'The Green Hornet & Kato': Leigh Whannell To Direct Universal Remake

The superhero genre couldn’t be more popular. Marvel and DC films dominate the box office, and the latter has become a juggernaut of intertwined franchises to surpass the dominance of things like “Star Wars.” With that in mind, other studios that don’t have that sort of deep bench of comic book heroes have been adapting obscure or long-forgotten heroes in an attempt to strike gold. Universal Pictures, known for their “Jurassic World” and “Fast & Furious” franchises, is now attempting to bring the iconic radio/serial era superhero “The Green Hornet” back to the big screen with a new film.

Not only is the studio developing a new remake titled “The Green Hornet & Kato,” but they’re fast-tracking it with the aim of landing Australian genre director Leigh Whannell to helm it, according to a report from Deadline. They’ve already received a script from seasoned screenwriter David Koepp (“Jurassic Park,” “Spider-Man”) and are looking to push forward into pre-production once negotiations with Whannell have wrapped.

READ MORE: Leigh Whannell To Direct Ryan Gosling In ‘Wolfman’ Reboot; Blumhouse To Produce

Originally a radio show similar to “The Shadow” that spawned a bunch of movie serials from Universal in the 1940s, “The Green Hornet” became a popular television series in 1966 (leading to a crossover with Adam West’sBatman” series) that co-starred the legendary martial arts actor Bruce Lee as Kato. Quentin Tarantino has been highly influenced by the show — he used the theme song for “Kill Bill Vol.1” and featured a controversial scene in “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” on the set of the ’60s series with Lee scrapping with Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth. 

In 2011, Sony Pictures released a comedic feature take on the hero from French director Michel Gondry that starred Seth Rogen, Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou, Christoph Waltz, and Cameron Diaz. It sadly was a huge flop despite having some excellent production design and fun action scenes.

Here is the synopsis of the 2011 incarnation if you’re not familiar: 

Britt Reid, the heir to the largest newspaper fortune in Los Angeles, is a spoiled playboy who has been, thus far, happy to lead an aimless life. After his father dies, Britt meets Kato, a resourceful company employee. Realizing that they have the talent and resources to make something of their lives, Britt and Kato join forces as costumed crime fighters to bring down the city’s most-powerful criminal, Chudnofsky.

Whannell recently was behind films like the mature cyberpunk action thriller “Upgrade” and helped Universal re-imagine the classic horror character “The Invisible Man” with a pic that starred actress Elisabeth Moss as a terrified survivor of domestic abuse. We don’t know what this exactly means for his “Wolfman” remake starring Ryan Gosling at Universal and Blumhouse, but it looks like ‘Green Hornet’ is the priority.