All posts by Ultragorgon9

@Someone You Can Trust

Hey, sorry it took me so long to respond this time. I think we're on the same page with quite a few aspects of what we'd like to see: case in point my top three picks for Axford for a while now have been Matthew Lillard, Alan Tudyk, and Donal Logue so it's cool to see that Tudyk crossed someone else's mind as well. For Leonore, I think Freya Allan might be might top choice right now. She stars in the Netflix series The Witcher, which I've never seen, but she was also the lead (or at least the human lead) in the most recent Planet of the Apes film, which I felt she did really great in. I think overall, I'm probably the least opinionated about Lenore's casting because I feel like they've taken the character in so many different directions over the years. I mean if you look at Britt, he's generally played in the same general mold, be it on the radio series, the film serials, the TV series, or the majority of the comics. Whereas I feel like Lee Allman's portrayal of Case is pretty different than than Nagel or Wagner's (and of course Cameron Diaz's was, so I feel like as long as you get a good actress in the role and keep the basic premise of her character intact, I'm pretty good with however the actress & direct choose to portray her. Alicia Witt is very talented and she's someone that I always expected to become a bigger star than she ultimately did. She's been vocal about the fact that she passed up the role of Mary Jane Watson in the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man film (and apparently she really was the first choice, because Tobey Maguire even went so far in a press appearance to say that she'd been cast in the role). It's a bummer that she never wound up in a different role with that level of visibility.

I also agree that it'd be very cool to see some of the other supporting players from the franchise show up in the new film. I kind of get why they combined the Axford/Gunnigan characters in the Seth Rogen films (Edward Jones Olmos was a great Gunnigan in all but name), but one of the many, many things that drove me crazy about that film was that they had these minor supporting characters that they either didn't name or made up new names for. It would have been so easy to call the one night stand girl Elaine (i.e. Elaine Carey) instead, or to give the villain's enforcers names of vilains from the TV series, or radio series, etc. or to have Axford name drop Ed Lowry and Gail Manning in one of the scenes with the other reporters. If they did include Lowry in the new film I could Nathan Fillion doing a great job as an ace reporter type and maybe Lizzy Caplan or Lake Bell as his professional rival, whether that be Gail Manning at the Sentinel or Jane Winters at the Clarion. For Gunnigan, I like Marc Maron if they want a more recognizable actor or Wil Brill or Wayne Pyle for a lesser known face. It'd be great to see Clicker Binney, but of course, for all the reporters/DS staff it just depends on how much of a presence they choose to give the Sentinel. Still, it'd be fun to see these character show even if its in minor roles. One idea I had is starting with D.A. Martin from the radio series and then having Scanlon replace him at the end of the first film or in the sequel (kind of like how they didn't start out with Gordon as commissioner in Batman Begins, but instead saved that development for The Dark Knight).

I think another way that they'd be smart in mirroring the Christopher Nolan Batman films (and some other recent superhero films) is using the first film to introduce us to the heroes and supporting cast and saving the "fan favorite" villain for the sequel, and I do agree that the Black Hornet is the closest thing that the Green Hornet has to a "fan favorite villain." (With some of the other standout villains being Oliver Perry, Jack Bartow and Mr. X from the radio series; Curtis Monroe and Bordine from the film serials; Velasco from the Case of the Disappearing Doctor novel; Low Sing (you could also include the Red Dragons from the Gold Key comics with him), Ben Wade/Firebug, Abel Marcus, Peter Eden, and the Scarf from the TV series, and the Black Hornet and Gaitlin Tobias from the comics (personally, I'd also include the Clown from Harvey Comics, but it would probably be pretty hard to avoid his feeling like anything other than a knock-off of the Joker, which to be fair, is basically what he was). I think having a mob boss with an intimidating enforcer would be a good route for the first film and then going with Low Sing/the Red Dragons and Ben Wade for the second film and Oliver Perry and the Black Hornet for the third film. That way there's kind of an intellectual threat and a physical threat for each film and the physical threat would be someone that Kato could really go toe-to-toe with. I think the combo of Jeff Goldblum and Scott Adkins as Jack Bartow and Bordine would be pretty cool for a Year One style first film. I do think Stella Merja also has a lot of possibilities, but apparently DC is working on a Clayface film and one of the recent Spider-Man films hinted at Chameleon showing up down the road, so I worry that a Green Hornet film might get beaten to the punch on that one).

Honestly, while most of the Hornet's villains are one-offs or those with limited runs (even the Black Hornet's run was pretty short lived) he has a lot of good ones and a really strong supporting cast, to the point where I think I'd be just as happy to get a new TV series (I'd take an animated one, but would prefer live action) where they could explore the city in more depth, as I would to get a new film. Honestly, with how quick Netflix and Amazon are to snatch up existing IP (everything from The Addams Family to Lupin to Jack Reacher and Jack Ryan) I'm pretty surprised neither of them have snatched up the Green Hornet, Shadow, Phantom, etc. as a way to try to do their build their version of the Disney+ Marvel shows.

@Someone You Can Trust

Enver Gjokaj is a really interesting suggestion. I watched the first couple of seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. back when they first came out. He does seem to be a good actor and I definitely see the appeal of casting a mostly unknown actor in the role. It's interesting, for a long time Hollywood had history of often casting non-name actors (I.e. those who might have done a couple of projects but are far from household names) in superhero roles that audiences are widely familiar (Chris Reeve as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, George Clooney and to an extent Christian Bale as Batman, Eric Bana as Hulk, all three Spider-Man actors to varying degrees) and much bigger names as the superheroes that the general public may be less familiar with (Ben Affleck as Daredevil, Nicolas Cage as Ghost Rider, Shaq as Steel, Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern and Deadpool). Of course, the omni-pressence of the MCU kind of changed that... all of the sudden we had fairly unknown actors playing superheroes that most of the general public had never heard of (Hemsworth as Thor, Boseman as Black Panther, Pratt as Star-Lord, Simu Liu as Shang Chi) and people were just conditioned enough to see superhero films and invested enough in the Marvel brand at that point that they still ended up being hits. As a result, I've really wondered about which approach would be best for Green Hornet.

I think all of your picks for Kato are great. I'm not sure that Simu Liu would take on a second martial arts themed superhero(ish) role, but he definitely would be perfect if he hadn't already been cast as Shang-Chi. Like you mentioned, I think that he, Ludi Lin, and Mike Moh all are genuinely convincing martial artists, but also have solid screen presence, and I think you really need both for Kato. I'd also add Andrew Koji (the streaming series Warrior), Lewis Tan (also from Mortal Kombat), and Mackenyu (Netflix's One Piece, he's also the son of legendary martial arts star Sonny Chiba). All have extensive martial arts backgrounds as well as (at least in my opinion) the sort of screen presence necessary to do Kato justice. Speaking of the sons of legendary action stars, I've been surprised by Patrick Schwarzenegger (Arnold's son). He's in a pretty popular superhero show right now (a spin-off of Amazon's "The Boys" called Gen V) and I've caught him in a few projects and he's proven to be a pretty capable and charismatic actor (much better than Clint Eastwood's son). I could see him being a good Britt.

I'm curious if you have any thoughts on who should play the supporting cast like Lenore and Mike, or who they should go with as a villain. I could see it being a good option to go the Thor/Man of Steel route where they cast a mostly unknown as the male lead and a much better known actress as the female lead. I think one of the things that's held back the Hornet's popularity a bit over the years is that he's never developed the sort of iconic rogues gallery (or even a widely known arch enemy) the way that Superman or Batman have. Heck, he even has completely different rogues galleries in the radio series, TV series, and comics (I'll never understand why they didn't have some of his more popular villains from the TV series like the Scarf or the Firebug make the jump to the NOW comics and later the Dynamite ones). I get that the vast majority of the audience won't even realize if the villain in the upcoming movie is a pre-existing character or not), but it sure would be cool for us Hornet fans!

I'll start the discussion by offering up my own casting picks:

For Britt:

I feel like it'd make a lot of sense for them to follow in the footsteps of other superhero films by casting a relative unknown in the title role (i.e. the 1978 Superman or the various iterations of Spider-Man). My top choice would be Jack O'Connell, who is a tremendous actor whose given a number of great performances in indie and smaller movie ('76, Starred Up, Unbroken) and apparently has a major role in the upcoming 28 Years Later films (sequels to 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later). He's 34 years old, so just the right age for Britt, who was described as being "about 30" in both the radio series and TV series. I feel like the combo of this and 28 Years could finally establish him as the leading man he clearly has the potential to be.

However, if the studio wanted to go with a more established actor, I'd suggest Taron Egerton or Nicholas Hoult. Taron proved in the Kingsman movies that he has both the charisma and charm to play Britt and the action chops to play the Hornet. He's proven these qualities again and again in films like Rocket Man and, most recently, Carry-On. It took a while for me to shake my image of Nicholas Hoult as a child actor (he appeared in About a Boy, among others), but he's grown into a fine actor with really solid acting chops both in dramatic (Juror No. 2) and comedic roles (The Great). He also was apparently a very close runner-up for the role of Batman, but the filmmakers ultimately settled on Robert Pattinson instead. I feel like both actors are very close to becoming bona fide leading men and would be able to ably carry the film and provide a familiar face to many audience members without breaking the bank.

For Kato, my top choice would be Mackenyu who really surprised me in Netflix's live action One Piece series. He's an incredible martial artist who also possesses the sort of magnetic screen presence I'd hope to see in Kato. My next two choices would be Ludi Lin and Lewis Tan, both of whom appeared in the Mortal Kombat remake and stood out as being too good for that film. Like Mackenyu, they've got the martial arts skills, the acting skills, and the screen presence to really sell the role.

Okay, so those are my thoughts. I'm curious, who would you all like to see in the roles?

Yeah, in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session earlier this year, Tad Stones (the creator of Darkwing Duck) mentioned that the Shadow and the Green Hornet were two of the primary inspirations for Darkwing Duck.