Stephen Chow leaves 'Green Hornet'

Stephen Chow has dropped out of playing sidekick Kato in the Seth Rogen-led Green Hornet reinvention, Columbia Pictures has announced.

The Kung Fu Hustle star, who was at one point attached to direct the superhero film before being replaced by Michel Gondry, departed the project completely after a "mutual and amicable decision by both sides to move on".

"We are out now to cast a new Kato and remain fully committed to Michel Gondry's exciting vision for the film, which will begin production this September," the studio commented.

Gondry is working from a script by Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg.

Created in the '30s for a US radio serial, the Green Hornet character is a wealthy newspaper publisher called Britt Reid who moonlights as a costumed hero.

Green Hornet is scheduled to arrive in cinemas on July 9, 2010.