Exclusive: Chris Pine In Talks For Green Hornet Reboot Movie
We've learned Chris Pine is in negotiations to join the cinematic reboot of one of the earliest superheroes: The Green Hornet!
He’s played Captain Kirk, Cinderella’s prince, and even Wonder Woman’s boyfriend. Now, our trusted and proven sources tell us Chris Pine is negotiating to finally join the ranks of live-action cinematic superheroes as the lead of The Green Hornet and Kato. Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man) is attached to direct the reboot for Universal Studios.
The hero Chris Pine is in talks to play predates Marvel and DC’s earliest marquee superheroes like Batman, Superman, Captain America, and Namor the Sub-Mariner. Green Hornet premiered not in comic books, but in a radio serial in 1936. Usually depicted as the masked, wealthy newspaper publisher Brett Reid, the Green Hornet is joined by his partner Kato.
Like the comic book superheroes that would follow, Green Hornet and Kato fought crime while technically being considered criminals themselves. They would soon jump from radio serials to comics and other mediums. In fact, the late Bruce Lee found his first major adult role as Kato in the late 1960s TV series The Green Hornet in which Van Williams played the titular vigilante.
If you’ve seen 2011’s The Green Hornet starring Seth Rogen and Jay Chou, you shouldn’t expect the same kind of film from the one Chris Pine is in negotiations for. Directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), the 2011 feature was an action comedy. In contrast, Leigh Whannell, the same man who helmed 2020’s The Invisible Man, is reportedly looking to make the reboot more of a serious action thriller.
Whannell is an interesting choice to direct Chris Pine in The Green Hornet and Kato. As not only a director and writer, but an actor as well, he’s best known for his work in the horror genre. Along with The Invisible Man, he created the Insidious film series, appears in the films as Specs, and directed 2015’s Insidious: Chapter 3.
Of course, there’s no rule saying horror directors can’t also make great superhero directors. James Wan, after all, struck gold with 2018’s Aquaman. And while opinions may differ on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Sam Raimi helped make the superhero film genre such a powerful force with his cinematic Spider-Man trilogy.
If negotiations with Chris Pine end with the star landing the role of Green Hornet, it will be his very first live-action superhero role. He voiced the older, doomed Peter Parker (the one Kingpin murders, not the one in sweatpants) in 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and starred as Diana’s main squeeze Steve Trevor in both 2017’s Wonder Woman and 2020’s Wonder Woman 1984. But in spite of early reports like ones from Forbes that he might play another Green-themed hero (not Hulk, but Green Lantern), The Green Hornet and Kato would mark his first time in a live-action superhero movie while actually playing one of the superheroes.
