The film “The Green Hornet and Kato” is moving forward, and the director of the film “The Invisible Man” Lee Wannell is in talks to lead the project. The Green Hornet became a major pop culture character in the early days of radio, hosting a popular adventure show before starring in TV series. Interest in the character increased again when The Green Hornet show was released in 1966, in which Bruce Lee was introduced to the audience as Kato. Most recently, Britt Reed, also known as the Green Hornet, and his buddy Kato were rebooted on the big screen when Seth Rogen and Jay Chow starred in Sony’s 2011 film The Green Hornet.
In Seth Rogen’s The Green Hornet, an action comedy was applied to the characters, but it was not a successful reboot of the classic characters created by George W. Trendlom and Fran Stryker. Since then, the IP has mostly been on the shelf in Hollywood, as plans for a Gavin O’Connor-led reboot have stalled. The last development of the new film “The Green Hornet” occurred in 2020, when Amasia Entertainment and Universal began developing a new film dedicated to Reed and Kato.
Significant progress has now been made on “The Green Hornet” and “Kato,” as Deadline reports that Lee Whannell is in talks to direct the film. He has just started working with Universal on The Invisible Man, which received rave critical reviews in 2020 and became a box office hit. It is reported that Wannell appeared after a long search for a director for “The Green Hornet” and “Kato”. It is reported that the studio liked the latest version of the script from David Koepp, who joined the project at the end of 2020. If the Wannell deal is closed, Universal is expected to accelerate work on the new Green Hornet movie.
There are still few details about what the new film “The Green Hornet and Kato” will be like at the moment. Universal did not name the release date of the film, and the story of the adventure of the Green Hornet and Kato still remains a mystery. One new insight that comes if Lee Wannell directs is the stated tone. The Deadline article notes that his version of “The Green Hornet and Kato” will preserve his strengths and turn the project into a more serious action movie. This is very different from Sony’s attempt to use characters in 2011.
Lee Whannell, shooting the new film “The Green Hornet”, may be a somewhat unexpected step for him. However, he has some free time after he left the Ryan Gosling movie “The Wolf Man”. Wannell is certainly known for his horror films, but “The Green Hornet” and “Kato” should be a chance for him to return to the action genre after he surprised the audience with an “Update” in 2018. Perhaps he will even hire his “Renewal” star Logan Marshall-Green for the role of the Green Hornet. Despite this, Lee Wannell’s participation in The Green Hornet and Kato makes the project even more exciting.
