Rogen GH Revisit

[GMartin58]

I rewatched the 2011 Seth Rogen Green Hornet last evening. What a shame. Jay Chou did a wonderful job as Kato and everyone else in the film did an admirable job...just if Seth Rogen hadn't been in the show! He made a complete mockery of the character. I've read Kevin Smith's comic book version of his movie idea and I get the idea that Britt Reid is a spoiled rich kid. It's a good story arc but you get the feeling that Seth's Britt Reid just never gets it. I'm holding out that one of these days someone will write a decent reboot version of GH that the family will really like and most importantly, the fans will embrace!

I just had to rant a bit.

[Lounge lizard]

Universal and Amasia currently have a reboot in the works titled 'Green Hornet and Kato' with David Koepp making progress on a screenplay. Koepp's credits include Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, Spider-Man, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and Angels & Demons so the signs are encouraging.

Meanwhile, Wildstorm have an animated series in the works with Kevin Smith involved. I understand that will have a generational storyline with a female Kato.

[GMartin58]

Kevin Smith's comic book version was done by a friend of mine, Phil Hester. It is generational and has a female Kato that is the daughter of the original. I enjoy it. Looking forward to what the future of GH might be.

[Jimmy L. 66]

I rewatched the 2011 Seth Rogen Green Hornet last evening. What a shame. Jay Chou did a wonderful job as Kato and everyone else in the film did an admirable job...just if Seth Rogen hadn't been in the show! He made a complete mockery of the character. I've read Kevin Smith's comic book version of his movie idea and I get the idea that Britt Reid is a spoiled rich kid. It's a good story arc but you get the feeling that Seth's Britt Reid just never gets it. I'm holding out that one of these days someone will write a decent reboot version of GH that the family will really like and most importantly, the fans will embrace!

I just had to rant a bit.

I agree. I like that movie except Rogen. He never played Reid, just himself if he was in that situation. I really dig the "Kato Vision" fight scenes and the nod to the original Batmobile (on top of the Black Beauty)

Kevin Smith's comic book version was done by a friend of mine, Phil Hester. It is generational and has a female Kato that is the daughter of the original. I enjoy it. Looking forward to what the future of GH might be.

Wasn't this supposed to be an animated series?

[rsaffle]

I'm not in love with the idea of a girl as Kato. They think that today's audience need a woman Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Bond etc.
How about they wait to revise the Green Hornet until the big screen gets it right once?

Creating stories like this for the comics is fine with me. They have so many titles and issues created that many different takes are possible but don't distort it in cinema. My two cents. LOL

[Therin of Andor]

just if Seth Rogen hadn't been in the show! He made a complete mockery of the character.

Sorry, I don't understand the general rejection of this movie. My connection to GH is only through his "Batman" TV appearances. I have sampled the GH TV series and couldn't really get into it. But I really enjoyed the movie (in 3D) when it first came out - and it was only months later that I realised that GH TV fans mostly hated it.

[GMartin58]

IMHO...most GH TV show fans were also fans from the old radio shows and feel a certain reverence for the characters. The TV producers made the decision to make it a more serious show than the alternate Batman series. The 2011 movie made the character of Britt Reid a fool. So those of us that hold the character in high regard were very disappointed. Someone who didn't have a history with the characters would probably like the film...

[Lounge lizard]

Just to return to the Green Hornet/Kato reboot, the only people who currently know what storyline the film is going for are the producers and David Koepp the screenwriter.Apparently they are going for "A new world that is relevant and thrilling, while respecting and honouring the original vision.”
That suggests to me they'll go with Britt Reid partnered with a male Kato

The Wildstorm/Kevin Smith animation series is what I previously said it is in my earlier post. A generational cartoon animated series starting with the original Britt Reid and Kato followed by their heirs which we're told will be a female Kato.

[Larry A.]

I've been keeping my tupence out of this discussion, but I now feel I should say something as well. Back in the early months of 1971, I was in Navy Bootcamp in Orlando Florida. On Saturday night, Our Company Commander, Mr. Cassatt, would bring in tapes of various radio plays for us (our company) to listen to. After the 1st night listening to a number of different radio plays, Mr. Cassatt took a poll on which one Our company preferred. Guess what won???? You got it, the GH!!!!!! BTW, if You haven't listened to them, find them and listen! You'll love them! I was embarrassed for the owners, just as I was for Dr. Suess's family after Carrey's Grinch film. That was not Breit Reid any more than it was the Grinch on the screen! BTW, how many of You know about Breit's famous ancestor ...The Lone Ranger! Come to think of it, the last LR film was, Imo, a dog of a film as well. And that was with Johnny Depp in it!!!!!!!

Cheers

[GMartin58]

I've been keeping my tupence out of this discussion, but I now feel I should say something as well. Back in the early months of 1971, I was in Navy Bootcamp in Orlando Florida. On Saturday night, Our Company Commander, Mr. Cassatt, would bring in tapes of various radio plays for us (our company) to listen to. After the 1st night listening to a number of different radio plays, Mr. Cassatt took a poll on which one Our company preferred. Guess what won???? You got it, the GH!!!!!! BTW, if You haven't listened to them, find them and listen! You'll love them! I was embarrassed for the owners, just as I was for Dr. Suess's family after Carrey's Grinch film. That was not Breit Reid any more than it was the Grinch on the screen! BTW, how many of You know about Breit's famous ancestor ...The Lone Ranger! Come to think of it, the last LR film was, Imo, a dog of a film as well. And that was with Johnny Depp in it!!!!!!

First off...thank you for your service and secondly...I take old GH radio programs with me on my daily walks! I love them. And I echo your sentiments.

[Larry A.]

GMartin58, You are most welcome and I am SO glad to know there is someone else besides me and a few friends who enjoy the radio plays...especially GH! I have not since those Boot Camp days, been able to listen to that Classic "Flight of the Bumblebee" without replaying in my mind one of the GH episodes. I DO so hope that We could see another TV show of it.

Cheers!

[GMartin58]

For anyone interested there is a fairly extensive collection of original Hornet radio dramas that you can download for your own enjoyment at: http://otrrlibrary.org/OTRRLib/Library% ... et,%20The/

[AndyFish]

The fact that its referred to as "Seth Rogen's Green Hornet" pretty much sums up why I hated it.

[striker]

I've been keeping my tupence out of this discussion, but I now feel I should say something as well. Back in the early months of 1971, I was in Navy Bootcamp in Orlando Florida. On Saturday night, Our Company Commander, Mr. Cassatt, would bring in tapes of various radio plays for us (our company) to listen to. After the 1st night listening to a number of different radio plays, Mr. Cassatt took a poll on which one Our company preferred. Guess what won???? You got it, the GH!!!!!! BTW, if You haven't listened to them, find them and listen! You'll love them! I was embarrassed for the owners, just as I was for Dr. Suess's family after Carrey's Grinch film. That was not Breit Reid any more than it was the Grinch on the screen! BTW, how many of You know about Breit's famous ancestor ...The Lone Ranger! Come to think of it, the last LR film was, Imo, a dog of a film as well. And that was with Johnny Depp in it!!!!!!!

Cheers

The real gold mine of Green Hornet story elements are right there in the radio shows, The Green Hornet 1940 movie serials starring Gordon Jones, and the 1941 The Green Hornet Strikes again starring Warren Hull. What the Green Hornet needs most is to focus on the main character who is Britt Reid and explore his character from the beginning. In other words, it needs a very compelling origin story so that the audience can make an emotional connection to the lead. It needs to allude to his connection to the Lone Ranger. Why does he decide to finally put a mask on and confront the mob and their corrupt allies? What is in his character that lets him blend in and pose as the most feared crime boss? How did he get his combat skills? Hopefully David Koepp the new screen writer is looking into all these source materials for inspiration and ideas.

Unfortunately no descent Green Hornet origin story has been created for the small or big screen. The 2011 movie was an excuse for Rogen to play his old, tired frat boy persona and use that as an origin story. How original !!

[GMartin58]

The real gold mine of Green Hornet story elements are right there in the radio shows, The Green Hornet 1940 movie serials starring Gordon Jones, and the 1941 The Green Hornet Strikes again starring Warren Hull. What the Green Hornet needs most is to focus on the main character who is Britt Reid and explore his character from the beginning. In other words, it needs a very compelling origin story so that the audience can make an emotional connection to the lead. It needs to allude to his connection to the Lone Ranger. Why does he decide to finally put a mask on and confront the mob and their corrupt allies? What is in his character that lets him blend in and pose as the most feared crime boss? How did he get his combat skills? Hopefully David Koepp the new screen writer is looking into all these source materials for inspiration and ideas.

Unfortunately no descent Green Hornet origin story has been created for the small or big screen. The 2011 movie was an excuse for Rogen to play his old, tired frat boy persona and use that as an origin story. How original !!

This would be the ideal situation for GH fans. The sad truth is that "Hollywood" won't really care about that. I have no idea what direction the new script might take but it will be one that they think they can make money on. The Rogen version did a fairly good job at paying tribute to various aspects of the '66 GH, especially the Bruce Lee drawing in Kato's sketchbook but that was about it. Kevin Smith's script idea wasn't too bad but deviated in a number of ways to become a comic book and I really respect the job Phil Hester did transitioning Kevin's script to a comic.

I have to say that as someone who has done some screenwriting, it's a hard job to take something that exists from the past, modernize it and make it salable to the public without completely ruining the history. I've been listening to a lot of the original radio shows and we don't have the same kind of crime these days so the writer has to come up with a completely new threat. Sometimes that's good...and sometimes it just goes down the toilet.

Time will tell! Let's HOPE that Koepp's GH will be worth the wait. We waited a long time and were disappointed once!