I'm once again excited for THE GREEN HORNET after last night's late announcement that Michel Gondry, possibly one of the more distinct and unique directorial voices in Hollywood right now would be directing the big budget superhero action comedy at Columbia. Fanboy anticipation had kind of gone south after hearing that KUNG FU HUSTLE and CJ7 director Stephen Chow had bailed out, the worry being that Columbia weren't willing to give someone with such a unique voice the chance to work on the picture. Last night that was proven to be false with Gondry's new attachment as he is certainly no studio yes man. There's nothing forumalic about ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP or BE KIND REWIND. Seth Rogen this morning couldn't wait to talk to
MTV about the exciting coup that he pulled off mostly on his own (he e-mailed the script to Gondry without the studio's permission), telling them it's "fucking crazy" what has gone on this week...
"I've actually been e-mailing with him for a really long time, because he was involved with the project a long time ago," he explained. "With the permission of nobody, I sent him our script ... to get his input and ideally convince the studio to meet with him. They were skeptical of ... I wouldn't say his ability to make a giant budget studio movie, but hiswillingness to make a giant budget studio movie. But he loved the script, he totally got it, which a lot of just didn't."
Rogen goes on to explain that Gondry immidietly after writing the script went out and hired his own stunt men to prove to Columbia he was able to shoot an action scene...
"He just hired stunt men and did it by himself! Just to show some of the stuff he could do, some of the weird filming techniques he has and some of the stuff he can pull off. I mean, this is something he did in two days and it was instantly unlike anything you've ever seen before. It was impossible not to hire him once he presented what he could do for it."
And the quote that truly defines what Rogen is trying to achieve here...
"["The Green Hornet"] will be a great combination of both of our movies, of both of our styles," Rogen said of the film, which hits theaters June 25, 2010. "It should have the type of conversational tone and comedy that me and Evan have been doing and some of the action that we have been starting to try to do along with the wild, visual imagination and funny awkward sensibility that he's been doing."