Is Nicolas Cage The New Villain In ‘The Green Hornet’?
July 21, 2009 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
If ever a project knew how to bounce between apprehension and possible joy, I’d say it’s the upcoming The Green Hornet. We’ve had Stephen Chow as director and Kato, Seth Rogen as the Hornet, Michel Gondry as director, a hunt for a new Kato with word that the actor wouldn’t need martial arts experience, and then rumors that Cameron Diaz is in talks for the female lead.
Now Variety confirms that Diaz is negotiating to play a reporter and love interest to Rogen, while Nicolas Cage is in talks to play the gangster villain. Johnny Dollar perhaps? Someone entirely new? With the exception of his brief stint as Fu Mancho in Grindhouse’s Werewolf Women of the SS, I haven’t been pulled to a Cage film since Adaptation, so let’s hope it’s something good, and I hope, reminiscent of his grittier early days.
Then again, maybe it would be a waste. I’ve wavered back and forth on this whole idea of this project, and as neat as it sounds to have a comic-turned-movie at the hands of Gondry, he’s got a whole heck of a lot of apprehension to beat.
Does The Green Hornet have any chance for greatness (or even goodness)? Or, is it destined to flail like The Spirit?
Kato (Stephen Chow) Leaves ‘Green Hornet’ Production
July 15, 2009 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
Stephen Chow, who was set to play the key role of Kato in the Green Hornet film (see “Green Hornet Debut Set for July 9th, 2010”), is leaving the production, according to the Hollywood trades. The film is set to begin shooting in September for a July 2010 release, and that’s not expected to change.
The departure is over scheduling issues, and is amicable.
Cameron Diaz has been added to the cast as the female lead; Seth Rogen is starring.
Dynamite is producing a Green Hornet comic series written by Kevin Smith (see “Kevin Smith on Green Hornet Comet”).
Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet Comic Book Coming To Life
Five years ago Kevin Smith was hired to write and direct a big screen adaptation of The Green Hornet. Smith dropped out after getting cold feet, fearing he wouldn’t be able to handle an action -heavy big budget comic book film. As many of you know, the film since passed on to Seth Rogen who is co-writing and will star as the title character in a Michel Gondry-directed adaptation. But it looks like Smith will be revisiting his Green Hornet story…
….to be released in comic book form. Smith tells EW that he was asked to write an arc on the comic book series but had to decline due to other commitments (which I’ll get to in a minute).
“But then I thought ‘I already wrote a Hornet story once…’ It’s the Hornet movie I’d make if I was making it today. And there’s no better time to do that than before Seth Rogen and Michel Gondry’s version defines the character for the mainstream. We haven’t picked an interior artist yet, but we’ve got some stellar cover talent on board already: Alex Ross, John Cassaday, Jae Lee, and David Finch.”
Michel Gondry Talks Green Hornet – Staying True To Himself
April 14, 2009 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
Michel Gondry, director of the upcoming superhero movie Green Hornet, told SCI FI Wire that he is looking forward to combining his idiosyncratic ideas with the demands of a big-budget studio action movie.
“It’s all going to be something different, but that’s successful, so I guess there is no problem now,” Gondry said in an exclusive interview Monday. “We have a producer, Neal Moritz, who’s pretty damn successful; he released Fast and Furious, which had [one of] the biggest openings of all time, so he’s going to guide us in our differences, and so far all of my ideas, he loves them and says ‘I like the ideas, and I’m open to them.’”
Rogen Admits ‘Green Hornet’ Still Needs a Kato
March 19, 2009 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
Perhaps it’s because I strongly believe that Stephen Chow would be the only reason to see The Green Hornet, but all the news that’s popped up in the past three months or so has really soured me on the TV superhero update. Chow was going to direct (brilliant) and play Kato, a role originated back in the 1960s by Bruce Lee. Then he wasn’t directing and he wasn’t so sure about Kato, either.
So until this week, all we knew was that Chow might play Kato, that Michel Gondry was the new pick to direct and that Seth Rogen was still going to star (he also co-wrote the script). I don’t have any particular interest in Rogen playing Green Hornet, and I think Gondry, as good as he is, could be the incorrect choice to direct.
And at SXSW, Cinema Blend asked Rogen for a status update, and it’s condition critical, in my opinion. "We have no 100% official Kato at this point," he admitted.
Oh boy.
Seth Rogen Talks Green Hornet’s Approach
March 7, 2009 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
Seth Rogen is in Australia to promote Monsters vs. Aliens and he talked to "The Jono & Dano Show" (via Moviehole ) about his big screen adaptation of The Green Hornet . He told the radio show that Columbia Pictures plans to begin filming in June. It will be an origin story but not in the traditional sense. It’ll be unlike every other superhero film out there, Rogen said.
The film will concentrate a lot on the relationship between these two different cats – The Green Hornet (who Rogen says is just "a normal guy") and Stephen Chow’s Kato (who Rogen says is the one that does all the superhero stuff). The Green Hornet , to be directed by Michel Gondry, is scheduled for a June 25, 2010 release.
Michel Gondry to Direct Rogen’s Green Hornet
February 24, 2009 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
What a strange and tumultuous journey it’s been for Seth Rogen’s The Green Hornet. First, Asian kung fu master Stephen Chow was tapped to direct, but then discouragingly stepped out of the director’s chair due to creative differences. Then it was reported that the project might not happen at all, only for Seth Rogen to chime in saying that if a director could be found, the project would still move forward. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, that director has been found: Michel Gondry (They also report that at this point, Chow is still expected to play Kato).
Gondry is one of my favorite directors of all time, despite the fact that I was hugely disappointed by Be Kind, Rewind last year. However, this choice strikes me as bizarre at best. Hornet is positioned to be a comedic actioner, and while Gondry undoubtedly has the skill to branch out in the action department, there’s nothing in his filmography that screams “mainstream friendly.” Gondry creates fantastical worlds that are visually interesting, and he constantly forces the viewer to wrap her head around them. Read more
Adam Sandler in The Green Hornet ?
In an article at The Los Angeles Times , the author writes that there’s a possibility that Adam Sandler will appear in Sony’s The Green Hornet opposite Seth Rogen: I also heard a random rumor about the ‘Hornet’ film: Two different people in the industry told me that Adam Sandler has a brief but key role in the movie as a certain surprise superhero…I heard which one, too, but I don’t want to ruin it.
Sandler and Rogen have another project together as well. The studio has yet to announce a new director after Stephen Chow dropped out (he’s still expected to play Kato), but it is still targeting a June 25, 2010 release.
Source: ComingSoon.net
Seth Rogen Talks ‘Green Hornet’
June 30, 2008 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
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Rogen Explains Why He’s Hornet
Seth Rogen told reporters that he and writing partner Evan Goldberg are putting the final touches on a proposed Green Hornet movie and confirmed that he will play the title character.
“I will, yeah,” Rogen said in a group interview in Los Angeles over the weekend while promoting his upcoming stoner comedy The Pineapple Express. “Don’t say it like that,” Rogen added, with his trademark snicker in response to the reporter?s tone.
Rogen promised that the movie, based on the ’30s radio serial and subsequent TV series, will be packed with action. But fans of Rogen’s Judd Apatow comedies, such as Knocked Up, may be in for a rude awakening if they expect the same brand of lewd humor in The Green Hornet.
“We have not hit many situations where you’re like, you know, ‘What would make this scene better?’ If Kato said c–ksucker? That hasn’t come up many times,” Rogen joked.
Still, many fans may be left scratching their heads at the notion that the guys who did Superbad are making a Green Hornet movie. Rogen offered this explanation: “To us, it was just this funny notion that, when you say Green Hornet to someone, the first thing they say is, ‘Hey, Bruce Lee played Kato in that show.’ We really wanted to make this hero-sidekick movie. … For years we’d really been trying to write a movie that was kind of about a hero and his sidekick. When we heard the Green Hornet movie was up for grabs, we thought that could be the perfect way to do this story, because he is the only hero whose sidekick is more known than he is. We thought it would be a good way to tell this relationship story and just do a big crazy action movie.”
He expected less trouble getting the action and violence of Green Hornet past the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings board than he’s had with Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which was recently tagged with the dreaded NC-17.
“Luckily, the MPAA decided that violence is fine,” Rogen said. “When you’re doing an action movie, you can really have as much violence as you want. I’d say, action-wise, we’ve been able to do everything that we could have ever wanted.” –Jeff Otto
Source: SciFi Wire
Green Hornet Movie Script Developing Steadily
June 4, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
I enjoy the Green Hornet old time radio shows and I like watching the 60s take on it, especially with Bruce Lee as Kato. I am really hoping that the guys making the new movie respect the original material. In other words, Don’t Screw It Up!!
It’s been close to a year since Sony handed the Green Hornet franchise over to Seth Rogen and his Superbad/Pineapple Express co-writer Evan Goldberg, but we haven’t heard much on the duo’s plans for the character since Comic Con. According to Rogen, with whom Devin chatted at length today (on the set of Jody Hill’s Observe and Report), this is partially because the project hasn’t been greenlit just yet.
That said, Rogen and Goldberg have been hard at work hammering out a draft and figuring out what kind of tone they’d like to strike. Their options boil down to this: were they writing Kato as a Jet Li-type asskicker or a more comedic (but still formidable) Stephen Chow type. It sounded like Rogen and Goldberg were leaning toward Chow last year, and, happily, that hasn’t changed: they definitely want some Chow. What they don’t want, however, is a bumbling Green Hornet; preferably, the film’s comedy would come out of a less traditional take on the hero/sidekick relationship. In Rogen’s own words, “No Movie has done this since Batman and Robin.”
Rogen also stressed that they’re writing “serious” action – and while they’re not scripting with a budget in mind, he sees it as a $70 million – $100 million production. As for when this might go before cameras, Rogen is thinking after the Untitled Judd Apatow Un-Dramedy (i.e. sometime in 2009).
Devin will have quotes tomorrow, but he did want me to stress that Rogen was a real mensch on set. He’s also a fan of CHUD. Kiss-ass.
