The Green Hornet will strike again in a new reboot film, and this time, he’ll be a real killer. After the 2011 bomb from Sony, starring Seth Rogen, Paramount acquired the rights to Green Hornet, the comic book and pulp radio crimefighter. Gavin O’Connor, who directed Ben Affleck in The Accountant, has signed on to a project which will reimagine playboy Britt Reid as a trained soldier with special undercover skills.
A dream project for the director, O’Connor says his Britt Reid will have a war background in his new, untitled Green Hornet film. Described as Batman meets Jason Bourne and Chris Kyle, the real-life sniper from American Sniper, O’Connor says Reid is “cross-trained in intelligence work and kinetic operations. A hunter at the top of the Special Operations food chain, working so far outside the system he had to think twice to remember his real name.”
Created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker as a radio show in 1936, the Green Hornet and his partner Kato are a pair of vigilante crusaders who fight crime while posing as criminals themselves. Originating in radio before moving to comics, Green Hornet is best known for the short-lived TV series starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee. The show had a crossover with another superhero classic, Batman.
The Green Hornet and Kato meet The Shadow, from the 2012 comics crossover 'Masks' illustrated by Alex Ross and published by Dynamite Comics.
O’Connor’s description is a strong departure from previous versions of Reid, including Williams and Seth Rogen who played the character in the 2011 movie. O’Connor says Britt has “lost faith in the system” and “in institutions” as “a man at war with himself.”
“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,” added O’Connor. “My intention is to bring a gravitas to the Green Hornet that wipes away the camp and kitsch of the previous iteration.” O’Connor further describes the new Britt as a “modern Hamlet” who by “uncovering his past, and the truth of his father, Britt unlocks the future.”
Sean O’Keefe, who recently wrote the screenplay for a movie version of Watch Dogs, will also write O’Connor’s Green Hornet. There is no confirmed release date.
