'The Green Hornet' Has a New Kato
Filed under: Action, Casting, Sony, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels
It looks like the cast for The Green Hornet is complete once more, and the masked man has a new Kato. Columbia Pictures announced that Jay Chou has been cast as the Hornet's trusty mechanic / ass kicker, replacing Stephen Chow . This will be his first American film, though audiences might remember him from The Curse of the Golden Flower or Kung Fu Dunk. Chou is a superstar in Taiwan, and has an exhaustive resume as a singer, producer, actor, director, and writer. There's not much he hasn't done ... except martial arts. Unless his biography is wrong, he has no martial art experience, putting him right in line with that open casting call that was so widely reported. Will this mean Kato will take a bit of a backseat to the Hornet, and not be a powerhouse like Bruce Lee?
His acting has received very poor reviews from Asian critics, but his performance in Curse was complimented by American critics, so Hornet will be quite a test for him. I honestly can't remember a single thing about Golden Flower other than its epic and blinding color scheme, so I can't judge whether or not he'll be a good Kato. Nothing about the pre-production of Seth Rogen's Hornet has met expectations good or bad (Nicolas Cage as the villain?), and the project continues to feel like one giant exercise in Wait and See.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-08-2009 @ 3:38PM
Adam said...
What?!?!??! For the uninitiated, this is like putting Zac Efron in a martial arts film. This comment applies to the earlier post about the "Enter the Dragon" remake as well....was Donnie Yen busy? Nicholas Tse got too much on his plate. Same goes for Wu Jing, Xing Yu, or Colin Chow. I guess I'll have to stick to HK flicks to see martial arts films that actually contain martial arts!!
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8-08-2009 @ 6:51PM
Nooi said...
he was in the film called "Kung Fu Dunk" (kinda like Sholin Basketball)
That's pretty much of martial art,Dude.
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8-09-2009 @ 12:31PM
Scott K. said...
This is going to be a disaster. As usually happens when the suits make the decisions instead of people that actually care about the product instead of profits.
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8-09-2009 @ 5:17PM
Adam said...
The sad part is that I thought Seth Rogen actually cared about the material and had some sway in the decision making process. Obviously one of those things isn't true or else Jay Chou wouldn't be Kato. As for "Kung-Fu Dunk" being a martial arts movie, that was as much a martial arts film as "High School Musical" was a basketball film.
8-09-2009 @ 9:09PM
Leigh said...
Ugh, that's a horrible choice. Not only can this guy not do martial arts, but he can't act and - somewhat critically, one would think - cannot speak English. Will the part be written in Mandarin for him?
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8-09-2009 @ 10:02PM
Edward said...
Does he speak English?
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8-10-2009 @ 1:11AM
Manny said...
Kato was a Kung Fu man, so why did they pick a pop singer? Because someone screwed up!
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8-11-2009 @ 11:08AM
Ruby said...
Go check on wiki about Jay Chou then you'll be happy to have him as Kato!
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8-25-2009 @ 1:51AM
Fiona said...
Amen Ruby! The critics are going to be surprised (and pleasantly so) as JayChou is the most gifted AND diciplined creative powerhouse I've ever witnessed. I just hope Hollywood doesn't taint him, somehow.
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8-29-2009 @ 3:11AM
dee said...
He is not a complete martial arts idiot you guys, he knows his stuff. Stop making sweeping statements if you don't even know what's going on.
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8-29-2009 @ 3:15AM
dee said...
besides, why are you even drawing a parallel between The Green Hornet and HSM? Nobody ever said The Green Hornet is going to be a martial art-kind of action flick, you people are just inferring that it is because bruce lee was the first generation Kato and he was a martial arts star. Correct me if I'm wrong but Stephen Chow isn't much of a kungfu master either so what's the gripe about casting Jay Chou?
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9-04-2009 @ 11:41AM
Kato1930 said...
well, I'm a fan of Jay Chou. Honestly I don't really like Jay Chou plays Kato, because he isn't a Kung Fu star. By the way, Kato, was a famous character, it was played by Bruce Lee(and it was the reason Kato was famous than Green Hornet). To me, Jay Chou or Stephen Chow both are not supposed to play this character. They should find some Kung Fu star, like Jet Li, Jackie Chan or Donnie Yen.
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