Chow quits Kato role in 'The Green Hornet'

BEIJING -- Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow has quit his planned role as Kato in the Hollywood film "The Green Hornet," the movie version of the 1960s TV series that starred Bruce Lee, a newspaper reported Monday.

Chow was originally slated to direct the film and star alongside Seth Rogen, but dropped out as director in December so he could develop a superhero movie with Jack Black.

The "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle" star has decided not to act in the movie either, Hong Kong's Oriental Daily News reported Monday.

Sam Ngai, a spokesman for Chow's production company Star Overseas, declined comment and a Columbia Pictures spokesman didn't immediately respond to a reporter's e-mail.

Columbia Pictures said in February it was in talks with "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" French director Michel Gondry to replace Chow as director.

The original "Green Hornet" series, which debuted on radio in 1936, is about a newspaper publisher who moonlights as a masked crime-fighter along with his martial arts-expert sidekick.

In 1966, it was turned into an ABC television series starring Van Williams as the title character and Bruce Lee as Kato. It ran for one season.