Hong Kong actor/director/writer Stephen Chow - best known in the West for Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle - will both direct and co-star as Kato in Columbia's big screen Green Hornet. He joins Seth Rogan (Pineapple Express, The Forty Year Old Virgin) who has slimmed down for the role. According to The Hollywood Reporter Chow's appointment "gives an inkling to the kind of movie Columbia is looking to make as Chow is known for his martial arts action-meets-Bugs Bunny style." We don't think it's going for Dark Knight gritty realism, somehow.
The Green Hornet was created for a '30s radio show by the same guy who created The Lone Ranger (and, in fact, the two heroes are supposed to be related). He is newspaper publisher Britt Reid by day and a masked crimefighter at night, aided by the Kato, his manservant. The 1960s TV version intorduiced Bruce Lee to US audiences, when he played the role of Kato.
