Homegrown comedy king Stephen Chow Sing-chi is to produce a movie adaptation of the popular Japanese manga Dragon Ball.
The film will be made by Twentieth Century Fox and is already being slated as next year's summer blockbuster. Chow, who directed Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, is a fan of Dragon Ball. He has drawn on elements of the comic in his work, using the lead character Son Goku's signature 'Kamehameha' attack move in his film Flirting Scholar.
Ngai Tat-sum, a spokesman for Chow's company Star Overseas, said Fox approached Chow two years ago about directing Dragon Ball, but Chow preferred to direct films of his own stories. Fox then offered Chow the job of producer.
The movie will star Justin Chatwin, who played Tom Cruise's son in War of the Worlds, as Goku and James Marsters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Goku's rival Piccolo. The rest of the cast is yet to be finalised.
The film will be directed by James Wong, an executive producer and writer for The X-Files and the co-writer and director of horror flicks Final Destination and Final Destination 3.
Mr Ngai quoted Chow as saying he hoped the film would have a predominately Asian cast and thought Edison Chen Koon-hei would be a good choice to play one of the popular characters, Trunks.