Cool News
Stephen Chow Won’t Direct Seth Rogen’s GREEN HORNET After All!!
I am – Hercules!!
Stephen Chow will still play Kato in the superheroic Seth Rogen comedy-actioner "The Green Hornet," but he'll no longer direct the project.
Creative differences are blamed.
A new director is being sought to shepherd the script by Rogen & Evan Goldberg ("Superbad," "Pineapple Express") to the big screen.
Read all of Variety’s story on the matter here.
Readers Talkback
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I was looking forward to him working his Chow magic
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I know that Rogen reads this, and intrigued by my screen name, will cast me as the green hornet. Although I'd prefer to be the Lone Ranger in a flashback.
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"You know, from nature?"
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wanna bet david gordon green takes over?
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so it's still gonna suck as a comedy Green Hornet movie then.
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Dec. 18, 2008, 10:19 p.m. CST
Rogen's script was probably 80% "(I'll improv somethin here)"
by TallBoy66
Fuck, I'd bail as a director too if Rogen was just going to go improv hog wild in the middle of an action shoot. Dammit, you got explosions to set up!
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Oh well. It probably would've been like the flipside of the Spirit coin, and made an interesting double-feature.
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Hope not. Rogen has just a few more flicks before he gets old... and to some he crossed that line a while back.
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Rogen has starred in 3 movies so far. One of which nobody saw (Porno). People who are burned out on him are obviously secretly watching his movies over and over again.
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always means something bad. I'd love to know the real story behind this.
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I guarantee it. Chow needs to find a way to take on the entire movie on his own. He should play Kato, write, and direct, with Rogen and his goons nowhere in sight.
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Mr Rogen, sit down next week and watch The Spirit. You will notice that you are in an empty theater. Nobody goes to see Superhero movies about 4th tier characters. The Green Hornet is stupid, don't waste your time.
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Can't stand that Rogen guy. Me puts me off seeing anything. I'm not really a hater- he just annoys me and I don't think he's funny. Does that make me a hater?
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Bet the trouble started there. Time to start diggin'.
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Chow could have made this thing a classic in his first Hollywood Blockbuster with his unfuckingbelievably funny vision. Now it's prob going to be another overated Rogan vehicle.
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I was only interested in the movie when I found out he was directing. They better get somebody equally as interesting. This is a big, BIG disappointment.
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He didn't understand why it would be like so awesome if like the 'Green' in Green Hornet meant that like he liked pot, cause like smoking pot on screen is like totally funny and stuff, cause you can like talk about Juliane Moore's pubic hair and talk about like how funny it is being jewish and like yea....
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If David Gorden Green helmed this. Fpr me, Pineapple Express was a far funnier film than Tropic Thunder.
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mrbeaks is on to something. This guy has 71 projects listing him as producer and not a single one of them is even decent. Worst resume ever?
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Dec. 18, 2008, 10:49 p.m. CST
KICK CHOW OFF COMPLETELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by Illuminate
I don't have a problem with Stephen Chow but, Stephen Chow is a Jackie Chen type/he is NOT a Bruce Lee type. For anyone who is not that familiar with how things are in martial arts movies than let me give you this analogy: It would be like casting Arnold Swarzennegger as Rocky Balboa. It is a stupid idea and insulting to the memory of Bruce Lee. The only reason the Green Hornet is even remembered is because of Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee did not believe in comedic martial arts or fake Matrix type fighting. Bruce Lee was straight to the point on wanting realistic fighting/he was the first Ultimate Fighter. All his interviews stressed that he was not in to such bullshit. Seth Green would make a great Green Hornet but, casting Stephen Chow as Kato is fucking stupid. Well, at least this film is no longer going to have him Directing it. They need to bring in a serious martial artist like that guy who stared in Ong-bak or go with a Chinese guy who is like him. There are a billion Chinese. I am quite sure they can find a Chinese guy who can kick ass, speak English and act.
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Dec. 18, 2008, 10:53 p.m. CST
SOUNDS LIKE BATMAN AND ROBIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by Illuminate
typo: I did not mean Seth Green. I meant Seth Rogen would make a great green Hornet since the movie does need comic relief. But, they still need to get rid of Stephen Chow or they will have another silly superhero movie like Batman and Robin and nobody wants to see that.
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Hollywood - Please stop mining characters like the Green Hornet if you can't interpret what was cool about them in the first place. No fan thinks of the original Green Hornet as a comedy, they sat thru those shows to watch Bruce Lee do his thing. It was as good as the times and the limitations of serial tv could do. The irony is that guys like Rogen focus on the bad not try to improve on the promise of what could be.
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Eh...NO! Not really.
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...you're just wrong. I love Bruce Lee and I'm sure he had a sense of humor aside from his respect for martial arts. I'm a film lover but I still like to see cheesy movies that don't have any cinematic value.
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Dec. 18, 2008, 11:09 p.m. CST
LOL - Is it still "the best film in my mind in the world ever",
by unionJACKass.webs.com
I not sold on THE GREEN HORNET yet. There is something that weighs 300lbs that tells me it'll be good-at-best, and they thing is - Seth Rogen.
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But as it stands I'm not really excited about this project, but who knows, maybe it will be cool. I guess we will just have to wait and see.<br> And for the record, I agree with what BranMakMorn said.
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This does not bode well for this project.
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Check out the French fan-film online for a glimpse of how to approach the material. No pear-shaped funnymen required. Dark Knight Out.
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I must be out of the hipster loop. Has he got that popular to be hated? I thought that was just the Dark Knight. In any case, yeah! FUCK ROGEN!
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And by that I mean, my Asian escort just left my apartment because she was too upset by this news. I'm going to choose to blame Seth Rogen for this. Damn you, Rogen!!! You owe me 400 bucks!!!
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Chow didn't want it to be some by-the-numbers, cliched, overproduced, smarmy piece of Hollywood shit. Why can't he just play ball! Oh well, here comes Tom Shadyac or something along those lines.
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Remember BLADE?<p>It's not the character that's the problem. Batman and Superman the the most famous heroes out there, and they've both had films that SUCKED.<p>Bad superhero films are usually caused by idiots who either don't take the source material seriously and treat it as such (Batman & Robin) or simply have such a bad handle on who the character is supposed to be that the filmmakers fail to give the audience what they came to see and the hero ends up falling far short of expectations (Superman Returns).<p>The Green Hornet doesn't have to be well-known to be successful. It DOES have to be an exciting action film that will both please audiences and make them want to come back with their friends over and over again.<p>Comedic superhero films, on the other hand, almost ALWAYS fail.
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The main character is not Britt Reid but a young internet millionaire type (as opposed to the original newspaper publisher). The guy and his buddy are fans of the GREEN HORNET t.v. show (with Bruce Lee, etc.) and so they decide to actually BECOME The Green Hornet & Kato using the millions they have from their software/internet biz to fund the operation (thusly, they can sort of remake the t.v. show style, costumes, car, etc). And so...action and comedy ensues.
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That's gotta be a pride swallowing experience, regardless of who made the decision. So far all I've gathered from the back and forth on this project is no one knows what theyre trying to do with it. Confidence=zero.
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Keep Rogen, and fuck the concept of a Green Hornet movie all together. Seriously, is anyone actually hyped about seeing a hip and happening Green Hornet? If you're not 40 plus then you should just shut the fuck up about being this die-hard Green Hornet fan. Rogen is doing the franchise a favor, he's the only reason people will care about this well polished turd.
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People were more excited about Meteor Man in the mid 90s then they will be about this abomination. Mark my words; this is just Hollywood's sad attempt at milking the super hero franchise dry. I can't wait for the Aquaman flick.
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They'd have to replace him with someone pretty good to get me interested now.
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Give us a slick noir tale with Jon Hamm in the lead... and perhaps Tony Jaa as Kato.
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Do you mean Seth Rogen wasn't physically fit enough to do what Chow wanted? <P> Chow: Ok now big action scene. <P> Seth: How about we show the Green Hornet and Kato sitting around talking about weed?
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Remove Rogen and his entire clique from this and make Green Hornet VS Dick Tracy instead! Hardboiled cop Tracy vs hardcore vigilantes Hornet and Kato, with all of their villains as fodder. Set it in the 40s, treat it seriously, make it violent and bloody = Best movie of the year.
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...that Chow didn't like the less "family friendly" aspects of the screenplay?
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Chow seeing what complete bullshit Hollywood is and how he wouldn't be able to make his version of the movie. I would imagine sony would have kept him on a pretty short leash. What a shame.
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You can't blame Rogen or any of the other creative team. You jsut know they were geeking the fuck out to get chow no matter what you think of them. This would be a chow and studio issue.
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that REALLY fucking sucks
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Too bad we don't get Chow's visionary lunatic direction, but if we don't, he shouldn't be Kato. Tony Jaa would be much more appropriate.
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Dec. 19, 2008, 4:19 a.m. CST
Creative differences = Script not on par with Chow's best
by Monkey_King
and he knows comedy as well as drama. He only wanted to do it based on his admiration for Sigung Bruce Lee and the script most likely didn't put Kato in the best of situations.
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...Now. You know if they don't like Chow, they like shit.
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at least Kato had more skill as a fighter anyway.
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What happened with Seth? He was so fanboying this guy.
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Give Kevin Smith a call. He owes Seth a favour after the Zack and Miri floparoo and he's got a script ready to go.
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....this movie has officially lost my interest now. I bet you it was because Seth Rogen and his fucktard friend kept adding pot jokes in there and Chow said no.
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Bug Fucking Deal! So Show is NOT directing "The Green Hornet"! Frankly I could care less, The Green Hornet was a character and a TV show (as repeats I saw as a kid) I could never really get into or care about.... Hey!! I know...Uwe Boll should be able to do this one!! Ha Ha!!!
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I liked that one movie where he played a sarcastic fat ass that made fun of how ugly he is. What movie was that?
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The man can do no wrong cinematically
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Dec. 19, 2008, 8:50 a.m. CST
Bob Cryptonight: Sounds like the Escapists comic from a while ba
by Sherman_Lives
Comic writer buys the rights to The Escapist (as in Kavalier & Clay), decides to promote the book by having his friend dress up as the title character... pretty fun stuff.
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This is a strange project. Rogen? Really? Chow directing was the only thing that really gave me hope that this would be interesting.
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I have now lost all interest in this project :(
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He is a total fucking asshole, the kind of self important, PA abusing dickwad that makes people hate making movies. Also, with Chow out on this project, I'm out, too. Sorry Rogen, but that Chow's involvement was the only thing that elevated this to me.
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No Chow, No Tickey.
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No thanks, I'll pass on all of his movies.
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that this could be the greatest movie ever made.<p>So Chow had "creative differences"??? My movie magic 8-ball says "Signs are not good".
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If I were Chow I wouldn't want to direct that bloated hack either. Rogen is certainly the most annoying actor to come out in a long time. He probably wants The Green Hornet to be smoking dope and talking about fucking every 5 minutes. Please Mr. Rogen, crawl under a rock and stay there.
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and his idol is Bruce Lee. I highly doubt he'd do anything less than honor the legacy of his idol. He's also a fantastic action performer, so I have no doubt he's going to strike the perfect balance. Watch the opening of KUNG FU HUSTLE - he nailed period. This is a damn shame - Chow has a really wonderful cinematic vision, and while I'm probably going to SEE Hornet for him, I'm not looking forward to it AT ALL.
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If I were Chow I'd leave the project. No better chance than now. <p>Look at this way= Rogen known by say optimistically 200 million people globally.. vs Chow I dare say 1 billion+ (mostly in Asia.) The guy is God in China. Walk away now Chow you don't need western exposure.. Look at Jackie Chan, from legend to moron. Say no to hollywood.
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"I don't have a problem with Stephen Chow but, Stephen Chow is a Jackie Chen type/he is NOT a Bruce Lee type. For anyone who is not that familiar with how things are in martial arts movies than let me give you this analogy: It would be like casting Arnold Swarzennegger as Rocky Balboa. It is a stupid idea and insulting to the memory of Bruce Lee. The only reason the Green Hornet is even remembered is because of Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee did not believe in comedic martial arts or fake Matrix type fighting. Bruce Lee was straight to the point on wanting realistic fighting/he was the first Ultimate Fighter. All his interviews stressed that he was not in to such bullshit. Seth Green would make a great Green Hornet but, casting Stephen Chow as Kato is fucking stupid. Well, at least this film is no longer going to have him Directing it. They need to bring in a serious martial artist like that guy who stared in Ong-bak or go with a Chinese guy who is like him. There are a billion Chinese. I am quite sure they can find a Chinese guy who can kick ass, speak English and act." <p> Chow is Bruce Lee type? No fucking shit Sherlock!! Chow is a Jackie Chan type? Feckin hell! I suppose Eddie Murphy is a Denzel Washington type? And Seth Rogen is right for GH?! WTF! On your take of Chow's martial arts... Erm he's creating a visual spectacle you idiot. He's transferring cartoon into live action. And there wasn't much comedy kung fu back when Bruce was alive anyway if any at all! Stop licking Bruce Lee's hard grey dried up shit. Chow isn't even trying to fill Lee's shows.
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You mean like CJ7?
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sounds like it coulda starred Dan Akroyd and Johnny Yune back in the day. Just change the internet thing to a coin-op video game.
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that permanently ignores TBers that talk shit about Chow. There would be no way that their opinions would ever be useful.
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just by typecasting alone. He's not serious enough for the part not to mention his facial appearance. (Ugh!) fuck, use Matthew fox or Guy pearce instead as Bale has his hands full nowadays.
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I think this could work as a comedy. The creative differences were probably something like there are no wires that can suspend Rogen for ten hours at a time.
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GIVE HIM A TON OF MONEY, AND LET HIM GO NUTS ON THIS!
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