It doesn’t seem like five years have already passed since Michel Gondry directed The Green Hornet starring Seth Rogen as the titular hero. It broke even in theaters and made a modest profit on home release, but a sequel was never made, in part because the people involved just weren’t keen on it, with Gondry losing interest in superhero movies and Rogen calling the experience “a f*cking nightmare.”
Since the rights lapsed, Paramount Pictures and Chernin Entertainment have snapped them up, with Gavin O’Connor (The Accountant, Warrior) set to direct. O’Connor is a huge fan of The Green Hornet, telling Deadline about his fandom and his plans to make a less campy adaptation of the story.
“As a kid, when most of my friends were into Superman and Batman, there was only one superhero who held my interest — The Green Hornet. I always thought he was the baddest badass because he had no superpowers. The Green Hornet was a human superhero. And he didn’t wear a clown costume. And he was a criminal — in the eyes of the law — and in the eyes of the criminal world. So all this felt real to me. Imagine climbing to the top of the Himalayas, or Mount Everest, or K2 over and over again and no one ever knew? You can never tell anybody. That’s the life of Britt and Kato. What they do, they can never say. They don’t take credit for anything.”
O’Connor went on to say he’s been trying to acquire the film rights for twenty years, his intention being “to bring a gravitas to The Green Hornet that wipes away the camp and kitsch of the previous iteration. I want to re-mythologize The Green Hornet in a contemporary context, with an emphasis on story and character, while at the same time, incorporating themes that speak to my heart.”
He summed up the story as being about “self-discovery” and losing faith in the system.
“Britt made money doing bad things, but moving forward he’s making no money doing good things. He must realize his destiny as a protector and force of justice by becoming the last thing he thought he’d ever become: his father’s son.”
O’Connor went on to talk about the character’s military background and the “vigilante engine under the hood of his character.” Usually I’d roll my eyes at the thought of a gritty reboot, but have you seen The Accountant? Yeah, I’ll watch this.
The full interview is over at Deadline.
