As far as modern movies go, Michel Gondry's The Green Hornet actually performed fairly well. Released in January, a notoriously dead month, the movie managed to open at number one its opening weekend with a $30 million pull and internationally it came close to doubling its $120 million budget. But despite those solid numbers, those of you holding their breath waiting for a sequel should probably exhale right about now.
Producer Neal H. Moritz has confirmed to THR that at this time Columbia Pictures is not developing a Green Hornet 2. According to Moritz, who is best known for being the man behind the Fast and the Furious franchise, the problem was simply that the first movie ended up being too expensive for their liking. Part of the problem was that they decide to hold the production in Los Angeles - where big movies aren't offered tax breaks - as was the decision to post-convert the footage into 3D, which added a full $10 million extra to the bottom line. " If I had done it in a tax-rebate state and not done 3D, it would have been considered a huge financial success for the studio," Moritz said. "So we're not making a sequel right now."
While I actually really liked The Green Hornet, I can't say that I'm too bummed by this news. The movie works as a stylish self-contained feature about the creation of a superhero and while there are always other avenues to take with that type of character, audiences weren't left with a cliffhanger ending or millions of questions left to answer. Let's just be satisfied with the Green Hornet movie that we got.
