Well, our enthusiasm levels for Seth Rogen’s The Green Hornet just dropped about 27%, with the news that Stephen Chow – the mad genius behind Shaolin Soccer and Kung-Fu Hustle – has dropped out of the director’s chair.
No reason has been given for Chow’s departure – but since he’s still attached to play Kato, the high-kicking sidekick to Rogen’s masked millionaire, Britt Reid, the split can’t have been too acrimonious.
Now, with a Spring start for filming and a 2010 release date looming large, Sony and producer Neal Moritz are now scrambling to find a director who can bring Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s script to life. It’ll be a surprise if they can find anyone whose action/comedy sensibilities match those of Chow’s, but we’ll wait and see.
And just to clarify, we’re still excited to see this – who doesn’t want to see Seth Rogen as a crimefighting superhero? – but Chow’s involvement as director had placed this right near the top of our must-see list. Now, it’s somewhere in the middle.