Green Hornet And Kato Movie To Be Directed By The Invisible Man Filmmaker Leigh Whannell

Hollywood really wants to make another "Green Hornet" movie, huh?

It appears that wealthy newspaper publisher/masked crime-fighter Britt Reid is headed back to the big screen in a new film. This would be the second such modern take on the franchise following Sony's "The Green Hornet," a 2011 film that served as French arthouse director Michel Gondry's first and, to date, only venture into the realm of big-budget tentpoles. Five years after that movie came out, Paramount Pictures attempted to reboot the property, with Gavin O'Connor ("Warrior," "The Way Back") signing on to direct what surely would've been a very different "Green Hornet" film than the off-beat action-comedy that Gondry made.

Per a report from Deadline, Universal (which picked up the "Green Hornet" film rights in 2020) now has "Saw" co-creator and "The Invisible Man" director Leigh Whannell in talks to helm "The Green Hornet and Kato," a movie that would rightly give equal billing to both Reid's alter ego and his martial arts expert partner, Kato. Should Whannell sign on, he would draw from a script draft that David Koepp ("Jurassic Park," "Spider-Man," "Kimi") delivered to Universal earlier this year.

After teaming up with director James Wan to make their names in the horror genre with the original "Saw" and "Insidious" movies (along with their 2007 horror film "Dead Silence," which is better than you might've heard), Leigh Whannell made the jump from writer to writer and director with 2015's mostly-solid "Insidious: Chapter 3." However, it was his 2018 sci-fi horror-thriller "Upgrade" and "The Invisible Man" reboot in 2020 that really established Whannell's bonafides as a filmmaker with an eye for visually-innovative (and very bloody) action scenes and scary moments, coupled with stories that explore rich, timely ideas and themes. In other words, it's not hard to see why Universal would want to stay in business with him.

The original plan was for Whannell, Universal, and "The Invisible Man" producer Jason Blum to reunite on a big screen reboot of "The Wolfman," with Ryan Gosling starring as the titular werwolf. Since then, though, Whannell has stepped away from the project, with Gosling's "The Place Beyond the Pines" director Derek Cianfrance taking his spot at the helm. I would be lying if I said I can easily imagine what sort of untapped potential Whannell sees in another "Green Hornet" movie, but I'm nevertheless curious to see what he makes of the property (which, let's not forget, began as a radio show in the 1930s).

/Film will bring you more details on "The Green Hornet and Kato" as they become available.