Seth Rogan, Jay Chou & Michel Gondry The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet

Cast: Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz, Edward James Olmos, David Harbour and Tom Wilkinson
Director: Michel Gondry
Genre: Action
Running Time: 119 mins

Synopsis:
In the 3D action-comedy The Green Hornet, Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is the son of LA's most prominent and respected media magnate and perfectly happy to maintain a directionless existence on the party scene - until his father (Tom Wilkinson) mysteriously dies, leaving Britt his vast media empire. Striking an unlikely friendship with one of his father's more industrious and inventive employees, Kato (Jay Chou), they see their chance to do something meaningful for the first time in their lives: fight crime. But in order to do this, they decide to become criminals themselves - protecting the law by breaking it, Britt becomes the vigilante The Green Hornet as he and Kato hit the streets.

Using all his ingenuity and skill, Kato builds the ultimate in advanced retro weaponry, The Black Beauty, an indestructible car equal parts firepower and horsepower. Rolling in a mobile fortress on wheels and striking the bad guys with Kato's clever gadgets, The Green Hornet and Kato quickly start making a name for themselves, and with the help of Britt's new secretary, Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz), they begin hunting down the man who controls LA's gritty underworld: Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz). But Chudnofsky has plans of his own: to swat down The Green Hornet once and for all.

The Green Hornet Review

Kato & Black Beauty Interview for The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet
Release Date: January 20, 2011

www.thegreenhornet.com.au

The Green Hornet Interview

"As a kid, I really, really loved The Green Hornet," says producer Neal H. Moritz. "I loved the fact that Bruce Lee played Kato and I loved Van Williams as Britt Reid. They were wish fulfillment shows for me. I had always been jealous that somebody else was going to get to make The Green Hornet into a movie."

Born in the 1930s as a radio serial, The Green Hornet garnered many fans in all media - not only on radio, but in film serials, comic books, and, for one season in the 1960s, a television series that catapulted Bruce Lee to stardom in the U.S. With the new film, The Green Hornet makes his feature film debut and introduces the masked avenger to a new generation of fans.

The film is directed by Michel Gondry. As the filmmakers shepherded the project, there were a number of directors who expressed interest in the project, but when the chance to work with someone like Michel Gondry comes along, you jump at the chance. And they were thrilled that even with Michel Gondry's well-earned rep for mind-bending films, it was clear that the movie he wanted to make was the Michel Gondry spin on the project Neal H. Moritz, Seth Rogen, and Goldberg had envisioned all along. "We couldn't be more fortuitous to have someone with Michel's creative ingenuity," says Neal H. Moritz. "At the beginning, I was really excited about the possibility that Michel was interested - I'm a huge fan and we've been friends for many years - but this would be a tentpole action-comedy. Was that what he wanted to do? Was it too outside his wheelhouse? And Michel saw a way to take the framework of this big Hollywood movie and bring his original voice, look, and sound - so yes, it's an event title, but it's also a Michel Gondry movie."

Michel Gondry says, "I've had the opportunity to do a movie in this genre before, but they always had a slick attitude - the one guy saving the world - and I don't identify with that guy. I like to have people portrayed on the screen that have flaws, a sense of humor, maybe a bit of a loser at times. That's what was appealing about this movie."

"There's danger in having a 'shtick,'" Michel Gondry continues. "Of course, there are sequences that will have my specific signature, but no one wants to repeat their past work. I want to make movies that combine technical filmmaking with real acting. This is big action-comedy, and clearly there are a lot of effects, but because we captured so many of those effects in-camera. The actors could act and be funny, and the result is a great performance."

"Britt Reid is famous for being the son of someone who did something great, but he's just a dude who parties," says Seth Rogen, describing his character. Seth Rogen also wrote the screenplay with his partner, Evan Goldberg. "He's never once done anything meaningful in his life. But when his father dies, he sees he has the opportunity to do something that gives his life purpose and direction - he decides he's going to use his inheritance as a force for good."

The Green Hornet is presented in 3D, a decision that fits perfectly into the story that Michel Gondry is telling, including the way he filmed it. "Michel is a revolutionary," Neal H. Moritz says. "You know, he's the guy who invented 'Matrix time' - he did it in a Smirnoff commercial years before they used the same technique in The Matrix. Michel uses every tool, every trick of the camera, CGI, everything, to tell the story. And 3D is just another innovative tool that allows filmmakers to tell their stories in a new way. So of course Michel was interested in releasing the movie in 3D, and using the depth and scope of the film in this dramatic new way."

Grant Anderson and Rob Engle were the supervising stereographers charged with adapting Michel's vision for 3D presentation. According to Rob Engle, the fact that much of the movie was shot in 2D and then enhanced with 3D allowed Michel Gondry more control over the final image - and as a result truly allowed him to play with the 3D space in his unique Michel Gondry way. "What conversion allows us to do is to manipulate the three-dimensional space in a way that you can't do with traditional photography," says Rob Engle. "Shooting in 3D, what you see is what you get. But the way we did it, it actually opens up the door to using 3D in a creative way and manipulating 3D in unexpected ways. I think that's what really excites Michel. For example, in certain places, he's taking elements of one shot, and at the cut, he will carry over elements - bits of glass or a weapon - to the next shot. In that way, there's a sense of continuity of 3D space that you wouldn't have naturally with 3D photography."

What is more, the final decision to release the film in 3D came shortly after completion of principal photography, giving Michel Gondry the ability to design many of the effects sequences with 3D in mind.

"Michel is a visionary," says Engle. "He's constantly coming up with unique and creative ways to use the film medium. I think 3D adds a new and exciting weapon to his filmmaking arsenal."

In fact, Michel Gondry prepared an early presentation when he first met with Neal H. Moritz, Seth Rogen, and Goldberg: his vision for the film's action sequences, which he calls Kato-Vision. "Michel brought in something that he had made at home, which basically showed a fight scene between two guys, and it was one of the things that got us really excited about doing the movie with him," says Neal H. Moritz. "Within the same frame, you saw two people fighting at different speeds. Michel is a guy who knows how to revolutionize what you see on film."

Seth Rogen puts it succinctly: "When I go to see a movie, I want to see something I've never seen before - and if there's a dude who's come up with a lot of stuff I've never seen before, it's Michel Gondry."

With Michel Gondry's captivating visual style, Neal H. Moritz's experience with action films, and Seth Rogen and Goldberg's success with comedy, the film had "a triad of people from very different worlds," says Neal H. Moritz. "When I'd see the kind of work the others were doing - Michel's creativity, Seth and Evan's work with the screenplay - it inspired me to bring my A game, too. Since I'd been a fan for such a long time, it was great to know that I was involved with people who shared a passion for the material - Michel, obviously, and Seth and Evan, who have a deep love for the genre."

Indeed, any major feature film requires a high level of collaboration to pull it off, but The Green Hornet is an especially good example. Cameron Diaz explains, "It's really a great partnership and a lot of fun working with them. You'll be on set and Michel comes in and gives the direction. Then Seth and Evan hear that and talk to Michel about a new line of dialogue. All of a sudden there's this synergistic thing that happens - the set is a blender, all these ingredients are being poured in, you push a button, and out comes the perfect pina colada."

For their part, Seth Rogen and Goldberg "were looking for a new movie to write," explains Seth Rogen. "We had always been comic book fans, superhero fans. For a long time we had been trying to write a movie about a hero and his sidekick. But nothing was quite right for us until we looked at the Green Hornet. Here was this famous character with a real legacy, but still a property that would allow us to put our own interpretation into the characters. It was like this project was tailor made for what Evan and I wanted to do - we could explore the relationship between Britt and Kato around the framework of this kickass action-comedy. It was perfect."

Perfect, Seth Rogen says, because from their point of view, over time, the characters have become true equals. "Kato started out as a sidekick role, and like a lot of sidekicks, he was just a sidekick. But then came the TV show, with Bruce Lee as Kato. He became an icon, and because of that, there's a great love out there for the sidekick as well as the Green Hornet himself. People who come to see the movie want to see what happens to Kato, not just 'the hero' the Green Hornet."

If Michel Gondry brought his vision, and Seth Rogen and Golberg brought the comedy and story sensibilities, it was Neal H. Moritz who brought a deep experience with action films. "Neal has an extremely detailed perception of what works and doesn't work in terms of action on screen," says Michel Gondry. "He really has a sense for it, how to frame a shot, how many frames to cut in the editing room."

Rounding out the crime-fighting trio is, of course, the Green Hornet's car, Black Beauty. "As far as I'm concerned," says Neal H. Moritz, "Black Beauty is the real superhero of the movie." After much development with car manufacturers and designers, the filmmakers finally decided that only the Chrysler Imperial Crown - the same model used in the television series - would do. "Every time we compared the new designs to the classic Chrysler, they never lived up," says Neal H. Moritz. "I think it was Michel who said, 'Why don't we build off of the Imperial?' A light bulb went on. We're never going to come up with anything cooler than that."


CASTING THE FILM

"As we started to develop the script, I couldn't think of a better person to play the title role," says Neal H. Moritz of the choice to cast Seth Rogen as the Green Hornet. "To believe that Britt Reid becomes The Green Hornet, you have to believe the character he is at the beginning, and no one could play that better than Seth."

"The whole story of the movie is that Britt is an irresponsible idiot who's trying to get his life together to do something worthwhile," says Seth Rogen. "As an irresponsible idiot, I'm quite good."

With the Green Hornet himself cast, the filmmakers turned to casting Kato. For that pivotal role, they turned to Asian pop star Jay Chou. "We truly did an around the world search for who could be Kato," says Neal H. Moritz.

Jay Chou is one of Asia's biggest stars - the King of Asian Pop, according to Time Magazine. He's sold over 32 million albums and has had Asia's top-selling album for 10 years running. Some Americans may not know his name yet, but they will - to Asian-Americans, he is an enormous star, capable of selling out a 100,000-seat venue like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

After an initial audition over Skype, the studio flew Jay Chou in from Taiwan and were immediately struck. "There was something about the chemistry between Seth and Jay that reminded me of the classic buddy movie pairings," says Neal H. Moritz. "He has a star quality when he's on screen that makes you think, 'I want to watch this guy.'"

"It was immediately clear that he was super cool," says Seth Rogen. "He's really charismatic, he's handsome, he has that cool hair. He'd never take orders from a guy like Britt Reid." That made him perfect for the part.

"The Green Hornet is 'the hero,' but it's Kato who does everything," says Michel Gondry. "That's a great twist on the hero-sidekick thing - the sidekick is the real hero, but he gets no credit."

Jay Chou feels that the team is "balanced," he says. "They are from different backgrounds, but they are like brothers. Britt is the funny one, Kato is a little bit more serious."

Of course, Jay Chou was intrigued by playing a role that not only Bruce Lee made famous, but was the role that made Lee a star. In Lee's performance, Jay Chou says, Lee "filled the little gaps with coolness, which was exactly what the character needed. His performance was about attitude."

But Michel Gondry says that while Jay Chou may have been inspired to bring his own attitude to the role, Jay Chou also makes the part his own. "I'm sure it was difficult for him the legacy and aura of Bruce Lee is gigantic. So his approach was not to do any imitation of Bruce Lee at all. It became pretty clear that he was very, very cool in a very different way. He had Kato's confidence, every step of the way."

"He completely pulled off everything that we thought he could do, but more so, because he was even cooler than we thought he could be," says Seth Rogen. "We're not cool, so we weren't prepared for how cool he could be."

Lenore Case was another character that carried over into the film - in a slightly different incarnation. Cameron Diaz brought the updated character of Britt Reid's secretary to life. "I was in New York and got a call that Seth Seth Rogen and Michel Gondry were doing The Green Hornet. Those two names separately were incredibly interesting to me. But hearing those names together? It made the project completely irresistible. When I thought of those two minds together, I didn't care what it was. I just had to be a part of it."

In the 1930s, Lenore Case was a woman ahead of her times. In 2011, Lenore is a woman of her times. "She's smarter than both Britt and Kato put together," laughs Cameron Diaz. "They have no idea what they're doing, whether it's running a newspaper or being vigilante crime-fighters. Lenore is passionate about journalism and she's obsessed with criminology and forensics."

"The only thing Lenore doesn't know is that she's the brains of the Green Hornet operation," says Neal H. Moritz. "She's doing the research for Britt and Kato, feeding them information. She thinks it's because Britt needs to know all of this for the newspaper, but in reality they're using her research to go out there and be the Green Hornet and Kato."

Neal H. Moritz says, "We were so lucky to have Cameron play Lenore. She's obviously known for her comedy. It was easy for us to have scenes between the three of them that were not only endearing and emotional but really funny as well."

To play the Green Hornet's nemesis, Chudnofsky, the filmmakers brought in Christoph Waltz, who had astonished everyone with his performance as Col. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds, a role which garnered the actor an Academy Award. The film was released the same week that The Green Hornet started production, and the idea of getting Christoph Waltz brought a palpable excitement to the set.

According to Christoph Waltz, from Chudnofsky's point of view, Britt Reid's plan of posing as criminals to get close to the real bad guys totally works. "He's obsessed with the Green Hornet, because he sees the Green Hornet disturbing his business. He thinks it's a competing criminal. Britt's plan works perfectly."

Christoph Waltz had a particularly challenging role, according to Seth Rogen. "We told him, 'You're going to need to scare people - you might kill someone - and you need to make them laugh at the same time,'" says Seth Rogen. "And he totally did it. When I look at what he does in the movie, I can't think of anyone else who could be that scary and that funny."

"When I talked to Neal about the part, he said, 'This is a bad guy in his midlife crisis,'" says Christoph Waltz. "Now that I thought was really funny. He's a very sensitive and hurt human being, an intellectual who takes great pride in his appearance, very, very prudent, and has a certain way of dealing with people that involves a gun with two barrels."

Adds Neal H. Moritz, "I couldn't be more proud to have Christoph in this movie. He's a terrific actor and every time you see him on screen, he's bigger than life."

Christoph Waltz says that the key to playing a villain is finding the elements that make him a human being. "Chudnofsky is just a guy trying to get along in the world," he says. "It's always interesting to find the human qualities in any character. Why should a villain be an exception?"

The Academy Award nominated actor Tom Wilkinson plays James Reid - a small but essential role, as Britt's relationship with his father is the inspiration for his transformation into The Green Hornet.

Having raised his son on his own while building his empire, James Reid was disappointed by his son's choices. Says Tom Wilkinson, "He's very frustrated by the fact that having lavished everything on his son, Britt seems to be living a terribly desolate lifestyle of which his father wholly disapproves."

Father-son relationships can be fraught and James and Britt Reid typically suffer from a lack of true communication. "However frustrated you are with your dopey kids," explains Tom Wilkinson, "you love them. You love them more than life itself."

After his father's death and Britt's first outing as a vigilante crime-fighter, Britt sees a way his father's newspaper, The Daily Sentinel, can build The Green Hornet's notoriety. James Reid's longtime right-hand man, Mike Axford, played by Edward James Olmos, suddenly has to make room for the new kid in the boardroom - a kid he knows only as a party kid and slacker, a kid who knows nothing of news, newspapers or business. Axford doesn't know what to make of Britt and feels a strong responsibility to protect what he built with Britt's father.

For Olmos, the tentative, complicated, even strained relationship between Britt and Axford made the part compelling. "My character's got a really dark side to him, which I thought really played well," he says. "Michel, Neal, and Seth allowed me to create the character and infuse my ideas into my character."

David Harbour, a Tony-nominated actor who previously took on key roles in Revolutionary Road and the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, rounds out the cast as Scanlon, the District Attorney.