Believe me: I tried to get ‘sting’ to work somehow, but it always came out stupid: “Leigh Whannell is in talks to direct The Green Hornet and Kato for Universal Pictures. Whannell is the filmmaker who has brought us films such as The Invisible Man, Upgrade, and Insidious: Chapter 3. The studio loved what he did with The Invisible Man, so it makes sense that they’d want to get back into business with him for another project.”
Come, let us be honest: the original GREEN HORNET would be completely forgotten today if it were not for the minor detail that Kato was played by Bruce Lee. This is no reflection on the show itself, one way or the other. There were lots of perfectly decent television shows that lasted a season, then got canceled.
But the proposed new title says it all, honestly. There’s got to be tons and tons of martial arts in this thing. And, since they’re going to be playing it straight: what poor so-and-so is volunteering to spend the rest of his life being compared to Lee?
Still, it might not suck.
#commissionearned
After the last effort I have little hope for it being any good. YMMV.
I’ll take a jab at it …
The problem with Green Hornet is it’s similarity to other properties .. Batman, for instance.
The solution to making a watchable Green Hornet is to take lessons from several very different areas; “Jeeves and Wooster” (the Hugh Laurie / Stephen Fry version if you don’t read), “Rain Man”, “Tommy Boy”, and “Planes Trains and Automobiles” … the focus is on the relationship between the titular character and Kato. Write it as a buddy / road movie, an origin-story, with a slug of coming-of-age / finding-yourself .. from both characters.
Open in L.A., where Britt Reid barely knows loner Kato, and lives large as an LA playboy / wastrel. Poppa Reid orders Britt to road trip to the New York seat of the Reid television fortune, doing a series of errands and flag-waving meet-and-greets at minor network affiliates along the way.
Subtext this with Kato, a man without a country and with no friends, some serious martial arts and mechanical/fabrication skills, transporting a MacGuffin from L.A. to NYC for Poppa (or another group) that Britt is completely unaware of.
A fish-out-of-water scene with Britt in Salt Lake City, a painful dinner sequence at the Little America in Little America, Wyoming.
Film being visual, show Kato’s flashbacks, with a voiceover making the selective editing of his own history obvious, while he’s trying to be helpful to Britt, all while keeping the MacGuffin safe and keeping Britt in the dark ..
A Jackson Hole or Sun Valley or Telluride sequence where Britt goes back to his L.A. persona and is captured, Kato goes full out to rescue him, losing the MacGuffin.
Follow with Kato opening up to Britt, the two forging a bond, and embarking on a vaguely North by Northwest chase to recover it … ideally at the Dvorak museum in Iowa for some reason.
At some point, perhaps in Chicago (with Britt faking being back in playboy mode) news of Poppa Reid’s death (and maybe the true significance of the MacGuffin) is revealed, Britt decides to seek revenge, Kato decides to help.
The entire last act is the defenestration of .. whoever. (because Top Gun: Maverick proves the enemy can be *really vague*, eh?)
This could be played straight, have funny and action moments, and make Green Hornet and Kato into something they haven’t been .. characters who make sense in context.
Mew