When Sony released The Green Hornet a few years ago, let's just say it wasn't anything like what fans of the pulpy character were hoping for. The silly, poorly-directed movie by Michel Gondry leaned heavily on some awful comedy from Seth Rogen as the heroic Britt Reid, while co-star Jay Chou did an admirable ass-kicking job as Kato, replacing original director and co-star Stephen Chow. Rogen himself hated the whole experience, but maybe things will go better at a new home like Paramount.
Paramount has picked up the rights to the character and has set Gavin O'Connor, who is coming off sleeper hit The Accountant, to direct. Sean O'Keefe will write the script for centering on Reid, a wealthy publisher who becomes the titular masked crime-fighter. And it sounds like O'Connor, who is a huge fan of the character, has plans on making this a more serious take, thank goodness...
“When we meet Britt Reid he’s lost faith in the system. Lost faith in service. In institutions. If that’s the way the world works, that’s what the world’s going to get. He’s a man at war with himself,” O’Connor added. “A secret war of self that’s connected to the absence of his father. It’s the dragon that’s lived with him that he needs to slay. And the journey he goes on to become The Green Hornet is the dramatization of it, and becomes Britt’s true self. I think of this film as Batman upside down meets Bourne inside out by way of Chris Kyle [‘American Sniper’]. He’s the anti-Bruce Wayne. His struggle: Is he a savior or a destroyer?”
Count me in. The Green Hornet is a distant relative to The Lone Ranger and I always hated that we had two terrible movies released so close together. Hopefully this will be the start of a rebound, and O'Connor should be the right guy for the job. A lot is going to depend on who they put underneath those masks. [Deadline]
