Weird. We did not see this coming, but we suppose the actor is hot and in-demand (plus the filmmakers had started shooting and needed to cast someone quickly). Last week Nicolas Cage dropped out, or couldn’t come to an agreement with the studio to star as the villain in Michel Gondry and Seth Rogen’s “The Green Hornet,” co-written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg (but presumably gone through a ton of rewrites and they admitted they wrote different versions for different potential actor abilities).
But according to DeadlineHollwood, “Inglourious Basterds” main villain, Christoph Waltz — who some say will score an Academy Award nomination for his role in the Quentin Tarantino film as the canny detective, Col. Hans Landa — has nabbed the role. As much as Finke is the worst, her sources are generally good, so we have no reason to doubt this. Update: Variety confirmed this news.
In several interviews this summer during ‘Basterds’ press Waltz said he was juggling offers and perhaps he was on the short-list of actors considered for ‘Hornet’ and once Cage decided to continue his aggressive commitment to uncreative, thick-headed action films, it was probably easy for Waltz to step in.
“The Green Hornet” also co-stars Cameron Diaz, Jay Chou, Edward James Olmos, Tom Wilkinson, Tony-Award nominated David Harbour, (possibly Michael Pena, not sure if he was confirmed or not) and is currently shooting in Los Angeles. The film was scheduled for a summer 2010 release, but now is coming out December 18, 2010, the same date as “Tron Legacy,” which will apparently test the loyalties in the geek community.