Ok, so the web is all a twitter about Michel Gondry taking over the director’s chair of “The Green Hornet,” for star and writer Seth Rogen.
We just questioned the two filmmakers sensibility, but maybe their ideas won’t be so far apart? In a 2006 interview we just found, Gondry spoke of what he wanted to do with the ‘Hornet’ and it sounds much more goofier and comedic than you’d expect – perhaps more in line with what Rogen is planning.
“I wanted it to have the quirkiness of ‘Superman III.’ ‘They wanted something sleek like ‘The Matrix.’ I don’t see myself with this kind of darkness,” Gondry said noting he had major difficulties with the people behind the project. “The producer was an idiot. This guy thought I was a cool director. But I was not cool, even if I was popular with artists. It wasn’t about having an attitude. It was about not having an attitude.”
Citing “Superman III” is a bold move. That’s the installment the franchise that most geeks felt totally jumped the shark, the beginning of the end. Co-starring Richard Pryor and Robert Vaughn, the third Superman movie was campy, wacky and over-the-top, and it featured a “bad,” drunken Christopher Reeve with a hilarious five o’clock shadow. It wasn’t good by any means, but we have an odd soft spot for it because we really love Pryor ’80s films. It’ll be interesting to see if Gondry still wants to go in that direction or he just likes what Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Rogen’s “Superbad” and “Pineapple Express” co-writer) have already written.