Float Like a Franchise, Sting Like a

THE history of the Green Hornet is as convoluted — and, if possible, as preposterous — as the plots of the long-running radio drama that spawned this masked vigilante.
Since elbowing his way into the public consciousness 75 years ago on WXYZ in Detroit, the character has known more variations than Bach gave Goldberg.

Dozens of actors, scriptwriters and filmmakers have worked with the property, which has been adapted into a TV show, two movie serials and reams of comic books. The latest iteration — a 3-D feature called “The Green Hornet” (also in 2-D) that opens on Friday — spent nearly two decades in development, courted controversy with its casting decisions along the way and ended up with a steep price tag of a reported $130 million.

“It’s been tumultuous,” Seth Rogen, the star and co-writer of the bromantic action comedy, said with just a hint of understatement.

Mr. Rogen, 28, became Hollywood’s comedian du jour by playing lazy lumps in the bong hits “Knocked Up” and “Pineapple Express” and co-writing films like “Superbad.” This time around he’s Britt Reid, a party-loving trust-funder. The new Britt has never forgiven his father for deliberately ripping the head off his favorite childhood action figure. But when the old man dies unexpectedly, Britt inherits his newspaper empire and his mechanic, Kato (Jay Chou), a gizmo-mad martial artist who makes perfect lattes.

Struck by a sudden impulse to make something of his life, Britt enlists Kato as his partner in crime fighting. They pose as bad guys and prowl the streets of Los Angeles at night in Britt’s car the Black Beauty, a mid-1960s Chrysler Imperial that Kato has tricked out with flip-down turntables, rocket pods and retractable 50-caliber machine guns.

Their fractious friendship, however, bears little resemblance to the one conceived in 1936 by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, who three years earlier had created the popular radio show “The Lone Ranger.” Back then Kato was Britt’s mostly silent sidekick — a relationship not unlike the one that other masked man had with Tonto. (The connections run even deeper: The Lone Ranger was the sole survivor of an ambush that had wiped out a party of Texas lawmen that included his brother, Captain Dan Reid. Britt was Dan’s grandson.)

“The Green Hornet” is a relic from a time when big-city dailies had power, energy and glamour. The playboy publisher and his Daily Sentinel shared a slapdash, insouciant impudence.

“Hurry, Kato!” he’d shout. “Here’s where we smash a numbers racket!”

Brandishing guns that sprayed knockout gas and buzzing about in the Black Beauty at speeds up to 200 m.p.h., the pair battled saboteurs and gangland hoods with names like Mr. Big and Mr. X.

Four years into the run Universal released a 13-episode “Green Hornet” movie serial. Gordon Jones, who later played Mike the Cop on “The Abbott and Costello Show,” took on the role of Britt. In a rare case of cross-media schizophrenia, whenever Jones wore the mask, his voice was dubbed by Al Hodge, the radio Hornet.

Kato suffered his own identity crisis. Originally the valet was Japanese. But with anti-Japan sentiment mounting, the radio Kato abruptly turned Filipino. In the film he was Korean. Naturally, the actor who portrayed him (Keye Luke) was Chinese.

A sequel, this one with 15 chapters and a new Britt (Warren Hull), came out in 1941. Once again the setting was a neon-nylon wilderness of shiny asphalt and twitching city lights. And as in the first serial the Black Beauty was a 1937 Lincoln-Zephyr.

In 1966 “The Green Hornet” turned TV novelty. Britt (Van Williams) was upstaged by his magnetic manservant (the great Bruce Lee), whose kung fu prowess completely eclipsed his boss and whose gadgetry (ultrasonic lock openers, “infra-green” headlights) might have made the Q Branch of the British MI-6 envious. But this “Hornet,” on ABC, lasted a single season.

Hollywood didn’t kick the Hornet’s nest again until 1992, when Universal optioned the rights for the big screen. Eddie Murphy was the first actor to lobby openly for the part; George Clooney, the first to accept it. Mr. Clooney dropped out to star in “The Peacemaker.”

“The Green Hornet” languished in development until 1997, when the French music video wizard Michel Gondry was hired for what was to be his feature film directorial debut. Though the lead was offered to Mark Wahlberg, Mr. Gondry said his first choice was Vince Vaughn. Jason Scott Lee, who had played Bruce Lee in a 1993 biopic, was tapped for Kato.

Mr. Gondry and the “Robocop” screenwriter Edward Neumeier reimagined the story as a futuristic fantasy. “Our villain ate human hearts,” Mr. Gondry recalled.

Their villain met his end after swallowing a pacemaker. “The Green Hornet killed him with a microwave oven,” said Mr. Gondry. “The studio said it had ‘creative differences’ with us, so the film was shelved.”

“The Green Hornet” remained on the shelf until 2001, when Universal put it in turnaround. Miramax won the bidding war, hoping to broker a product placement deal with an automaker for a reported $35 million or more.

No such deal materialized. In 2004 Kevin Smith (“Clerks”) signed up to write and direct, and Jake Gyllenhaal was approached to star. Mr. Smith’s script, featuring a female Kato, was also shelved. Literally: it was published as a comic book.

Mr. Rogen and his frequent writing collaborator Evan Goldberg hopped aboard the “Green Hornet” carousel in 2007, drafting their own script when Columbia Pictures a Sony subsidiary, picked up the option. The Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow (“Kung Fu Hustle”) was recruited to direct, but he too had creative differences.