When it was revealed that Michel Gondry was hired to direct Seth Rogen in The Green Hornet, it definitely seemed like an odd pairing, but according to an MTV interview with Rogen, the Apatow protégé went out of his way to recruit the filmmaker, to the point of sending him a copy of the script without Sony’s permission. Though he wanted Gondry for his unique vision and enthusiasm for the source material — the director had previously tried to make a Hornet movie in the late nineties — Rogen insists that the film will drop the low-budget quirks of the director’s recent material. In fact, upon reading the script, Gondry shot a fight scene on his own dime to prove that he could present a believable action sequence not involving construction paper, sparkles, or papier-mâché dummies. “[I said] ‘You have to convince them they’re not gonna show up on set one day and everything is gonna be made out of cardboard,’†Rogen says. “And he said, ‘I can definitely do that.’â€
Seth Rogen Confirms ‘Green Hornet’ Director: It’s Michel Gondry! [Movies Blog/MTV via Playlist]