Ive been wanting to make this movie and create this franchise since Ive wanted to make movies, OConnor said. As a kid, when most of my friends were into Superman and Batman, there was only one superhero who held my interest The Green Hornet. I always thought he was the baddest badass because he had no superpowers. The Green Hornet was a human superhero. And he didnt wear a clown costume. And he was a criminal in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of the criminal world. So all this felt real to me. Imagine climbing to the top of the Himalayas, or Mount Everest, or K2 over and over again and no one ever knew? You can never tell anybody. Thats the life of Britt and Kato. What they do, they can never say. They dont take credit for anything.
OConnor waited until the time was right for his shot.
For almost 20 years now Ive been tracking the rights, watching from the sidelines as they were optioned by one studio or another, he said. When I discovered the rights were available again, I tracked them down, partnered with Peter Chernin and we set the movie up at Paramount. With the rights now in our loving hands, Im 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. 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.
The exercise will involve bringing The Green Hornet into the kind of existential struggles evident in some Marvel and DC Comics franchises based on solitary, misunderstood anti-heroes.
The Green Hornet is ultimately a film about self-discovery, OConnor said. When we meet Britt Reid hes lost faith in the system. Lost faith in service. In institutions. If thats the way the world works, thats what the worlds going to get. Hes a man at war with himself. A secret war of self thats connected to the absence of his father. Its the dragon thats 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 Britts true self. I think of this film as Batman upside down meets Bourne inside out by way of Chris Kyle [American Sniper]. Hes the anti-Bruce Wayne. His struggle: Is he a savior or a destroyer? Britt made money doing bad things, but moving forward hes making no money doing good things. He must realize his destiny as a protector and force of justice by becoming the last thing he thought hed ever become: his fathers son. Which makes him a modern Hamlet. By uncovering his past, and the truth of his father, Britt unlocks the future.
OConnor said the character has the requisite physical skills to qualify as a badass:
Britts shadow war background makes him a natural at undercover work. This is connected to his military backstory, which is more CIA Special Activities Division than SEAL Team 6. Hes 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. We will put a vigilante engine under the hood of his character,
