Asian news outlets are reporting that Korean actor Kwon Sang-woo is currently in talks to play the Green Hornet's hyper-competent sidekick, alongside a bumbling Seth Rogen. Kwon is known largely as a heartthrob in Korea, having starred in many a romantic soap opera, but he's also has a modest bit of on-screen martial arts experience, thanks to roles in the fantastical Volcano High and gangster-themed Once Upon a Time in High School.

Several outlets have noted Kwon's imperfect English might be the major obstacle to his being cast, but even if he manages to break the language barrier, his action resume doesn't begin to approach Chow's, and it's going to be tough for him to live up to the expectations everyone had for Chow's performance in the role.

[Twitch]

SpoilerTV posted the casting call on Friday afternoon:

[KATO] ALL ASIAN ETHNICITIES, Male, 20's - early 40's. Brit Reid's manservant/chauffeur by day and Green Hornet's martial arts-skilled sidekick by night. Actor doesn't have to have Martial Arts experience.

Chow's co-starring role in the movie was initially in doubt following his quitting as director, but sources involved in the movie had suggested that he would stay on with the arrival of Gondry as director. This new casting call hints at more behind the scenes changes, and not just in the casting: "Actor doesn't have to have Martial Arts experience"? Isn't that, you know, Kato's whole thing?

[Via /Film]

The movie won't be written or directed by Chow; instead, animation veteran Toe Yuen will direct, with the new movie featuring many actors voicing the characters they played in the 2008 original. Chow's assistant is quoted by Variety, partially explaining the movie:

It's more like a sequel to 'CJ-7' and we will begin shooting this September. We're not revealing the budget and Stephen Chow will executive produce.

The new movie is expected to debut late 2010.

Chow to produce 'CJ-7' animation [Variety]

According to Wei Dasen (reporting in China.org.cn) Chow's company has its sites set on a CG-heavy, explosion-packed comedy. Chow mentioned before that he wanted to work with funnyman Jack Black on his next project, and Hathaway is known for tackling big-budget comedy features in between her indie projects, so the timing seems right. But what kind of superhero would Hathaway be? My guess: a by-the-book action star who needs loosening up... enter Jack Black. Hopefully it'll be a bit more creative than that, but probably not. Chow is currently writing the screenplay and will also co-star.

[via slashfilm]

Hitflix.com is reporting rumors, going around Sundance last week, that it was "highly unlikely" that Green Hornet" will be made this year, following director/actor Chow's withdrawal from the project, due to cold feet at studio Sony. While we're surprised at the news — Surely Rogen was always going to be the box office draw for the movie? — we're also pleased, as it was definitely Chow's involvement that got us paying attention to the movie in the first place.

The website is careful not to pronounce the movie entirely dead, however, so don't be expected if these rumors turn out to be entirely false. But maybe if we hope and pray to whatever deities we believe in...

Has Rogen's 'Green Hornet' Been Defeated? [HitFlix]

The new development in Chow's increasing distance from the Hornet movie comes from the Associated Press, which also revealed that Chow stepped down as Hornet director because of his interest in working on an original superhero movie with Jack Black, proving that Chow's taste in American comedians may be improving.

However, the AP article also notes that "Chow said whether he stays on to play Kato in "The Green Hornet" depends on his schedule," which is a change from initial reports, which said that he would definitely be staying on as an actor. A sign that that he's continuing to move away from the project? Possibly. Definitely a sign that we're becoming less and less optimistic about the project, though.

Chow drops out as director of 'Green Hornet' [International Herald Tribune/AP]

Chow, the man behind Shaolin Soccer and CJ7, signed onto the project in September to both direct and star as Rogen's kung-fu sidekick Kato (A role made famous by Bruce Lee in the 1960s TV series), but news broke late last night that he was stepping down from the director's role due to "creative differences," although he will still be acting in the movie.

Producers are, apparently, confident that they'll have a replacement director by the end of the year, but all I have to say is this: When the creative differences are between the man who wrote Superbad and the man who made Shaolin Soccer, and the man who wrote Superbad won, then that's never a good thing.

Chow no longer to direct 'Hornet' [Variety]

Apparently its been in the works for 10 years and it's titled simply, Robot. Lau has partnered with Le TV.com and has created a film company, and Robot will be their first production. The giant-robot film will

present a refreshing look at Chinese robots for people who are used to stereotypical Hollywood figures like Spiderman and Superman. He said the Chinese robot, in comparison, would feel closer and more human to audiences.

The film will begin shooting on November 19th in China.

[Crienglish via Twitch]

Seth Rogen filled the press in on his latest comings and goings, but mostly geeked about about Stephen Chow being involved in Green Hornet (and rightfully so).

On Chow's involvement:

He's a great guy. He's really funny. And we're just thrilled every time we're in a room with him we're like 'How the fuck did this happen? We got him! We actually got him!' It's really exciting and it's exciting because a lot of people want to work with him so as we hire our production designer and cinematographers were getting to choose from very good people because, and we didn't know this, apparently it's as exciting to everyone else as it was to us that Stephen is making a movie in America. So, it's great. We're amazed and thrilled that we ultimately might be the thing that brought him to America and his first American movie is also our movie. Honestly, it's more exciting that I'm in a Stephen Chow than the 'Green Hornet' even.

Once they signed Chow on Hornet I completely rethought my dislike for this strange adaptation. And Rogen said Chow is getting his hands dirty with the script and adding his own ideas:

Stephen had a lot of ideas and that's exactly what we wanted and I feel like. We want our directors to feel like it's their movie too. We don't want them to feel like they are just guys brought in to film what we wrote. We want them to feel like they can stand behind it also. So far we haven't disagreed, we're all just trying to figure out who he should be.

But what about the rumors that Rogen is already slated to be the newbie ghost hunting kids for Ghostbusters 3? Well not only has Rogen not been approached officially or unofficially, but he's not so keen on the idea:

I mean just as a movie fan I am the first guy to be skeptical of that. It sounds like a terrible idea when you first hear it. At first hearing it sounds like the worst idea ever. I dunno. Maybe. I mean, that would have to be one mutherfucking good script.

And finally Rogen took some time to address his gelatinous character Bob the blob from Monsters Vs. Aliens. The leaked trailer is online already, but we'll get to see the official trailer on the Kung Fu Panda DVD.

I play a blob. We're monsters and I play Bob, he's called, and he's a gelatinous blob with no brain so he's stupid. It's a very funny character actually. It's a great movie. I've had a lot of fun doing it.

More of the interview over at Collider including IMAX Hornet details.

Rogen said all along he wants Green Hornet to be about an action hero who's less famous than his sidekick. Which makes sense, given that everybody remembers Bruce Lee as chauffeur/sidekick Kato from the 1960s TV show, and absolutely nobody remembers the guy who played the Green Hornet himself. So it's really amazing news that Stephen Chow, a comedy giant with a string of movies like Kung-Fu Hustle and God Of Cooking under his belt, will play Kato. And since Chow is also directing, he can presumably make sure Kato gets the spotlight.

Says Chow:

I'm excited to be taking on ‘The Green Hornet’ — obviously, I’ve been a huge fan of the show since I was a kid. The idea of stepping into Bruce Lee’s shoes as Kato is both humbling and thrilling, and to get the chance to direct the project as my American movie debut is simply a dream come true.

Says Rogen:

Stephen was always my and [co-screenwriter] Evan [Goldberg]’s first choice for director and to play Kato. We just hope that he never finds out we’re not the Wachowski Brothers.

I'm also stoked because this makes Chow's second science fiction-y movie, after CJ7. I'm still hoping this spurs a trend in Chinese movies, away from kung-fu epics and towards scifi ones.

I just hope they keep all the scifi touches, like the Hornet's gun that sprays knock-out gas, and his electric stun weapon known as the "Hornet's Sting." (Actually, the latter sounds a bit like a taser, come to think of it.) Also, let's hope the Green Hornet is still a newspaper publisher by day — I totally want to see Arthur Ochs Sultzberger fighting crime. [MTV]

Watching the trailer, you'd have no idea what to expect from the film. When you see a trailer for an American movie these days, you've seen the funniest lines, the biggest explosions, and you know all the beats in the story to look for. With this one, we went in knowing there's something about a toy and an alien, and a little kid who screams a lot... but only in the trailer.

While the movie is a "Stephen Chow Film" about CJ7, which turns out to be a weird sort of alien/toy hybrid, the real star of the film is Xu Jiao. She plays the part of Dicky Chow, a boy, who receives CJ7 as a piece of flotsam his dad picked up in the junkyard. She has more screen time than either Chow or the completely CGI-ized CJ7, and she's both charming and funny.

In fact, for the first time in one of Chow's films, children are the real stars of the movie, and he gets some stellar performances out of them. Check out the round-headed boy (who is also played by a girl) who wants to be an entrepreneur in the clip above. He ends up becoming Dicky's nemesis (more on that in the clip below), and later you realize you could watch an entire movie about the daily lives of these schoolkids.

Anyhow, the basic plot is that Dicky and his father are extremely poor, and Dicky's father works long hours in a construction job just to be able to send his son to an expensive private school. As a result, they live near squalor in a house that is falling apart, and he can't afford to buy Dicky any of the cool toys that the other kids have at school, like CJ1, a sort of Sony Aibo looking robodog. Dicky feels left out, and his dad goes searching through the junkyard to find a toy for Dicky.

That's where things go wonky. He finds a hunk of bright green phlegm-colored plastic that looks like either a strange basketball, or something that fell off a fisherman's boat. It's a poor toy compared to a robot, that's for sure. However, when Dicky's dad locks him in a closer for misbehaving (something Dicky does frequently), the ball comes to life and puts Dicky in some sort of a holographic projection that shows him a set of instructions in rebus-form. Later, the ball comes to life, and eventually becomes a little half fluffy / half plastic toy dog.

Dicky thinks the dog has magic powers and can help him handle the bullies at school. In fact, some of the best scenes in the movie are the fantasy sequences (like the scene below where CJ7 faces "the most violent dog in the world") that unfold in Dicky's mind. In reality, CJ7 is more like a little Pomeranian toy dog than a robotic alien savior, but he does come imbued with E.T.-esque healing powers that work on both people and machines.

Eventually Dicky has to learn to live without CJ7, although this is a movie aimed at kids and families, so don't expect it to end on a sad note. Much like Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, this film is a bit like Looney Tunes on acid, with extreme over the top action sequences and CGI effects. The scenes with CJ7 and Dicky at school are the best in the film, and highlight how creative this Chow can be. At its worst moments, the movie drags a bit with Chow himself struggling at his job, or the heavy-handed father/son relationship which is tenuous at best.

CJ7 might look cutesy Hello Kitty-ish, but we totally want one on our shelves. The film opens this weekend, and is definitely worth checking out, especially if you like slapstick comedy and a little cuteness in your aliens.

Says Hindu News Service:

Failed by a lackluster script, CJ7 fails to deliver heartwarming family humor, but it's redeemed by its computer-animated star — the lovable extra-terrestrial dog-like creature CJ7, which the movie is named after.

Online fan reviews are even harsher, saying things like: "There was no plot." Or "I almost asked for my money back." (Although that second commenter warmed up to it.) And then one science fiction fan comments that the alien creature weirdly doesn't add much to the movie other than being cute:

It was clearly meant to be little more than a humorous piece, lighthearted and fun. It achieved that. But, as a fan of science fiction and fantasy, I found it interesting that the film could get away with such a thin development of the alien creature, and old-fashioned style spaceships.

This trailer shows the film's storyline way more clearly than the earlier teaser trailer, including Chow losing his construction job, romancing a rich lady, and scavenging in the junkyard to find something his son can use to impress the rich kids at his boarding school. And then of course he finds the alien critter, which helps the boy (who's actually played by a girl) fulfill every kid's school revenge fantasies. Including soccer p0wnage and putting the smackdown on the mean teacher. I'm not sure if the sentimental streak in Chow's humor will win over American audiences without kung fu in the mix, but I bet it'll do well in China. [Twitch]

CJ7 will obviously be the most sentimental and schlocky film in Chow's career. But the pea-green puppy, with its furry head and one antenna, could also be the new E.T. [China.org.cn.]

Co-writer/director Ken England is an American who's lived in Japan for years. He enlisted the aid of Japanese TV and movie veterans, and the result has an old-school sci-fi look. I like the non-CGI space monster the Oavian. The iDol is a satire of otaku (fan) culture, but looks as though it could have a creepy underside, what with the doll's eye-blasts and the hooded figures. It also looks similar to CJ7, the new Stephen Chow movie about an ordinary person who finds an alien object with magic powers. The iDol made its North American debut at Vancouver Comicon in October, but no word on when it'll show in the U.S. [SciFiJapan]

The plot definitely sounds a little schmaltzy: Chow plays an unemployed guy who lives in a half-demolished building and adopts a homeless boy (played by a girl.) He can't afford to buy the kid a toy, so he finds a shiny object in a junkyard, which turns out to be an alien artifact of tremendous power. And then aliens turn up looking for it. The visual of the spaceship rising out of the junk heap, animating a dead television, has a slapsticky coolness to it. But the little kid's bone-rattling scream could get old fast. CJ7 (also called Hope) is supposed to hit theaters Jan. 1, according to Fandango, but the just-released trailer doesn't mention a date. Bottom line: Chow has earned enough good will with Soccer and Hustle to make his father/son space adventure worth checking out.

Stephen Chow's Sci-Fi/Comedy Will Give "A Hope" To Audiences [Twitch]

No. But it will have hella cool stunts. Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer) is producing, and director James Wong will work with stunt performance company 87Eleven, which worked on The Matrix and 300. Buffy actor James Marsters will star as the villain, Piccolo. If Chow brings his trademark kinetic wit and Marsters conjures a smidgen of his Spike swagger, Dragonball could be several cuts above most cartoon/video game adaptations.

Dragonball Movie Set To Roll [Hollywood Reporter]