the reason for Chow skipping out as director was said to be ‘creative differences’ just a couple of days ago. Having another project he prefers to do is at least a better excuse for moving on, and in the long run the reason doesn’t matter to us.
This is disappointing, at least to me. I know a lot of people don’t like Chow’s brand of CGI-enhanced mugging (and after CJ7 I’m also wary of his less than subtle touch) but without anything invested in this character, I liked the potential for Chow to play with the increasingly established superhero formula.