'Green Hornet' Pics and Trailer Online

2011 is looking like the year year of the "green," with Green Lantern due in the spring and The Green Hornet arriving months earlier in January.


Photos from Hornet, as well as a trailer for the film, recently hit the Internet and it all certainly looks right.  There was concern from many, including this Hornet-head, who remembers well the Van Williams-Bruce Lee 1960s TV series that played it straight not camp (even in it's crossover appearance on Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward) that this big-screen Hornet would be played for laughs and that's it.  While there appears to be some Iron Man-styled humor, this doesn't look like an out-and-out comedy (But if it is more comedy than drama, that's a bad idea). 


The film stars Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Christopher Waltz, Edward James Olmos and Tom Wilkinson (Mob boss Falcone in Batman Begins). The director is Michel Gondry (The Thorn in the Heart, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Rogen co-wrote the screenplay.  While the film was shot in a normal fashion, it's going to be converted into the 3D format (Another addition to the Warhol axiom - in the future everything will not only be on YouTube, but will also be shot in 3D...). Perhaps they'll fit in the great Al Hirt theme from the TV show somewhere in there, too. 

The Green Hornet has its roots in old-time radio and in fact, was created by George W. Trendle who first gave us The Lone Ranger. Most don't know it, but the Green Hornet's Britt Reid, when introduced on radio in the 1930s, was a great-nephew of the masked man of the west. That connection probably won't be made in the film, as the two characters now belong to two different companies (which is too bad).  Reid was publisher of The Daily Sentinel newspaper by day. At night, he donned a mark and dark clothes to take  on seedy criminal elements as the Green Hornet in a revved up sleek car, the Black Beauty and aided by his driver and right-hand man, Kato, who was Japanese until World War II then became Fillipino.  In addition to the popular radio show, there was also a 1940s movie serial now on DVD.

Currently, Dynamite Comics is publishing a series of Green Hornet titles, including a series written by longtime fan, filmmaker Kevin Smith. The trailer for the upcoming film shows Britt Reid as a party-animal rich man's son who makes Tony Stark look like a moderate guy.  Then Reid's father dies under what appear to my mysterious circumstances and with the help of Kato, he learns there was more to his father then he thought.  He becomes the Green Hornet to take on crime at its worst. Fights - with yes, some martial arts - gadgets, weapons, the tricked-out Black Beauty and plenty of explosions and more are guaranteed.  Looks like fun. What do you think?


Watch this trailer for The Green Hornet: