The Green Hornet | |
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Directed by | Michel Gondry |
Produced by | Neal H. Moritz |
Written by | Screenplay: Seth Rogen Evan Goldberg Characters: George W. Trendle |
Starring | Seth Rogen Jay Chou Christoph Waltz Cameron Diaz Edward James Olmos David Harbour Analeigh Tipton Edward Furlong Tom Wilkinson |
Music by | Danny Elfman[1] |
Cinematography | John Schwartzman |
Editing by | Michael Tronick |
Studio | Sony Pictures Original Film Feature Films |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date(s) | December 22, 2010 |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Green Hornet is an upcoming superhero action film directed by Michel Gondry. Gondry replaced Stephen Chow, who had previously planned to direct the film. The film is scheduled to be released on December 22, 2010. It is an adaptation of the radio and television character The Green Hornet.
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Premise
Newspaper publisher Britt Reid moonlights as a masked crimefighter nicknamed The Green Hornet accompanied by his similarly masked Asian valet, martial arts expert Kato. Despite his heroic intentions, he is considered so disreputable among legitimate law enforcement that he is able to talk casually with known criminals and even do business with them.
Cast
Seth Rogen as Britt Reid/The Green Hornet: The hero of the film; a newspaper publisher and descendent of The Lone Ranger, who is secretly the masked crimefighter 'The Green Hornet'. At San Diego Comic-Con International 2009, Rogen stated that the film will explain Reid's motivation for fighting crime.[2]
Jay Chou as Kato: The Green Hornet's Asian valet and sidekick, who is expertly proficient in martial arts. Chou got the role[3] after Stephen Chow, who was also set to direct the film, backed out of both responsibilities due to scheduling conflicts.[4]
Cameron Diaz as Lenore "Casey" Case: While both the radio and television incarnations depicted the Casey as Britt Reid's secretary and confidante, the character has been rewritten for the film as "an amateur gumshoe with a penchant for CSI-style TV, who will be unaware of the Reid/Hornet connection."[5]
Christoph Waltz as Chudnofsky: A gangster villain created for the film. Nicolas Cage was originally in talks to play the role. Rogen described the character thus:
“There was no classic villain, so we had to create a villain… [he's] not over-the-top. We wanted him to be very scary… We don’t feel that that’s where the comedy in the movie should come from, necessarily.”[6]
Edward James Olmos, Tom Wilkinson, and David Harbour have all been cast in unnamed roles.[7]
It has been rumored that Adam Sandler will have a brief role in the film[8], but as this was before Gondry signed on as director, it is unknown if this will still occur. Gondry has previously stated that Van Williams, who played the character in the television series, would make a cameo[9].
Production
A film version of the character has been in the works for decades. In the 1990s, the magazine Comics Scene reported that George Clooney and Jason Scott Lee were lined up to play the leads. Late in the 90s, music video director Michel Gondry worked with RoboCop screenwriter Edward Neumeier on a possible Green Hornet adaptation.[10] Subsequently, screenwriter John Fusco created a screenplay for the film around 2002.[citation needed] A large portion of the Green Hornet radio scripts were written by Fran Striker. However, the rights were handed over to Trendle in favor of continual employment for Striker.
In the Summer of 2004, Kevin Smith was writing a screenplay for him to direct a new rendition of The Green Hornet which was originally scheduled for release in 2005. It was rumored that Jet Li would portray Kato and Jake Gyllenhaal would play the Green Hornet. In 2004 Kevin Smith put the film on the back burner. After a long downtime in which his status with the project was unknown, Smith announced at the 2006 Wondercon that he officially no longer has anything to do with The Green Hornet.[11]
On June 4, 2008 Sony Pictures announced that, through their subsidiary Columbia Pictures, they were going ahead with plans for a feature film of the superhero. After the production moved from its original June 25, 2010 release date twice—first to July 9, 2010 to lessen competition, then to December 17 the same year to allow more time for production—spectators feared that the film would not be made due to an indistinct schedule. Despite this, the film began production on September 2, 2009.[12]
Later, Sony Pictures announced that the Hong Kong action/comedy star Stephen Chow would direct the film as well as play the role of Kato.[13] However, due to creative differences, Chow was no longer going to direct.[14] Chow instead chose to direct a superhero spoof with Jack Black in the lead role[15]. Chow later left the role of Kato,[16] and was replaced by Taiwanese singer and actor Jay Chou.[17] It has been announced that Columbia Pictures had chosen Michel Gondry to direct the film.[18] [19] Nicolas Cage and Cameron Diaz were in talks to appear in the film as a villain and a reporter/love-interest, respectively.[20] While Cameron Diaz signed on, Nicolas Cage officially dropped out as the main villain, then Mr. X of the original radio series, as of September 8, 2009.[21] On September 14, it was announced that Austrian actor Christoph Waltz would play a villain named Chudnofsky.[22] On October 8, Anvil filmed a cameo performance in a rock club.[23] On November 11 and 12 (2009), several blocks of Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles were used for night-time location shooting of a car chase scene.
The Black Beauty
On July 23, 2009, Rogen, along with everyone else officially attached to the project at that point, appeared at the San Diego Comic-Con International and unveiled the Black Beauty, the Green Hornet's car, as it will appear in the film. The car is the same model that was used in the television show, a 1966 Chrysler Imperial, but the technology built into the car will be more advanced than what was shown in both radio and television versions.[24]
References
- ^ Bettencourt, Scott, "The 2009 Top Forty Composer Countdown (in 2009!), Part Four — 2. Danny Elfman," Film Score Daily, January 18, 2001
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzMgnswRbRk
- ^ http://www.superherohype.com/news/greenhornetnews.php?id=8598
- ^ http://www.superherohype.com/news/greenhornetnews.php?id=8511
- ^ http://screenrant.com/green-hornet-cast-cameron-diaz-kofi-21636/comment-page-1/#comment-127771
- ^ http://screenrant.com/seth-rogen-green-hornet-villain-ross-18080/
- ^ http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/09/02/tom-wilkinson-and-david-harbour-join-the-green-hornet/
- ^ http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/01/neil-gaiman-bar.html
- ^ MTV.com
- ^ The Guardian Interview with Michel Gondry
- ^ News Askew: Talk Back!
- ^ http://screenrant.com/green-hornet-cast-tom-wilkinson-david-harbour-rob-24073/
- ^ The Green Hornet-Press Release
- ^ Chow no longer to direct Hornet
- ^ Jack Black and Anne Hathaway to Star in Stephen Chow’s Next Film?
- ^ Kato Casting Call Kicks Chow To The Curb?
- ^ Jay Chou new Kato
- ^ Michel Gondry to Direct Green Hornet
- ^ Gondry in talks to direct Green Hornet
- ^ "Nicolas Cage in talks to play Green Hornet villain," Sci Fi Wire, 7/21/2009
- ^ Nicolas Cage Is Off Green Hornet
- ^ "Inglourious Basterds star joins Green Hornet," The Geek Files, 9/14/2009
- ^ "Anvil to Appear in Green Hornet," News in Film, 10/13/2009
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzMgnswRbRk
External links
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