The Father Of All Superheroes

After putting his Jay and Silent Bob films to rest, Kevin Smith has certainly taken steps to diversify. He went for poignant and touching in Jersey Girl, flirted with zany and slightly retro with the upcoming Fletch Won and has now signed on to tackle the superhero genre with an adaptation of The Green Hornet. Emerging as in a radio serial way back in 1936, The Green Hornet was fighting crime when heroes like Batman were mere twinkles in the milkman's eye. Never heard of him? We're not surprised. His main foray in to the public domain was via a seventies TV show but the man himself was slightly overshadowed by his sidekick Kato - a role that first introduced the legendary Bruce Lee to Western audiences. "I dig the fact that he kicked off a run of billionaire playboys who decided to put on a mask and fight crime, and that he was Batman before there was a Batman," Smith told Variety. "I always said I'd never do [a superhero film], based on my limited experience writing on Superman and having to answer to the studio, the producer, the comics company and eventually a director. Then there's a fandom that gets up in arms if you even try to stray from their character. Here, there is simplicity in the character and the situation. "Equally important, the only person I have to answer to is Harvey [Weinstein], with whom I've made four movies. This is the only circumstance that led me to take on a comicbook movie, and something so big." And big it could well be, especially with Smith committed to write and direct the project. Smith remains tight-lipped as to which dynamic duo he'd like to see behind the Hornet and Kato's masks but has expressed a certain interest in both the actors who were linked to the project when it was kicking around back in 1996 - that's George Clooney and Jet Li, in case you were wondering. Shooting is scheduled to begin towards the end of summer.