Columbia Pictures Catches The Green Hornet!

There used to be a lot of talk buzzing around about The Green Hornet. However, while an alien in tights, an insect hero and a certain fantastic group of four have been fighting crime, the Hornet has lounged in the dugout, waiting for his turn at bat. He almost got his shot when Kevin Smith was heading the project for Miramax, but then Silent Bob bowed out a year ago, stating that he wasn't an action director. While that seemed to be the end of it, the tide has now turned in another direction. Variety has reported today that Columbia Pictures has optioned the rights to crime-fighter, which will be set up with Neal H. Moritz and Original Film.

If you're uninitiated in the ways of the Hornet -- at night, the Hornet was a masked hero who fought crime along with his sidekick, Kato. By day, however, he was Britt Reid, a blood relative of The Lone Ranger and a newspaper publisher. What makes this hero different is that he's a cross between Batman and any sexy, stylish hard-boiled detective. Instead of tights, Hornet wears a mask, suit, trench and fedora. If Columbia can get it right, this could be gold for the company -- a masked crime fighter who doesn't have to wear a ridiculous get-up.

Now that we're getting back on track with the adaptation, who would play Reid/Hornet and who would be Kato, a role that was once Bruce Lee's? Early rumors paired Jake Gyllenhaal with Jet Li, but that's just silly. Who would buy a sidekick who is much older than the hero? If the studio is going to go young, Gyllenhaal or any other hot-jawed actor who can look good in a suit would work, and then Kato's natural choice would be Ong-bak star Tony Jaa. If you go older, Li works well, and maybe... I know this is a stretch, but Crispin Glover bears a resemblance to Al Hodge, who was the Hornet years ago. But again, any older actor in a suit can do it. Who would you cast?