Everybody Gets Gondry: Green Hornet News A-Go-Go

By Brendon ConnellyApril 14, 2009 10:15 am EST

Okay, I know Peter linked to one Michel Gondry interview in the recent Page 2, but there's a lot of Gondry chat around the web today and, to my mind, much of it is really interesting. Principally, he's been giving interviews to promote his new, self-published compilation DVD. Like the Director's Label disc he did a few years back, to one is jammed full of music videos and behind-the-scenes business and, frankly, I'd recommend anyone and everyone to get over to his official site, fire up the PayPal and order a copy of the most essential DVD release so far this year.

Of course, everybody has also been asking about The Green Hornet, and getting lots of good stuff back. After the break I'll compile the hot snippets from Coming Soon, Total Film, SciFi Wire, AICN and VH1.

Here's some bullet points of green, hornetty excitement:

Gondry is very close to casting the film's villain. The actor hired is going to be a "household name" and "scary as hell".

This villain will be packing "a gun with two cannons, so he can shoot people in both eyes with one shot". Nasty.

TV Green Hornet Van Williams has a cameo set aside for him if he wants it. At 75, he may not, I'd think.

Gondry says that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have been taking his notes and that the story is getting better and better all the time. The director feels like hes "really part of" the writing process.

Gondry suggests that this film will be in a new style for all involved – himself, the writers and also producer Neil Moritz.

There's no plans to use animation in The Green Hornet. That should curb certain rumours before they get out of hand.

The film is most definitely not a spoof though it will have "some" funny moments.

And now a couple of direct quotes to round things off. Gondry sees his job as director like this:

I'll try to portray a human quality I see in real life and I appreciate through the medium. That's my job, to not use the film to camouflage moments of a person's personality, but to reveal that personality.

And, finally, here's his description of the demo action scene he shot and which impressed Rogen and co. so much:

It was not elaborate. ... I changed the speed of the camera at different spots in the image at different times. So it seems like Green Hornet and Kato]are in the same world but at different times, and then they're back together. The camera speeds up and slows down but at different times for different characters' images. So one will go fast and the other will go slow — and then they'll meet. It's as if they're in different dimensions, but when they touch each other, they come into the same dimension.

Frankly, I'm beside myself when it comes to this one. How can it fail? Well... I know if this movie does come out a little curbed, a little short of its potential, we'll only have Moritz and his Executive masters to blame.