In other Hornet news Edward James Olmos told The LA Times that the film is "finally coming together," and revealed that he'll be playing Michael Axfold, a reporter for the local paper run by the Green Hornet's father, James Reid.

"It took a while, but things are finally coming together," said Olmos, who revealed he has one major stunt in which he gets zapped. "I think it's going to be very exciting. People will find that it's different than what they expect. Seth is doing a wonderful job. There's a lot of everything. It's going to be action-filled, and there's a lot of humor in the situations. It's really a well-crafted piece of work. Hopefully, people will enjoy it and we'll have a few of these films."

More Green Hornets? With the trouble this movie had getting it together, let's just focus on making one decent film.
Getting rid of Nic Cage was the first step in the right direction, and the exciting explosions are another. Fingers crossed.

[via Splash News]

More pics at the link. [Superhero Hype]

Like all things Gondry, that was beautiful. Thanks for sharing this, Cinematical.

Variety reports that Cage is in talks to play a "gangster villain" in Gondry's film adaptation of The Green Hornet, starring funnyman Seth Rogen as a bumbling superhero. Presumably, this is the same villain Gondry described in earlier interviews: a "horrible" fellow with a double-cannon gun that lets him "shoot people in both eyes with one shot."

Cage's previous foray into comic-book films (the ill-conceived Ghost Rider) was anything but a success, and it is possible that, with Stephen Chow's departure from the role of popular sidekick Kato, the studio is looking to bring bigger names to the project (like Cameron Diaz, rumored to be playing the film's love interest). But I suspect that we're actually getting a glimpse of Gondry's Green Hornet master plan.

The central theme of this version of The Green Hornet is that the eponymous hero is severely outclassed by his more competent – and popular – sidekick, and Gondry might well be expanding that idea of mismatched characters across the entire cast. If Cage's particular brand of strange intensity seems at odds with Rogen's earnest persona, that's probably the point. Gondry may well be deliberately casting actors who normally wouldn't share screen time to create his won unique flavor of superhero stew.

It does seem a risky balancing act for Gondry, one made even more complicated by the difficult job of recasting Kato. But I, for one, am looking forward to watching him try to pull it off.

[Variety]

There's a heap of Gondry interviews floating around out there right now but here are a few highlights that are the most exciting.

First, the Green Hornet fight scenes. According to MTV's Splash Page Gondry plans to include slo-motion kicks and punches that could rival The Matrix, from the sounds of it:

Although it's a little tricky to comprehend with the written word, Gondry basically plans to reinvent the fight scene by having Green Hornet moving slowly, Kato moving super-fast, the villains at normal speed - and then mixing it all up repeatedly. "So, one will go fast and the other will go slow, and then they'll meet," he explained. "It's [as if] they're in different dimensions, but when they touch each other they come into the same dim

He also spilled to MTV about the villain who will be "scary as hell"

The villain is going to be horrible," explained Gondry. "He has a gun with two cannons; he can shoot people in both eyes with one shot."

But most importantly Gondry was very upfront on how Green Hornet is not a spoof, and even though Rogen is attached it isn't an all-out comedy. But of course there will be funny moments.

This is really great news. We've barely been getting by on tiny Gondry hits, from Flight Of The Conchords — but it looks like we won't have to wait much longer for more Gondry movies.

The trades are all abuzz about Michel Gondry signing up where Stephen Chow left off, as the director for the Green Hornet movie. Putting Rogen and Gondry together could be quite a beneficial pairing because Seth Rogen's penchant to go a bit over-the-top might be reeled in slightly with Gondry's understated but still fantastical esthetic. Worst case scenario: Gondry's spin will at least make the Green Hornet character a little more interesting.

But what does this mean for Gondry's "ice that makes you hear music" movie?

[Variety]

Despite hilarious cameos from big names like Seth Rogen, William Shatner, and Kevin Smith, as well as terrific performances from its main cast, Fanboys languished in development limbo for years. At one point, the studio threatened to gut the film's main plot about a Star Wars fan who is dying of cancer - and at other points, they threatened to shelve the film forever. Lucky for us, the film comes out tomorrow as it was intended, with the cancer plot intact.

I say "lucky for us" not because this film is an unqualified success - it isn't - but because the cancer plot is part of what makes it more than just another boring satire of Star Wars fandom. Five friends who have drifted apart since high school unexpectedly reconnect at a party. Eric, who has abandoned his dreams of drawing comics to run his dad's car dealerships, runs into the turbo-nerdy Zoe, Hutch, and Windows, who tell him their friend Linus is dying of cancer. Though Eric and Linus were once bromantic buds, they haven't spoken for years: Linus feels like Eric abandoned their fannish dreams for sellout crap, and Eric feels like Linus and the crew are stuck in extended adolescence.

But Eric is galvanized by the news of Linus' impending death, and reawakens their old high school dreams of breaking into Skywalker Ranch to see the rough cut of The Phantom Menace (the movie takes place the year before Episode 1 hit theaters in 1998). Eventually he convinces the old crew to go on a road trip in Hutch's tricked-out Jedi van, crossing the country from Ohio to California, on a quest to make sure Linus won't die before seeing their beloved series' new chapter.

At its best, Fanboys exudes a kind of brawling fun reminiscent of Animal House. These are young dorks just blundering their way into self-knowledge, and a few of their adventures are amusing - such as a raid on a group of Trekkies who have erected a statue of Captain Kirk in his "future birthplace" of Riverside, Iowa. They wind up getting into Star Wars vs. Star Trek gang war that's good, stupid goofiness, and Seth Rogen shines as the main Trekker defending his statue of Kirk. (Later, Rogen shows up again as a tattooed, Star Wars-loving pimp, in another gooftastic performance.)

There's also a pleasing subplot where Windows journeys out of cluelessness to discover that even though Zoe is a geek she's a girl too - and she likes him. Given that hottie Kristin Bell is playing Zoe, it's a little hard to believe that Windows had never noticed her before, but it's still cute to see the two of them falling into nerd love. Similarly, the friendship between Eric and Linus is rekindled in a way that's touching and provides much-needed narrative direction for what is too often directionless sketch comedy.

Unfortunately, most of the movie is a muddle of bad fart jokes, bad "you're a fag - no, you're a fag" jokes, bad internet girlfriend jokes, and yawn-inducing fist-fights with Harry Knowles from Ain't It Cool News. (Well, OK, the Harry Knowles thing was slightly funny, except for the fact that it wasn't actually Harry Knowles.)

A lot of the scenes feel like bottom-of-the-barrel Saturday Night Live sketches. You know, funny in the writers' room but in practice they go on for way too long and get into tooth-grindy territory. Like, for instance, when the gang is trapped in a bar full of scary Mexican dude stereotypes, who turn out (surprise) actually to be GAY scary Mexican dude stereotypes. Yeah, comedy gold. Followed by a really long, awful scene where one of the Gay Scary Mexican Dudes gives the gang peyote and they totally trip out, man. For waaaaaaaaay too long.

Similarly, an encounter with hookers in Vegas gets dragged out for what seems like hours of the unfunny. Even the cameo by William Shatner was pretty meh. Still, the movie has a sweetness to it, helped along by great performances, that make the final sequence at Skywalker Ranch into something more than a clumsily-written race through George Lucas' trash compactor, after being chased by the cops from THX 1138.

Fanboys, for all its flaws, actually made me cry. That's not because I am a wuss, but because unlike so many movies about death, Fanboys explores how everyone's lives revolve around peculiar goals that aren't easy to sum up in a Hallmark card. What's so moving is that Linus' friends understand that what he needs to die happy isn't some stupid, generic encounter with spirituality or some Benjamin Button kind of crap. It's seeing The Phantom Menace. That they help him fulfill that wish, and that we come to understand how precious it is to him, is what will make even the most macho fan dudes get weepy at the end of this flick.

The point of Fanboys is not, as some reviewers have said, simply to revel in references to pop culture. It's to celebrate how fandom brings friends together, and how a mythos like Star Wars gives us a language to describe what is truly meaningful in life: Our connections to each other, which transcend even death.

Hitflix.com is reporting rumors, going around Sundance last week, that it was "highly unlikely" that Green Hornet" will be made this year, following director/actor Chow's withdrawal from the project, due to cold feet at studio Sony. While we're surprised at the news — Surely Rogen was always going to be the box office draw for the movie? — we're also pleased, as it was definitely Chow's involvement that got us paying attention to the movie in the first place.

The website is careful not to pronounce the movie entirely dead, however, so don't be expected if these rumors turn out to be entirely false. But maybe if we hope and pray to whatever deities we believe in...

Has Rogen's 'Green Hornet' Been Defeated? [HitFlix]

The new development in Chow's increasing distance from the Hornet movie comes from the Associated Press, which also revealed that Chow stepped down as Hornet director because of his interest in working on an original superhero movie with Jack Black, proving that Chow's taste in American comedians may be improving.

However, the AP article also notes that "Chow said whether he stays on to play Kato in "The Green Hornet" depends on his schedule," which is a change from initial reports, which said that he would definitely be staying on as an actor. A sign that that he's continuing to move away from the project? Possibly. Definitely a sign that we're becoming less and less optimistic about the project, though.

Chow drops out as director of 'Green Hornet' [International Herald Tribune/AP]

Seth Rogen filled the press in on his latest comings and goings, but mostly geeked about about Stephen Chow being involved in Green Hornet (and rightfully so).

On Chow's involvement:

He's a great guy. He's really funny. And we're just thrilled every time we're in a room with him we're like 'How the fuck did this happen? We got him! We actually got him!' It's really exciting and it's exciting because a lot of people want to work with him so as we hire our production designer and cinematographers were getting to choose from very good people because, and we didn't know this, apparently it's as exciting to everyone else as it was to us that Stephen is making a movie in America. So, it's great. We're amazed and thrilled that we ultimately might be the thing that brought him to America and his first American movie is also our movie. Honestly, it's more exciting that I'm in a Stephen Chow than the 'Green Hornet' even.

Once they signed Chow on Hornet I completely rethought my dislike for this strange adaptation. And Rogen said Chow is getting his hands dirty with the script and adding his own ideas:

Stephen had a lot of ideas and that's exactly what we wanted and I feel like. We want our directors to feel like it's their movie too. We don't want them to feel like they are just guys brought in to film what we wrote. We want them to feel like they can stand behind it also. So far we haven't disagreed, we're all just trying to figure out who he should be.

But what about the rumors that Rogen is already slated to be the newbie ghost hunting kids for Ghostbusters 3? Well not only has Rogen not been approached officially or unofficially, but he's not so keen on the idea:

I mean just as a movie fan I am the first guy to be skeptical of that. It sounds like a terrible idea when you first hear it. At first hearing it sounds like the worst idea ever. I dunno. Maybe. I mean, that would have to be one mutherfucking good script.

And finally Rogen took some time to address his gelatinous character Bob the blob from Monsters Vs. Aliens. The leaked trailer is online already, but we'll get to see the official trailer on the Kung Fu Panda DVD.

I play a blob. We're monsters and I play Bob, he's called, and he's a gelatinous blob with no brain so he's stupid. It's a very funny character actually. It's a great movie. I've had a lot of fun doing it.

More of the interview over at Collider including IMAX Hornet details.

Rogen said all along he wants Green Hornet to be about an action hero who's less famous than his sidekick. Which makes sense, given that everybody remembers Bruce Lee as chauffeur/sidekick Kato from the 1960s TV show, and absolutely nobody remembers the guy who played the Green Hornet himself. So it's really amazing news that Stephen Chow, a comedy giant with a string of movies like Kung-Fu Hustle and God Of Cooking under his belt, will play Kato. And since Chow is also directing, he can presumably make sure Kato gets the spotlight.

Says Chow:

I'm excited to be taking on ‘The Green Hornet’ — obviously, I’ve been a huge fan of the show since I was a kid. The idea of stepping into Bruce Lee’s shoes as Kato is both humbling and thrilling, and to get the chance to direct the project as my American movie debut is simply a dream come true.

Says Rogen:

Stephen was always my and [co-screenwriter] Evan [Goldberg]’s first choice for director and to play Kato. We just hope that he never finds out we’re not the Wachowski Brothers.

I'm also stoked because this makes Chow's second science fiction-y movie, after CJ7. I'm still hoping this spurs a trend in Chinese movies, away from kung-fu epics and towards scifi ones.

I just hope they keep all the scifi touches, like the Hornet's gun that sprays knock-out gas, and his electric stun weapon known as the "Hornet's Sting." (Actually, the latter sounds a bit like a taser, come to think of it.) Also, let's hope the Green Hornet is still a newspaper publisher by day — I totally want to see Arthur Ochs Sultzberger fighting crime. [MTV]

According to Smith, his superhero project is still two movies away, following the Rogen-starring Zach and Miri Make A Porno and a horror movie called Red State. Calling the superhero project - which will be an entirely new concept, as opposed to an adaptation of an existing comic book - a " visual-effects extravaganza," Smith then demonstrated a belief in a particularly cruel higher power:

It's stewing right now. I want to do it, though, and, God willing, it will star Seth Rogen.

Of course, this is the man who really wanted to do Daredevil: Target and couldn't manage to get past the first issue, so there's every possibility that the movie will never get made.

Rogen Wanted As Superhero [SciFi Wire]

Rogen has been writing the script with Evan Goldberg (Superbad). The movie is based on the radio serial and the later Green Hornet TV series and will have Hornet's Asain manservant Kato. But even Rogen's jokes about getting Kato to say cocksucker fall flat on my ears.

I think perhaps even Rogen may know that this movie is really just an excuse for him and his buddies to get high and run around in superhero outfits:

"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."

Sorry Seth, the Green Hornet is a terrible superhero — who wants to watch a movie about a better than average crime-fighter or poor man's Bruce Wayne? Didn't we learn our lesson from Mystery Men? Do we really need/want another bumbling Hancock? Pick something else to parody or keep making moves about weed. That seems to be working. Leave the fat superhero jokes to comedy hacks. I fear this could be the beginning of the end for Rogen.

[Sci-Fi]

The plot is based around two buddies just dealing with the end of the world (no mentions of zombies, wars or plagues of locusts just yet.) The idea was based on a short story Rogen worked on in the past and he will be writing and producing along with Superbad scribe Evan Goldberg. Mandate hopes to begin shooting in 2009. [Variety]

• The Green Hornet appeared on the radio back in 1936, pre-dating the first appearance of Batman by only three years. However, both men wear masks, have cars that do neat tricks, and feature sidekicks who save their bacon on more than one occasion.
• Britt Reid, newspaper magnate by day, masked crimefighter by night, is The Green Hornet. He's a distant relative of The Lone Ranger (no, we aren't making this up) who travels around in a car he calls "Black Beauty." Hi-yo.
• The Green Hornet is a wanted criminal in the city, and he uses that notoriety as leverage when dealing with criminals.
• The only people who know the Hornet's identity are his secretary Lenore Case and the district attorney, Frank Scanlon.
• The Green Hornet's sidekick and chauffeur Kato was changed from Japanese, to Filipino, to Korean during the run of the show, although he was famously played by Bruce Lee when the series came to television.
• While he may not have worn a utility belt, The Green Hornet did use two specialized guns. One fired knockout gas, and the other one delivered "Hornet Stings" in the form of electric shocks.
• His car featured drop-down tubes that could fire rockets, had a knockout gas nozzle, could launch a flying surveillance device from its trunk, and even featured "infra-green" headlights that could let the driver see in the dark.
• On the radio, the Green Hornet's theme song was "The Flight of the Bumblebee," complete with a theremin providing the sound of a buzzing hornet.
• When The Green Hornet came to television in 1966, it was on the heels of the success of Batman, and both programs aired on ABC. Although Batman was played up to be campy, The Green Hornet was played straight. Both series featured the same announcer, were made by the same production company, and wouldn't you know it... Batman met The Green Hornet on his show.

Sadly, The Green Hornet never had the sticking power that Batman did, probably because a newspaper publisher who punches people just isn't all that exciting. Batman had scads of nifty gadgets and a Batcave, but all The Green Hornet has is a couple of funky guns and a car that looks... like a car. As a radio serial, The Green Hornet worked best in your imagination, just like The Shadow did. When Alec Baldwin brought that character to the screen in 1994, it tanked pretty hard. Billy Zane's 1930's comic-strip movie adaptation The Phantom did even worse in 1996.

So maybe instead of trying to make film adaptations of popular radio dramas and comic strips from the 1930's, Hollywood should create something new and cool. As much as we love our imagination, there is just no way we can picture Seth Rogen as a pugilistic publisher with a secret identity.