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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.