Sony Selling Kung Fu Hustle's Rights? To Miramax!?! Gah!

Those of you who were following our coverage of the Toronto Film Festival may recall some confusion surrounding Kung Fu Hustle, the latest flick from Hong Kong mega-star comedian Steven Chow. The festival cancelled the second screening of the film - the screening I had tickets to, incidentally - and there were conflicting reports as to why. The official line was that the print had been damaged in a private screening. A less official line said that Sony had it pulled from the festival over piracy fears.

Well, how's this for an explanation. Sony sold the film. Citing a story in the Nanking Daily Wu-Jing.org says Hustle has left the Sony fold and been purchased by Miramax. That's right. The same company that screwed over Chow's brilliant Shaolin Soccer, a company Chow swore to never work with again, has apparently secured North American rights to Kung Fu Hustle. They say they will give it a wide release but we've heard that before ...

It's possible that this is all just a rumor of the bad-dream variety but it looks pretty solid ... I've written a contact at Sony to see if I can get this confirmed or denied by the powers that be and will be posting their response as soon as I get it.

via KFC

**** UPDATE ****

Looks like Wu-Jing and KFC have got their info wrong. Here's the news straight from a PR rep at Sony:

"OK, So I called Sony to hear the news directly. I said "I saw online that Kung Fu Hustle was sold to Miramax. Is this true?" Their answer: "What? No. Absolutely not." Hope this helps."

So there you have it. Hustle's still with Sony and all is well.