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Despite reviews which ranged from pleasantly amused to fuming accusations of being one of the worst movies of all time, GREEN HORNET managed to lead at the box office with $40.5 million over the four-day holiday. That was doubtless inflated by the 3D conversion, so, sadly, studios will keep doing it and keep making movies less watchable.

Meanwhile, star Seth Rogen has been flying his comic book flag high and proud including telling USA Today of the crown jewels of the collection:

Over the years, most of his geek items have congregated to his home office, which is rife with comics and memorabilia. “I have elaborate porcelain statues of Nightcrawler teleporting, and lots of that stuff that I would not encourage young men who are trying to attract a woman to obtain.”

The holy grail of the bunch: An original drawn page from the 1990s Vertigo comic Preacher— with notes scribbled on it from writer Garth Ennis to artist Steve Dillon — that Smith gave him as a gift.

Rogen admits that he tends to follow writers more than titles — his favorites are Ennis, Mark Millar and Ed Brubaker. “Anything guys like that are writing, I’ll follow,” Rogen says. He’s also a new fan of the graphic novel Blacksad, by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido. “It’s awesome.”

He says finding the time to read comics has been hit-or-miss lately, but he looks forward to being able to hit his local store every Wednesday again. “I haven’t been for a couple of months, actually, this is how busy we’ve been,” Rogen says. “Once Green Hornet comes out, I’ll return to my normal life. It’ll be fantastic.”

Also of interest, perhaps, director Michel Gondry talks about his creative differences with Rogen, such as not initially getting the whole Gangsta’s Paradie thing:

It was not the only time Gondry had his authority superceded by his star — and he didn’t have final cut on the film. ”Seth was as important, if not more important than the studio,” Gondry said when I talked to him for a Calendar cover story on this career moment. “So I felt, ‘Well, it’s not really my movie.’ I accepted that. But I realized there was still tons I could infiltrate or infuse my personality through discussion all the time.” But in the end Gondry feels the scene’s inclusion was all for the best. “There are some jokes I hated when we shot them. ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ – it’s not really me at all. But when I saw it, I really liked it.”

1 COMMENT

  1. As I entered the theater to see the new film version of the Green Hornet, I was actually hoping it would be a decent film. My memories of the original TV show were very vague, as until I caught four episodes of the original TV series on the SyFy channel a few days before the new film opened, I hadn’t seen the show since it originally aired in the 1960s. And since the TV episodes I saw were very pedestrian, story- and action-wise, I figured the film had a good shot at ecliping the TV series.

    I was wrong.

    The new film was horribly written — especially the dialogue — and not one of the characters were likeable. In fact, heroes and villains alike came across as jerks. It was painful to watch.

    I think that by the second weekend, after word gets around from the opening-weekend attendees who got stung, box office receipts will fall off the table — dropping 60-70 percent.

  2. Green Hornet didn’t have much competition over the three-day weekend, which is probably why they chose this weekend to premier it.

  3. I actually LIKED the movie. I laughed throughtout the film. Clearly, it was making fun of comic book movie cliche’s. Seth Rogen’s character WAS a ass. Narcissistic, with a sense of entitlement, and self-absorbed without being self aware. I know many young people aren’t vapid twits… but many are. Seth definitely nailed this type of character to a T. Luckily he did EVENTUALLY learn the error of his ways.

  4. This movie aggravated the shit out of me to no end. Seth Rogan’s version of Britt Reid was just a total asshole, not to mention, a flat out racist as he was referring to Kato as his Short Round to his Indiana Jones was totally uncalled for and unneccessary…. And Edward James Olmos, as much as I love that guy, was totally miscast in that movie as Axeford. Axeford is supposed to be a hard nose investigative reporter besides an ex-cop and a ex-bodyguard- and his role was reduced to practically nothing throughout. The ending was way too over the top for me (c’mon, gangbangers setting up a roadblock in the middle of Century City, the Black Beauty getting cut in half and running amok on the top of a 20th floor highrise? Are you friggin’ kidding me?) They should have just went with adapting the Kevin Smith “Black Hornet” storyline from the Dynamite comic and had Kato as some hot asian chick running around kicking ass instead. At least that version had more credibilty and was a hundred times more entertaining. And jeez, couldn’t they have least given Van Williams – the only surviving member from the original sixties series a blasted cameo??

  5. It’s kind of ridiculous for anyone to think that filmmakers failed to deliver a “faithful” adaptation of Green Hornet when there is nothing there to adapt.

    The Hornet was a lifeless knock off of The Shadow and Batman born to kill some dead air on radio when he first came out. Was little more than a cardboard cut out on the TV show and has remained devoid of any entertainment value in all of his comic book incarnations be it NOW comics take on the character years ago or Dynamites bland misfire. There isnt a character or any canon to be faithful to.

    Was there ever any doubt then, that the character would be anything other than the vanity project of a popular comedy star? We should all be grateful that Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider didn’t get there first. But then, given the character, it really wouldn’t have mattered if they did.

  6. Man, that was a bad movie. I never thought anything would make Ghost Rider look good. Rogan’s character was a vapid twit throughout the movie. I hate to disagree with you Christopher, but he was as annoying and clueless at the end of the movie as he was in the beginning. That’s one reason I hated it so much.

    Rogan can’t play any character but himself, a creepy, stuttering, pot-infested D-Bag. The work, and the artist, are incredibly immature. Someone please remind me never to see a Seth Rogan movie again.

  7. I changed my mind and decided to see this movie. I regret that decision. IMO, this movie was garbage SOLELY because of how the Hornet was portrayed. I urge anyone who has not seen this movie yet, DO NOT pay to see this piece of crap. Save your money and wait to see this movie for free on cable.