For a while now I’ve been wondering what happened to Stephen Chow. In the early 2000s he achieved international stardom with his movies Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, but then he sort of disappeared for a while. Although his last movie CJ7 was not particularly well-received, a couple of years later he was poised to make his Hollywood debut directing and co-starring in Sony’s The Green Hornet. Unfortunately, he eventually left that project due to creative differences and then… nothing.

After a few years away from the game, he’s finally back this month with a new film that is on track to break China’s all-time box office record. The movie is called Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons and it is a 3D fantasy film with (surprise!) a goofy sense of humour and over-the-top special effects. Based loosely on the same classic Chinese novel as The Forbidden Kingdom, this might be a tough sell in North America, but with the amount of money they are making in China, who cares? Journey to the West does not yet have a U.S. release date; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.