The first thing that needs to be said about this collection of five issues is that it has a nice little introduction from Kevin Smith himself explaining how this all came to be. It’s (kind of) common knowledge (especially now) that at one point in time Kevin Smith was going to write and direct a Green Hornet movie, quite a while before the recent Seth Rogen version hit theaters. Well, the story goes that Smith wasn’t satisfied with his script and basically asked to not have to do the project. It got shelved, like so many unwanted scripts do, and then eventually Kevin Smith was asked by the head of what is now Dynamite Publishing to tackle a comic book based on the Green Hornet using said script. The thing was that Disney owned the script and wouldn’t let it be used unless Kevin Smith wasn’t paid for the comic book, since he was already paid to write the script.
Wait. What?
Yes, this little introduction into this comic book I was so excited to read set off all of these ideas in my head that seemed like things I should have known but was in fact was a world I was just discovering for the first time. You mean there are actually people in Hollywood who write scripts, get paid for them, but then the scripts are never used? I guess it makes sense because all of these unused scripts wouldn’t just be written out of the kindness of the authors hearts, as, you know, they are human beings and need money to eat and live. But imagine if an author was given a full advance for a novel, wrote it and then the publisher decided not to publish it. In the writing community- outside of Hollywood- that’d be unheard of at best. If your novel wasn’t good enough to be published by the publishers, then guess what? You’re not getting paid. And this isn’t really a jab at Kevin Smith or any of the Hollywood writers so much as it is Hollywood itself and the people with the money. Imagine this just being from Disney. I’ve seen movies that haven’t even used one tenth of the budget that a Disney movie uses and they’re a lot better than some Disney movies I’ve seen. Now what would happen if instead of paying people lots of money for scripts they never used, someone like Disney put that money forth into making their actual product that much better? The results could be tremendous. (Or at least the admission price to their theme parks could go down)
What also amazes me is that you can now look at a writer-director and think about how much money he might have based upon the movies he actually made, but never before did I factor in the money based upon movies that never got made. Out there could be a screenwriter who has sold literally fifteen scripts to various studios for a million dollars each. So this guy is a pretty good millionaire, set for life because he can use that money to invest and do things he really wants, yet he doesn’t have a movie made with his name on it. Granted, the likelihood of something like that is slim, as Kevin Smith can get paid to write a script that a studio doesn’t use whereas someone who has never written a script that’s been produced before couldn’t be paid to do so, but just imagine if it could be real. There is a story- perhaps a movie- in there somewhere. Someone get on that!
So at the end of the introduction, Kevin Smith admits that as he saw this comic book project unfold he really did realize that this could have made a good movie. Being only five issues in, yes, I think this could have held its own with the Seth Rogen version- so far- but we need to see where it goes and how it all plays out.
Within the first five issues of Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet we basically are introduced to the characters the way we are in, well, every other incarnate of these characters. The elder Green Hornet dies; the son learns about the legacy and takes on the mask. You can’t really complain about it though because it’s an origins story so it can’t be tweaked too much. Imagine if someone rewrote Batman and said that his parents were killed in a car crash. Instead of a crime-fighting super hero, Batman could’ve been a driving school teacher. Think about it. These incidents shape these characters, so they can’t be tampered with too much.
The twist within this series though is that the original Kato got old and the new Kato is his daughter. Yes, going back to Batman again, I must say that having a female sidekick (Though, really, we all know that the Green Hornet is really the sidekick to Kato) is a much refreshing change of pace. In some aspects I’d be offended by the change, but honestly, in the original television series Kato was played by Bruce Lee. I mean, how are you going to top Bruce Lee? You know, you can’t just get the kid from the Harold and Kumar movies and be like, “Look! Better than Bruce Lee!” So the gender change does make sense in that respect.
I honestly wish- and I mean this sincerely- that there were old time radio shows again. Much like Green Hornet, I loved The Shadow. Granted, I was born after the invent of the television and I even grew up watching it in color, but still, through cassettes and CDs I’ve managed to capture these memories of a truly lost art form. Sadly, I just don’t believe that the writers today (or especially the audience) have the attention span nor the imagination to make such a thing a reality.
So as Kevin Smith says that this could make for a movie, and I do agree with him, I will leave this review by sort of casting who I would put in each role should it have had been made as a movie instead of a comic book.
My Casting for Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet
Clive Owen as Britt Reid, the original Green Hornet
Jet Li as the original Kato (younger version)
Julianne Moore as Janet Reid
Bret Harrison as Britt Red, the new Green Hornet
Devon Aoki as the new Kato
Ken’ichi Matsuyama as Hirohito Juuma
Clint Eastwood as Mayor Scanlon
No comments:
Post a Comment