Check it out. As promised, Yahoo! Movies just posted the trailer for The Green Hornet. We get to see Seth Rogen doing the action hero thing, but more importantly, we get our first glimpse of Jay Chou as Kato. Take a look:
It's a decent first trailer, and does a pretty good job re-introducing modern audiences to The Green Hornet. Frankly, I don't think it has much brand recognition for today's moviegoers, outside of those who remember it as the TV show that initially launched Bruce Lee's Hollywood career. So Seth Rogen and co-writer Evan Goldberg had a lot of room to re-interpret as they saw fit.
The basic premise: Rogen stars as Britt Reid, the irresponsible idiot son of a publishing mogul. When his father is killed, he teams up with his father's highly-skilled former employee, Kato, to find a new purpose and direction defending the city as a masked crime fighter, the Green Hornet.
It's an action movie and a buddy flick with a comedic twist. The thing is, Kato is really the brains, fists -- and everything else -- in this crime fighting equation. It was always really important that they fill this role with an Asian actor who could really pull it all off. I know they looked high and low, with lots of folks rumored or attached to the part, before ultimately going with Jay Chou. So how's he looking?
I still wish they had cast an American actor for this role -- the English-as-a-second-language factor is going to be hard to get over, and I have a feeling the comedy would have come off better from a native tongue. According to producers, Chou did not speak a lot of English prior to making this movie. That said, I do think Jay's got just the right amount of cool to make this work.
At the press event I attended this evening, Seth Rogen called Jay Chou "one of the coolest dudes I've ever met or been around... He's like Steve McQueen. He does everything cooler than anyone else does anything. Man, I've never been psyched to show up to work and be completely overshadowed by somebody on a regular basis. And it's just how it is. Jay in his own right will win people over. He's an incredibly impressive and charismatic performer."
Ultimately, audiences are going to see an Asian guy kicking ass, looking good and being generally awesome. And that's a great thing.
This is just the first bit of footage, and there's still a while before The Green Hornet hits theaters next January. But I'm starting to look forward to it.
