Paramount Rebooting 'The Green Hornet'

Gavin O'Connor ("Warrior," "The Accountant") set to direct a reboot of "The Green Hornet." If you remember director Michel Gondry's misbegotten attempt at the superhero in 2011 with, wait for it, Seth Rogen as the Green Hornet then you clearly wouldn't think this would be a good idea, but Paramount seems to think that there could be money to made here and for good reason. Superhero reboots are not uncommon. They happen. Just look at Spider-Man, you just keep on trying until you get it right. O'Connor knows how to shoot action like not many others in Hollywood. The action scenes in "The Accountant" were very well-shot and fluidly realized by O'Connor, he also brought a lot of grit to the boxing scenes in "Warrior." This makes sense, but remember ... It's already been attempted and the dire results have not left our memory.

“I’m beyond excited to bring The Green Hornet into the 21st century in a meaningful and relevant way; modernizing it and making it accessible to a whole new generation. My intention is to bring a gravitas to The Green Hornet that wipes away the camp and kitsch of the previous iteration,” O'Connor told Deadline.“I want to re-mythologize The Green Hornet in a contemporary context, with an emphasis on story and character, while at the same time, incorporating themes that speak to my heart. The comic book movie is the genre of our time. How do we look at it differently? How do we create a distinctive film experience that tells itself differently than other comic book movies? How do we land comfortably at the divide between art and industry? How do we go deeper, prompt more emotion? How do we put a beating heart into the character that was never done before? These are my concerns…these are my desires, my intentions, my fears, my goals.”

“When we meet Britt Reid he’s lost faith in the system. Lost faith in service. In institutions. If that’s the way the world works, that’s what the world’s going to get. He’s a man at war with himself,” O’Connor added. “A secret war of self that’s connected to the absence of his father. It’s the dragon that’s lived with him that he needs to slay. And the journey he goes on to become The Green Hornet is the dramatization of it, and becomes Britt’s true self. I think of this film as Batman upside down meets Bourne inside out by way of Chris Kyle [‘American Sniper’]. He’s the anti-Bruce Wayne. His struggle: Is he a savior or a destroyer?”