One of the gaping blemishes that was staring at us in Seth Rogen‘s The Green Hornet, was that it looked like Nicolas Cage was going to be signing on as the villain in the movie. Cage’s star has steadily declined over the years, and though he does still have shining moments, more often than not, his effect is of the negative type.

Now comes word from Nikki Finke that not only is Cage stepping away from this project, but that Inglourious Basterd favorite Christoph Waltz has now been cast in his place, playing the role of Chudnofsky. Waltz is a relatively unknown here in the States, but with his eye-catching turn as Nazi Colonel Hans Landa in Basterds — a role that already has most saying will snag him an Oscar nomination — this is huge step up from Cage. And even though he’s not instantly-recognizable here, keep in mind that Waltz has almost 100 IMDB listings dating back to 1977 (mostly in foreign productions), so he has all kinds of experience in his trade.

The Green Hornet has battled its way through some serious struggles on its trek to a theatrical release. Transferring from one pair of hands like Kevin Smith to the current set of caring hands, Seth Rogen, who is also leading the movie as Britt Reid. The struggle to find a director and actors, which began with Stephen Chow first attached to the job along with starring as Kato before he walked away from directing, and ultimately, the entire project. Since then, that little mess has been cleaned up with Michel Gondry hired to direct, and Taiwanese star Jay Chou cast as Kato.

The movie was first settled into a June 25, 2010 release date before moving back slightly to a July 9, 2010 date. Now it’s been confirmed that the movie has been given another hefty shove back to December 17, 2010 — a whole extra five months to wait…before filming has even started.

Seth Rogen‘s The Green Hornet has filled in some vacant roles, including the huge co-star role of Kato, which was long-expected to be handled by Stephen Chow.

The role of Kato was officially announced last week by Columbia Pictures. The part will be played by Jay Chou, a singer and actor from Taiwan who appeared in The Curse of the Golden Flower. Chou is definitely not as big as Stephen Chow, but it is pretty admirable that they’re giving the part to someone less known here in the States. It’s also a little confusing trying to figure out why they go for the star power in people like Nicolas Cage and Cameron Diaz, but a more obscure name for Kato. It should be interesting to see this all play out.