Seth Rogen Talks 'Green Hornet'

There's a new interview with Seth Rogen over at The Hollywood Reporter that might of particular interest if you're keen on Observe and Report, which arrives in theaters this Friday. But we're less interested in that than The Great Unknown: The Green Hornet. Rogen has been involved as a co-writer (with Evan Goldberg) and star for some time, and it looked incredibly promising late last year when Stephen Chow was announced as the new Kato as well as the film's director. That's not going to happen, at least the last part. Whether or not he's Kato is still up in the air. But Rogen sounds excited about the opportunity, even if he doesn't sound like he's in love with the source material:

"Me and Evan always wanted to make a superhero movie about a hero and a sidekick. That's the movie we've been trying to write for years, kind of like deconstructing the relationship between a hero and his sidekick. And we just couldn't crack it. And then one day we got a call saying Green Hornet is up for grabs, and we realized that could be the perfect format for us to do our weird hero-sidekick movie. I mean, we liked The Green Hornet, but we were not particularly fond of the character or loyal to it in any real way. But it's worked out well, and I think it has few enough fans that they won't be disappointed because all people really know is that Bruce Lee was the sidekick. That's all they really need to know going in."

One big question mark I have is how Rogen's brand of comedy will work with the project's new director, Michel Gondry, who is a completely different sort of artist. Seemingly in awe of his new leader, Rogen says there's no reason to worry, only to imagine the possibilities:

"He's awesome. He's just like a magician. He filmed these fight scenes, and they're incredible. They're exactly what you would hope a Michel Gondry fight scene would look like. And then you think, "Wow, what's a Michel Gondry car chase gonna look like? What's a Michel Gondry fucking explosion gonna look like?" He's just so imaginative, and you just know he approaches everything differently than everyone else. As soon as he gets a feeling like anything he's describing has been done, he immediately abandons it and tries to come up with something else."

The Green Hornet begins shooting in June and will be released next summer.

Comments

[F. Booth]

I love Gondry. His part of Tokyo! is surreal, but humane(and funny as hell). Its like Kafka on film(but, again, funnier).

The Tokyo! DVD drops June 30th (i think). You can pre-order and catch the trailer on the website http://tokyothemovie.com/

[F. Booth]

I love Gondry. His part of Tokyo! is surreal, but humane(and funny as hell). Its like Kafka on film(but, again, funnier).

The Tokyo! DVD drops June 30th (i think). You can pre-order and catch the trailer on the website http://tokyothemovie.com/