‘Green Hornet’ release date pushed back

Originally set for a summer release in 2010, the release date for Seth Rogan’s THE GREEN HORNET has been pushed back to December 17th, 2010. The move was first reported by Collider.com and was confirmed by Rogan himself, who is co-writer along with Evan Goldberg, as well as an executive producer and the star portraying Britt Reid.

“We’re both relieved and psyched about the change. It gives more time for post, which would have been immensely rushed if we were to come out in the summer,” said Rogan while speaking to HitFlix. “It also affords us more time to promote the film, (now we can go to Comic-Con with more than a car!) and ultimately is a great vote of confidence from the studio. We got the same date that movies like I AM LEGEND and AVATAR are getting, so we’re thrilled to be there.”

THE GREEN HORNET recently picked up arty director Michel Gondry and Asian pop superstar and actor Jay Chou for the role of Kato after KUNG FU HUSTLE’s Stephen Chow walked away from directing and co-starring in the film.

Nicholas Cage has been cast as the villainous Mr. X and Cameron Diaz is on board as crime specialist, Lenore Case.

The film is based on 1960s-era TV series THE GREEN HORNET which starred Van Williams and Bruce Lee as crime-fighting masked heroes who were first introduced in a long-running radio series that began in 1936. The short-lived TV series owes much of its popularity to Lee who stole the show as kung fu-fighting sidekick Kato. It was Lee’s first big break in Hollywood and led to his meteoric rise as the first international martial arts film superstar.

The casting of Chou has some Bruce Lee fans riled. Although the pop star has dabbled with martial arts action in several movie roles, music videos and stage performances, Chou hasn’t established himself as a dedicated martial artist and is still lacking “street cred” within the martial arts fandom community. Despite this, Chou is hugely popular in Asia and his casting will likely achieve Sony Pictures’ goals of capitalizing on the Chinese market where THE GREEN HORNET is still remembered as “THE KATO SHOW.”

Source: HitFix via Slash Film