The official movie poster
The Green Hornet is a 2011 film starring Seth Rogen and Jay Chou. It was released on January 14, 2011 in North America and the United Kingdom, with the option to be shown in IMAX 3D. It reportedly has a budget of $90 million.
Background[]
The film is based on a radio program that first appeared in 1936, written by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, on the same station from which The Lone Ranger originated. Cementing the connection between the two properties, the radio iteration of The Green Hornet is overtly stated to be the Lone Ranger's great-nephew, Britt Reid. In a nod to this, the 2011 film featrues a Lone Ranger poster in Britt's bedroom, the right of the television set.
After the successful launch of the radio program, The Green Hornet was adapted into numerous forms of other media including a comic book series which ran from 1942-1949 and spanned 47 issues, as well as an ABC television series starring Van Williams as the title character and Bruce Lee as Kato.
Plot[]
Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is the 28-year-old slacker son of widower James Reid (Tom Wilkinson), publisher of the Los Angeles newspaper The Daily Sentinel. Britt is an irresponsible playboy, but his attitude changes when James is found dead from an allergic reaction to a bee sting. After the funeral, Britt fires the staff aside from his maid and Kato (Jay Chou), James's mechanic and a skilled martial artist.
Britt and Kato get drunk together and, upon agreeing that they both hated James, visit the graveyard to cut the head off James's memorial statue. After they succeed, they see a couple being mugged, and rescue them. Britt and Kato are themselves mistaken by police for criminals and chased through the streets, but Kato evades them and he and Britt return to the mansion.
Britt convinces Kato they should become crime-fighters who pose as criminals in order to infiltrate real criminals, and also to prevent enemies from using innocents against them. Kato agrees, and develops a car outfitted with several gadgets and weapons, which they call the Black Beauty. Britt plans to capture Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), a Russian mobster who is uniting the criminal families of Los Angeles under his command, and whom his father was trying to expose. To get Chudnofsky's attention, Britt uses the Daily Sentinel as a vehicle to publish articles about the "high-profile criminal" the Green Hornet.
Britt hires Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz), who has a degree in criminology, as his assistant and researcher, and uses her unwitting advice to raise the Green Hornet's profile. Britt and Kato blow up several of Chudnofsky's meth labs, leaving calling cards so Chudnofsky can contact them. Throughout all this, Daily Sentinel managing editor Mike Axford (Edward James Olmos) fears this single-minded coverage will endanger Britt's life, and District Attorney Frank Scanlon (David Harbour) frets over public perception that he cannot stop the Green Hornet.
Britt asks Lenore out, but she rebuffs him and instead invites Kato to dinner, making Britt jealous. Kato learns from her that mobsters often offer a peace summit to rivals in order to get close enough to kill them; Britt then tells Kato that Chudnofsky has offered them such a meeting. Kato tries dissuading him, but Britt, feeling overshadowed, follows his instincts. This nearly proves fatal when Chudnofsky tries to kill them.
Barely escaping to the mansion, Britt and Kato argue and fight, and Britt fires both Kato and Lenore, whom he believes are in a relationship. Kato receives an email from Chudnofsky on the Hornet's calling card email address, offering $1 million dollars and half of Los Angeles if he kills Britt. Meanwhile, Britt discovers Scanlon is corrupt, learning that he tried to bribe James into downplaying the level of crime in the city to help his career.
Scanlon invites Britt to meet in a restaurant, where he reveals he murdered Britt's father using bee sting poison. Kato arrives, and instead of killing Britt, he attacks Chudnofsky's men, allowing him and Britt, whom Chudnofsky deduces is the real Green Hornet, to escape. They head to the Daily Sentinel, where Britt intends to upload a recording of Scanlon's confession onto the Web — and belatedly discovers he did not manage to record it. Chudnofsky and his men follow the duo there, where a firefight ensues. Kato ultimately stabs Chudnofsky in self-defense and Britt shoots him to death. He and Kato use the remains of a nearly demolished, second Black Beauty to run Scanlon out of the tenth floor window, killing him. A SWAT team appears and fires at the Green Hornet and Kato, who flee to Lenore's house. She learns their secret identities and that she has been the accidental mastermind behind the Green Hornet's plots. Despite being furious, she helps them hide from the police and tends to Britt's shoulder gunshot wound.
The next morning, Britt promotes Axford to editor-in-chief and stages being shot in the shoulder by Kato, further establishing the Green Hornet as a threat (and allowing Britt to get treated by professionals in a hospital). Later, the two weld James's stolen head back onto his memorial statue as a sign of forgiveness. Now, with Lenore to aid them, Britt and Kato vow to continue protecting the law by breaking it.
Cast[]
- Seth Rogen as Britt Reid, The Green Hornet, a wealthy newspaper publisher who is secretly a masked vigilante. Joshua Erenberg plays Brit as a child;
- Jay Chou as Kato, the Green Hornet's valet and sidekick, who is proficient in martial arts.
- Christoph Waltz as Benjamin Chudnofsky, a paranoid Russian gangster who plans to join all of the crime families of Los Angeles together to organize a "super-mafia."
- Cameron Diaz, as Lenore "Casey" Case, the love interest of Britt Reid.
- Tom Wilkinson as James Reid, Britt's wealthy widower father and successful newspaper publisher, who does not approve of Britt's playboy lifestyle. James is killed, leading Britt to inherit his newspaper empire.
- David Harbour as D.A. Frank Scanlon
- Edward James Olmos as Michael Axford
- Jamie Harris as Popeye
- Chad Coleman as Chili
- Edward Furlong as Tupper
- Lio Tipton as Anna Lee
- James Franco as Danny Clear
See also List of minor 2011 film characters
Production[]
The director of the film is Frenchman Michel Gondry, who previously directed Be Kind Rewind and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The film was co-written by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen. The production was shot in Los Angles, California, and the Black Beauty was shown on screen by 29 1964-1966 Chrysler Imperial automobiles. The Imperial had been used in the 1966 television series of the same name.
Gallery[]
Production stills[]
International Posters[]
Sequel[]
Producer Neil Moritz said in March 2012 no sequel would be forthcoming since The Green Hornet was made "for too much money. One, we made it in L.A. for certain reasons, and two, we decided to go to 3D — that added another $10 million. If I had done it in a tax-rebate state and not done 3D, it would have been considered a huge financial success for the studio. So we're not making a sequel right now."[1]
References[]
- ↑ 21 Jump Street Producer Neal H. Moritz Talks Tips for Surviving on Set, The Hollywood Reporter, March 9, 2012 (Archived at LiveWeb, July 18, 2012)
| Screen adaptations | ||
| 1940 film serial · 1941 film serial · Television series · 1974 feature film · 1976 feature film · 2006 short film · 2011 feature film | ||
| Audio adaptations | ||
| Radio series | ||
| Comic books | ||
| * Green Hornet Comics · Dell series · Gold Key series · NOW series · Dynamite series | ||
| Novels and short stories | ||
| The Green Hornet Strikes! · The Green Hornet Returns · The Green Hornet Cracks Down · The Green Hornet: Case of the Disappearing Doctor · The Green Hornet in The Infernal Light · The Green Hornet Chronicles · The Green Hornet Casefiles · The Green Hornet: Still at Large | ||
| Video games | ||
| The Green Hornet: Wheels of Justice | ||