Green hornet

Everyone in Hollywood makes at least one mistake. French director Michel Gondry has made several, most recently agreeing to work with Seth Rogen on a comic updating of The Green Hornet. The original 1930s radio adventure was spun out into comic books and TV series, the latter featuring Bruce Lee as Kato, the Asiatic sidekick and whiz-kid partner of super-rich Britt Reid, the playboy role which Rogen imagined would suit his comic style.

That was a big mistake, as Rogen (Knocked Up, Observe & Report etc) is a one-note, charmless comedian, so unattractive and non-charismatic he makes Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler seem heirs of Chaplin. Robert Downey Jr got away with similar comic heroic posturing as the Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes, but Downey is a mesmerising screen figure and good actor. Rogen isn't.

The project got a green light when Taiwanese singer-actor Jay Chou's English-speaking ability was deemed sufficient to take the role of Kato. It isn't, nor is his acting talent. Adding a strong supporting cast (Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz, Edward James Olmos, Tom Wilkinson) and an uncredited and pathetic James Franco cameo, a US$120-million fortune was spent trying to make a 3-D (pointlessly) blockbuster.

Rogen's usual accomplice in co-writing and producing was his Canadian school chum, Evan Goldberg, a fellow former Ali G writer for Sacha Baron Cohen. Rogen gained applause as a stand-up comedian in Vancouver, was encouraged as a writer by writer-producer Judd Apatow (his mentor for Superbad and Pineapple Express), and fits into a mould that appeals to some folks in Hollywood (a reported "frat pack").

They have, one hopes, lost a lot of money discovering that Rogen did not have sufficient comic ideas or acting talent to create an offbeat superhero franchise. Gondry couldn't save them, or himself.