Fans of the old time radio series The Green Hornet may have to wait a while longer before seeing their hero on the silver screen.
HitFix is reporting that the Green Hornet film currently in development at Sony is not dead, but “has gone on life support” and that it is “highly unlikely the film will shoot in 2009.” This state of affairs is the result of Hong Kong actor/director Stephen Chow backing out of directing the film last month due to “creative differences.”
Getting the Green Hornet on to the big screen has been a tough proposition for the many who have tried. In the mid-1990s, George Clooney and Jason Scott Lee were reportedly up for the roles of the Green Hornet and his sidekick Kato in a film version that never materialized. Towards the end of the decade Robocop scripter Edward Neumeier and John Fusco both took cracks at writing screenplays for a Green Hornet feature. In 2004, writer/director Kevin Smith was hired by the Weinstein Company when the studio picked up the rights to the character, but Smith backed out a year later citing a desire to continue working on smaller budgeted features.
This most recently planned version was announced last June amid some concern from fans that the announced star and co-writer Seth Rogen would turn the film into a comedy rather than a straightforward action film. But whatever type of film Rogen and co-writer Evan Goldberg have put together, it is looking doubtful that we will see it on Sony’s announced premier date of June 25, 2010. Or anytime soon after that.
