- We’ve waited years to see what Kevin had dreamed up for his feature film version of “Green Hornet”. Tomorrow, the first part of that mystery is revealed, as issue #1 of “Green Hornet”, written by Kevin Smith, from Dynamite Comics, arrives on shelves everywhere. Kevin says:
This kinda snuck up on me: my GREEN HORNET book with Dynamite Comics IS IN STORES TOMORROW! This books is the movie that might’ve been.
I’ve seen the whole GREEN HORNET book and Jonathan Lau did a wicked job capturing the script. Thanks, also, to Phil Hester for layouts!
Peep the many HORNET covers by ALEX ROSS, JOHN CASSADAY, J.SCOTT CAMPBELL and STEPHEN SEGOVIA: http://tinyurl.com/myfailedhornetstingsagain
Free 5 page preview of my GREEN HORNET comic: http://tinyurl.com/ygce4b3 The comic adaptation of my unmade GREEN script. In stores tomorrow.
Hop on over to the links Kevin mentioned or check ’em out above. We can’t wait to see the rest. Remember, in this series, a major character will die! Get in on the ground floor with what’s sure to be one of the most talked about comics of 2010. Your local comic shop should have a pile tomorrow, and we’ll of course let you know when the Stash can ship you a signed copy if that’s your preference, as well. There’s a lot of cover versions out there, so you collectors, buy carefully.
Yes, the Rogen-led “Green Hornet” movie is still coming this summer, but this comic series/story has nothing to do with the story or tone of the film version.
Archive for March 3rd, 2010
Kevin Talks “Cop Out”, SWA To L.A. Times…
- Two new articles taken from a new interview with Kevin are hitting the Los Angeles Times website this week. Another version already appeared in the Friday print edition, but if you missed that, you’ll certainly find these a worthy read. Some clippage and links follow for both. Don’t let the titles fool you, as there’s a lot of stuff about “Cop Out” and “Hit Somebody” as well as the Southwest comments (equally interesting to read now that some distance has come between the incident).
“We all took pay cuts to keep it R-rated, which with me meant I gave up 80% of my salary, but it was worth it,” he says, explaining that, thanks to some tax rebates, the movie cost roughly $37 million to make. He certainly wasn’t worried about his actors having good chemistry, always a key ingredient with a buddy picture. “Tracy just oozes chemistry,” he says with a hearty laugh. “He could have chemistry with a ceramic ashtray. Bruce loved him. He kept calling him kid, even though Tracy’s over 40, so there’s not really that big an age difference. But I think calling him kid meant Bruce liked him.”
Smith insists that he didn’t have any problems communicating with Willis, at least once he realized that Willis wasn’t going to do anything that he felt was out of his comfort zone. Smith illustrates the issue with an unbelievably raunchy metaphor involving a detailed description of oral sex, then teasingly said, “Try and get that into your old-media story.” I asked him if he could offer a PG-13 version of the story.
“Put it this way,” he said. “On the first day of shooting, I started to mess with Bruce, trying to get him to do something crazy, and he took out his gun and went bang — and shot me in the head. His point was pretty obvious. He’s done this part so many times that he knows what works and what doesn’t. He’s the caretaker of the Bruce Willis persona. He’s been a star for 25 years while most of his peers have fallen by the wayside, so he knows what works for his image. Basically, we all tried to make him laugh, figuring if we got Bruce just to smile once we’ve have something to tell our kids about.”
Q: So does that mean we can expect you to do another movie with them?
KS: It was easy this time. I don’t know what it would be like if I went in with something I wrote, or let’s say something I didn’t write but wanted to write. They were talking about “Hit Somebody,” the hockey movie I wanted to make based on the Warren Zevon song. And I said, “I know you like me right now. But I sweat blood for this. If you say you’re committing to it then you’re saying you’re greenlighting this movie.” So we said we’ll talk.
Q: What’s “Hit Somebody” actually about?
KS: It’s not a movie about the NHL. It’s a movie about the game, and it’s a movie about Canada. I look at it and keep describing as what I’m going for as the “Forrest Gump” of hockey movies. Not flat-out funny stuff I’ve always done. It’s a more serious comedy.
Q: If you get that one going, does that preclude you from coming on to direct another studio comedy that already has a script written?
KS: There are about five scripts that Warner Bros. has handed me that they’re interested in. One of them is with Tracy [Morgan]. The romantic in me wants to paint it as a “Platoon”-like battle for one soul, a battle between Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe. But it’ll come down to what happens next. If best-case scenario, I’m shooting “Hit Somebody” by the end of the year, then what am I going to do between now and then? Maybe nothing. Or I can multi-task and spin another plate while waiting for it to come together. And there’s also “Red State” [a dark political drama he’s written]. There’s some very interested money that wasn’t interested a week ago, before “Cop Out” came out.
View Askew NewsBites™
- Podcast updates: Kevin issued Bear SModcast (#108) unto the world earlier this week, and tomorrow, the SMODnet gets a third family member. Malcolm Ingram’s new ‘cast hits the airwaves for a regular series, joining Kevin and Scott’s original SModcast and the new Flanagan/Johnson SteveDave series. Rumor has it that Malc’s Mom will join him for the broadcast.
- More “Cop Out” foreign trailer fun: This one was dubbed in Quebec a few days ago for French-Canadian audiences. Fun facts: The French version of the movie was released at exactly the same time as the original version. Bruce Willis always has the same guy doing his voice for French-lanauges as well. The title in French (“Flics en service”) literally means “Cops on Duty”.
- While we’re on the fun facts, take a look at this image, clipped from a Newsweek article on indecency complaints filed with the FCC last year. It reveals that, for the year, “Zack & Miri” ranked at #22 for their horribly “offensive” promos that aired on cable. Interesting, though looking at some of the other entries (“Nip/Tuck”, “Girls Gone Wild”, and various MTV programs) is just as fascinating.
- It goes without saying, but we’d love for you to head on out to see “Cop Out” this week or weekend, be it for the first time or for a repeated viewing. If your theaters were anything like ours, you missed some good jokes due to the audience laughter anyway. See it again on the big screen — Support Kev’s work and this wonderful cast. See ya next time…







