Despite just casting its Kato (Taiwanese musician/ singer/actor Jay Chou) after what seemed like an exhaustive search and also zeroing in on a villain (Nicolas Cage, who we last heard was in talks), the release date on Michel Gondry and Seth Rogen‘s “The Green Hornet” has been pushed back an additional five months according to Coming Soon, who found the new date at Box-Office Mojo.
Not entirely surprising given very recent comments Rogen gave to ReelzChannel on Friday and the fact that production had been pushed back several times; hitting that summer 2010 release date would be a rush job.
“I’ve decided we’re never gonna make [‘The Green Hornet’]. We’re just going to promote it for the next 10 years,” he joked before adding seriously, and perhaps hinting at the recent delays. “It’s really hard to make a big movie … especially in this economy.”
The original July 7, 2010 release date has now been pushed to December 17, 2010 and production is still due in the fall. Perhaps they realized turning it around that quickly would be difficult and full of pressure and that seems to be the case.
“We’re both relieved and psyched about the change,” Rogen told HitFlix. “It gives more time for post, which would have been immensely rushed if we were to come out in the summer. It also affords us more time to promote the film, (now we can go to Comic-Con with more than a car!) and ultimately is a great vote of confidence from the studio. We got the same date that movies like ‘I Am Legend‘ and ‘Avatar‘ are getting, so we’re thrilled to be there.”
It’s a positive spin for sure and that’s not to say Rogen is being disingenuous, he probably is pretty psyched, but this doesn’t feel like a movie that should be released at Christmas the same way “Sherlock Holmes” probably shouldn’t be released at Christmas. But who knows, maybe both of them will do well.