When it was announced that actor-director Stephen Chow would be dropping out of Seth Rogen and Michel Gondry’s adaptation of the classic radio serial The Green Hornet, many questioned whether this might be the final nail in the coffin of a production already beleaguered by a number of setbacks.

Gondry was offered the director’s chair following Chow’s departure, but that still left the hero without his trusty sidekick, Kato (famously portrayed by Bruce Lee in the ’60s TV show). Enter Jay Chou, an award-winning musician, singer, producer, actor, and director from Taiwan, most widely known in the U.S. for his appearance in Curse of the Golden Flower.

In a recent interview with Channel News Asia, Chou said there were a number of reasons why he simply “had to” take the role of Kato.

It’s a role that Bruce Lee once played, plus it’s a positive Asian role which is rare in Hollywood. Anyway, I went to Hollywood not just to make it big and develop my film career. I went there to also introduce my music to the Americans. So that they will notice me.

In a separate interview with The Star Online, Chou said that he had fun working on The Green Hornet, but that the Hollywood-style production tried his patience.

In Asia, we get through a movie very quickly. We get the script, we get working and it’s done. In Hollywood, they have rehearsals that go on for half a month before they begin shooting and shooting can go on for months.

The Green Hornet was adapted for the screen by Rogen and his frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg. The movie also stars Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz, Edward Furlong, and Edward James Olmos. (Source)

The Huffington Post has released their Top 10 Films of 2009 list. Surprising to many, “Observe and Report” made the list! Below is what they had to say:

7. “Observe and Report”
Where have all the Travis Bickles gone? Quick answer — the shopping mall. And if you got behind (me Satan), or rather, director writer Jody Hill’s subversive, hilarious, weirdly poignant and almost horrifyingly timely Observe and Report, you’ll see Travis, not only as a power-hungry security guard in the form of a schlubbier Seth Rogen, but also as a regular Joe consumer. He might be traversing the food court or staring at the ice skaters in the center rink or wondering if he can afford a flat-screen TV while making his mortgage payment, but he’s there, facing down all of that cheaply made fast food, recycled air and overpriced merchandise. He’s killing time and, to become even more of a downer here, he’s killing his soul. Yes, he’s killing his soul at…Cinnabon. It’s funny and yet it’s not. It’s heartbreakingly sad. And weirdly joyful (especially in a heroin moment. That’s right, a shooting-up heroin moment). It was also one of the bravest, most underrated movies of the year. One day it will be considered a classic.

Newsblaze.com complied their list of the “1 Worst Films of 2009″ stating: To land on this 10 Worst List, a movie has to be more than merely disappointing. No, it must be walk-out bad, except that my job as a film critic is to sit there and watch it anyway, and simply be subjected to the torture. Sometimes, a film turns out to be so awful that it’s actually funny, but that doesn’t count as a miserable enough experience to warrant inclusion here. No, these flicks are the ones with no redeeming qualities which left me savoring this opportunity to get even.

3. Observe and Report
Seth Rogen stars in this raunchy teensploit, a relentlessly-dark and disturbing celebration of depravity unlikely to resonate with any decent demographic. Director Jody Hill ostensibly decided to up the ante in terms of the shock genre’s profane, prurient and politically-incorrect index.

‘The subject-matter mined for laughs here includes drug addiction, date rape, stun gun tasering, stalking, bullying, stealing, sexual assault, abusive relationships, ethnic, gender and sexual preference slurs, and prolonged, full-frontal nudity. And despite pushing the envelope, the film breaks a cardinal rule of comedy by failing to be funny.

Most of the offensive antics involve the head of security (Rogen) at the Forest Ridge Mall where a lowlight includes an exchange between the foul-mouthed protagonist and a suspected terrorist named Saddamn Hussein (Aziz Ansari) during which they take turns yelling “[Expletive] you!” back and forth at each other dozens of times. But the movie’s most offensive moment has to be the chase scene featuring lingering, slow-motion shots of a flasher’s family jewels in all their glory.

I suppose this movie could’ve been worse. I’m just not sure how.

Source/Complete List

British actor Simon Pegg had been forced to pull out of Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, Inglourious Basterds alongside Brad Pitt. Pegg was forced to pull out of the project because it clashes with the filming of his movie Paul which features, Seth Rogen.

A spokesman for the star says, “Unfortunately, the schedule overlaps with another film Simon is already committed to.”

“The Green Hornet” is the classic crime-fighting character of film, television, radio and comic books, returning to the big screen in Columbia Pictures’ new feature, starring Vancouver actor Seth Rogen as the disguised vigilante.

Production started in Los Angeles on the Michel Gondry-directed film, produced by Neal “I Am Legend” H. Moritz. Executive producers are Michael “The Accidental Tourist” Grillo, Rogen, Evan “Pineapple Express” Goldberg, Ori “Evan Almighty” Marmur and George W. Trendle, Jr. “The Green Hornet” also stars Taiwanese actor-pop star Jay Chou as ‘Kato’, Cameron “The Mask” Diaz, Edward James “Miami Vice” Olmos, David “Revolutionary Road” Harbour, Tom “Valkyrie” Wilkinson and the villain ‘Chudnofsky’ played by Austrian actor Christoph “Inglourious Basterds” Waltz.

Academy Award-nominee John “Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian” Schwartzman is director of photography, production designer is Owen “The Matrix Revolution” Paterson and Kym “Speed Racer” Barrett is costume designer.

“The Green Hornet” debuted January 31, 1936 on radio station WXYZ Detroit, the creation of George W. Trendle and Fran Striker of “The Lone Ranger” fame. Broadcasting until 1952 on the Mutual and NBC Blue networks, the series followed the adventures of ‘Britt Reid’, a bored playboy whose life changes when he inherits his father’s newspaper ‘The Daily Sentinel’ and saves the life of ‘Kato’, a Japanese man with technical and martial-arts skills.

After Reid and Kato witness a brutal crime, Reid becomes a crime-fighter, using two special, non-lethal guns, with one firing ‘knock-out gas’ and the other producing a ‘Hornet’s Sting’ electric shock. Following its successful run on radio, “The Green Hornet” ran in several comic books and a 1940′s movie serial from Universal. In 1966, the character made the jump to the ABC Television network, starring actor Van Williams as the Hornet and catapulting martial artist Bruce Lee as Kato to stardom.

“The Green Hornet” is set for release December 22, 2010. (Source)

Johnny Depp, recently anointed People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, is complicated. He looks like a pirate but is actually a doting father of two. He owns a private plane but rolls his own cigarettes and frequently dresses like a hobo. Despite cheekbones that have been touched by the hand of God, he regularly plays down his good looks in roles that feature bad teeth, bad hair and funny voices.

No problem. Women’s reasons for finding men attractive are also complicated, at least according to a new book called Why Women Have Sex, which lists 237 distinct reasons for falling into bed. It turns out that sexual attraction is a complex collision of evolutionary biology, individual psychology, cultural forces, free will and fluke, all of which get dishy coverage in People’s latest issue.

For example, Why Women Have Sex authors Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss point out that women like symmetry, which for early humans acted as a visible marker of genetic health. Certainly, People’s “110 hottest guys on the planet” are a pretty symmetrical bunch. Lenny Kravitz could even be promoted to the “fearful symmetry” category, so platonically perfect are the planes of his face.

Women love a high “shoulder-to-hip ratio,” as evidenced by Jerry O’Connell, who was snapped earlier this year wearing a Speedo during the filming of Piranha 3-D. People has jokingly followed up with a photo layout in which O’Connell shops for groceries and mows the lawn wearing nothing but a teeny-weeny red bathing suit. So yes, a V-shaped torso is nice, but constant evidence of shoulder-to-hip ratio is, frankly, alarming. (Bonus sexy points for self-deprecating humour, though. Chicks dig that.)

Women also value “resource acquisition ability,” which used to mean woolly mammoth meat but in the currency of People magazine means fame, and lots of it. Famous alpha males (think George Clooney) appeal to ovulating women, according to Meston and Buss, while nice, nurturing fellas (like The Office’s John Krasinski) get the glad eye the rest of the time. Covering both cads and dads, People veers between Eddie Cibrian looking dangerous at the Palms Hotel in Vegas and Hugh Jackman bending down to button his daughter’s sweater.

Then there’s relationship status. Single guys are tempting, of course — and People somehow makes it seem as if these guys are free this weekend and might just call you. But married men have built-in proof of their ability to commit: paradoxically, what makes them dreamy also keeps them off limits. The magazine plays it safe by mixing up bachelors with solid, steady family men.

Harder to explain, at least in scientific terms, is the mag’s homage to the current vampire craze. This may be the “sexiest men alive” issue, but it dedicates a whole section to guys who are technically dead, with breathless coverage of New Moon’s Robert Pattinson, True Blood’s Stephen Moyer, and The Vampire Diaries’ Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder.

Many of People’s choices have a kind of beefy inevitability: Madonna’s beau Jesus Luz, who is featured on the “Best Chests” page, has pecs you could break bricks on. But some of these guys offer quieter, stealthier qualities. Jim Parsons, who plays the physics geek on Big Bang Theory, proves that intelligence is sexy, while Seth Rogen makes the case for comedy.

And in the end, little things mean a lot. As Tina Fey says in support of the attractiveness of Alec Baldwin, her 30 Rock co-star: “If you went out to dinner with him, he’s not one of those guys who would judge you if you ate a lot.” Ooooh, now that’s sexy.
Source

He is used to playing the funny fat man, but now Seth Rogen has turned into the super hero. The Knocked Up actor has trimmed down his waistline to shoot the lead role in The Green Hornet. Seth first began losing weight last year for the role, but rewrites, director and casting changes have all had the project on ice until now. The actor, who also wrote the screenplay, was filming in a rock quarry in Los Angeles with Jay Chou, who plays his trusty sidekick Kato.

The Green Hornet is a big screen version of the 1960s TV show, which starred Bruce Lee as Kato, and also stars Cameron Diaz as a reporter and Britt Reid’s (aka The Green Hornet) love interest. But despite looking much slimmer, trimmer and healthier for the role, Rigen revealed he felt like a ‘sell out’ for losing the weight.

‘I’ve been eating better and training – and hating myself for it. I feel like a sell out, I feel lame, I feel like a guy I would make fun of,’ he said.

He said he lost weight by eating well and exercising with a personal trainer.

‘I go there real early in the morning,’ he added. ‘He tells me what to do, and I go home and go to sleep, and it’s like it never even happened.’

He needs to be fit for the role as in an interview last April, he claimed he would be doing all his own stunts.

The Green Hornet, who happens to be the Lone Ranger’s grand-nephew, is a newspaper publisher by day who fights crime by night accompanied by Kato. He drives a car with advanced technology called Black Beauty, and has brilliant hand-to-hand combat skills. In the TV series he was armed with a sonic blast weapon called the Hornet’s Sting, and in many versions he carries a gun that sprays knock-out gas. The film, directed by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’s Michel Gondry, takes ideas from both the original radio programme in the 1930s, the 60s TV show and comic book series.

Source: Daily Mail

Advance Review: The Simpsons opens Season 21 with an episode written by the duo that brought you Superbad, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Word got out some time ago that the pair would be writing an episode of the series, and when I first read this I was quite excited. Certainly they would be able to bring a fresh voice to the two-decade old series. Now that their episode has arrived, does “Homer the Whopper” live up to these expectations? Not exactly. Instead of bringing in something fresh and new, the writing partners deliver something familiar: a solid, funny, good old episode of The Simpsons.

“Homer the Whopper” feels like an episode from Season 8 or 10, which makes complete sense. Rogen and Goldberg are self-proclaimed fans of the series, so it’s no surprise that they would take their cues from the stronger eras of the show. The majority of the episode pokes some serious fun at the entertainment industry at large and more specifically the film industry. But things start with a comic book referencing geek fest. The first act, in fact, is the strongest portion of the episode and if it could be graded alone it would likely be very close to a ten.

It starts with Bart and Milhouse taunting Comic Book Guy on his home turf and discovering his secret comic book “Everyman.” We’re taken inside the pages of “Everyman” and learn that this mild mannered citizen has the ability to absorb the powers of every superhero whose comic book he touches. Thankfully, the episode plays on this set up with actual superheroes and not some generic ones created for the show. This gives the jokes an added wink to fans of the genre. When Comic Book Guy learns that Bart and Milhouse really liked the comic, he decides to self-publish and the character becomes a hit. The episode really uses this situation to great comedic effect. There are a number of comic book, sci-fi and general geek references, from jokes about superhero products (look for the Hulk hands) to summer franchise blockbusters. There are sight gags galore, which I don’t want to give away, so keep your eyes peeled and your TiVo remotes at the ready. One in particular to watch for is the giant movie posters outside of Ginormous Studios.

The success of the comic leads to a movie deal, and through an interesting course of events, Homer is chosen for the role of Everyman. From here, the episode falters a bit as the focus shifts from the geek world to Homer’s struggle to get into and stay in shape for the hero role. Writer Rogen also guest voices Homer’s Hollywood trainer. This portion of the episode is clearly inspired by Rogen’s personal experience as he has shaped up to star in the latest version of The Green Hornet. Unfortunately, these are the weaker moments of the episode. This is likely due to the fact that we’ve seen Homer struggle with his weight countless times, and Rogen’s trainer, though funny much of the time, will likely never be remembered as a classic guest role. But they are still able to find a few new angles with the weight jokes, so it’s not a complete loss.

“Homer the Whopper” starts incredibly strong and then settles in for a familiar, funny ride. Some of the ideas might not exactly be new (certainly we’ve seen our share of comic book jokes and movie star aping in episodes like “Radioactive Man” and “Beyond Blunderdome”), but Goldberg and Rogen do add freshness to the proceedings. This is a fun way to kick off the anniversary season.

Having just kicked off its production last week, “The Green Hornet” was already hit with an on-set mishap over the weekend. E! News reported that the filming of a car chase scene has gone awry when a stunt driver, who was reportedly manning the Black Beauty car, lost control of the car and crashed into the front of the Creative Artists Agency’s headquarters.

When the set accident took place, some of the film stars, Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz and Edward James Olmos, were shooting a shootout before the offices of the Hollywood’s premiere talent agency. They were not involved in the incident, and while a portion of the driveway wall was damaged, the stuntman escaped without injury.

E! News also reported that following the mishap, the film crew’s construction department were seen working all day making repairs. In the meantime, a representative from Sony Pictures has commented on the incident, describing it as “a minor, noninjury accident”. The rep further claimed that production was not delayed by it.

If one film property has been stuck in a quagmire, it’s The Green Hornet. A live-action film version of the classic pulp character has been rumored to be in development since the early ’90s. It seemed like the movie was finally going to come together when it was announced in 2004 that Kevin Smith was working on a screenplay that he planned to direct, with Jake Gyllenhaal in the title role and Jet Li backing him up as Kato.

After Smith’s project fell apart, Sony Pictures announced on June 4, 2008, that, through Columbia Pictures, it was developing a feature film with funnyman Seth Rogen stepping in to wear the green fedora. Hong Kong superstar Stephen Chow was announced as the director of the project and was expected to also play Kato, but he dropped out due to creative differences. Recently, some other cast members have been added, including Nicolas Cage and Cameron Diaz. Most recently, Edward James Olmos announced at the Chicago Comic-Con that he will be appearing in the film.

However, if you listen to Rogen, The Green Hornet might never get made. While promoting his latest film, Funny People, Rogen joked:

I’ve decided we’re never gonna make [The Green Hornet]. We’re just going to promote it for the next 10 years. It’s really hard to make a big movie … especially in this economy.