French director Michel Gondry, whose films include such mindbenders as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep, is taking over directing chores on the upcoming Green Hornet movie.
Not featured in Gondry’s filmography is anything close to a comic book action movie… unless you count some brief sendups of the genre in Be Kind Rewind. And maybe that’s okay: The Green Hornet’s script is by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen — with Rogen starring — so indications are that this will be more funny than serious.
Still: while the prospect of a mindbending comic book movie thrills me, I doubt that that’s what in the offing here. I’m afraid it’s going to end up somewhere in the mushy middle, unsatisfying as either a brain frak or a comic book.
What do you think? What is a Michel Gondry ‘Green Hornet’ going to look like?
(If you have a suggestion for a QOTD, feel free to email me.)
maybe he’ll revert to the character as it was on the old radio shows, which is where it started, rather than trying to adapt the comic book series. then, at least, it might have a more old fashioned filmic quality, but still be “image” free, which would suit Gondry’s style. he wouldn’t have to adapt it to any “comic book” expectations.
It’s probably too much to ask for, but I hope it is the movie that the Spirit should have been. I hope that his take will be heroic, light-hearted and charming without being campy. I hope his action sequences are grounded in real physics (no wire-work or over the top action/explosion/fireball/flying bodies) and that things like bullets, fists, clubs, and car chases are real threats and not just sequeways between scenes of scenery chewing actors.
What I want is a movie about a real man with extraordinary resources that decides to do something stupid (like fight crime) for the right reasons and who succeeds despite the stupidity of it.
THAT would be a good Green Hornet film to me.
Any word on who’s going to play Kato? Bruce Lee left some awfully big shoes to fill, even if he was beaten by Burt Ward that one time.