What Happened to Shaolin Soccer?

Okay, someone help me out here…

At one point in time, I was all giddy in my pants about the North American release of Shaolin Soccer. The last I heard, Dimension had their grubby little “over-dub everything and use some new music” hands all over this thing, then I heard that it was being released “as-is” back in April, then on August 8th, then August 15th… Then…. I never heard about it again.

“Uhhh, I’ve never heard of it at all” you say. Well allow me to spell it out for those of you who are cursed with only knowing about North American movies. Shaolin Soccer is a shiny masterpiece out of Hong Kong. It’s actually funny on purpose instead of those ridiculous “kung-fu movies that are so cheesy, they’re funny” type of funny. Mind you, this movie *is* cheesy, yes, but it never takes itself too seriously and is done so deliberately well, you’ll sit there and wonder why on earth the silly butt-squirts haven’t released it yet in North America.

Granted, the DVD is cozily nestled on my shelf, but it’d be great to see this in the theatre, especially with grammatically correct sub-titles… Anyone know anything about the future of this little number? Cuz I don’t.

****************UPDATE*******************
Now I do……….
In Yahoo Movies, I found this summary of release dates… Ready for this?
July 19th, 2002
– – This was originally scheduled to open on April 5th, 2002, then, August 30th, 2002, and now sometime in the 1st quarter of 2003.
August 16th, 2002
– – This has been pushed back a little bit again, now to April 11th, 2003.
January 31, 2003
– – Miramax has bumped this back another four months to August 8th, 2003. That’s 16 months after its first target date.
June 23, 2003
– – Miramax has adjusted this movie a week, from August 8th to August 15th.
August 8, 2003
– – Miramax has dumped their plans on giving this film a wide release, going with a platform release starting on September 5th instead. As KungFuCinema.com reports, this decision comes with the news that Miramax has decided to go with the original dialogue (with subtitles) rather than doing an English dub.
September 2, 2003
– – Miramax has decided not to release this film this week after all, with no word now on when they might release it to the U.S. public. Might they now be considering sending it direct-to-video?
September 4,2003
– – Miramax is currently looking for a new release date in the 4th quarter of 2003.
October 8,2003
– – It appears that Miramax is now aiming for sometime in 2004 instead.

JUST RELEASE IT ALREADY, GEEZ!