No one questions anything on the web anymore and every announcement is basically met with high-fives and “I’ll drink to that!” celebrations (the geek herd are kind of their own fratmosphere to be honest), but in case you’re one of the few people on Planet Earth that took even slight pause to think: “Seth Rogen and Michel Gondry for ‘Green Hornet‘? Hmm, interesting, that wouldn’t have been my first choice, but ok…” well Rogen has his explanations for you.
MTV talked to Rogen and got his reaction about Gondry’s in-talks plan to direct “The Green Hornet,” — a project the French filmmaker tried to do circa 1998 before his feature film debut, “Human Nature.”
“Me and [co-writer] Evan [Goldberg] have always been gigantic fans of [Gondry]. We just like anyone who thinks outside the box, and there’s really nobody who thinks more outside the box then he does; he’s really a magician in a lot of ways.”
Forgiving that “out of the box” is an unimaginative phrase we were once admonished about over-using in 2000… Rogen continued. “I’ve actually been e-mailing with him for a really long time, because he was involved with the project a long time ago. 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 his willingness to make a giant budget studio movie. But he loved the script, he totally got it, which a lot of [potential directors] just didn’t.”
In fact, Gondry loved the script so much he went out and shot a fight scene immediately to prove he was capable.
“To convince the studio to let him do it, he filmed a fight scene on his own. 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.”
Rogen was in the tank from minute one, but warned Gondry, lo-rent Swede-ing wouldn’t cut it. “[I told him, ‘You have to convince them they’re not gonna show up on set one day and everything is gonna be made out of cardboard,’ ” laughed Rogen. “And he said, ‘I can definitely do that.’ “
The pitch: “[“The Green Hornet”] will be a great combination of both of our movies, of both of our styles. 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.”
Now, while some don’t think its the best sensibility team-up, we’re not against the collaboration, but we always appreciate someone who doesn’t follow the herd. Look, blind enthusiasm is unflattering, ok? But hey, fully fair enough explanation, color us intrigued. The release plan still remains June 25, 2010.