Michel Gondry Selling out with "The Green Hornet"

I seen the Green Hornet Trailer a couple of times and from what I seen it looks like he just did the movie for the money and the production company told him what to do and how to direct the movie because it looks like nothing like his other films [The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind] or music videos. I think that Gondry should have made this film with his own style because it would be a different action film compared to these other bad taste action films coming out now-a-days and it is also 3D WTF I hate that all these films are in 3D because they know they will make more money if they just add that to a film!. In all i’m going to watch this film but I just hope i’m not disappointed with one of my favorite directors.

I wish Stephen Chow had done it and Rogen had not, not a fan of Gondry, still does not look like it will benefit his career in any way.

You “seen” the trailer huh? And you just decided he did it strictly for the paycheck? Wow.

Not that I’m a great fan of Gondry or anything, but all of his feature films have been released at a mainstream level and have been seen by millions and millions of people. It makes perfect sense that a filmmaker on the level of Gondry would direct a big budget Hollywood film.

It doesn’t look too interesting to me, but I have to say, I don’t really believe in the term “selling out”.

Gondry was doing commercials for Coke, Nike and the Gap years ago—hard to get more “selling out” than that. If the charge is that Gondry is significantly departing from the visual style of his features, Brian, what to you see as the essential elements of his style that appear (judging from a 3-minute trailer) to have been abandoned?

Agreed, woman. Someone doing a job to get paid lots of money? Let’s light the torches, and call the mob up.

By ‘selling out’ out now, Michel might be in a better position to make more art films in the future starring Jack Black and Mos Def. ; )

I love Gondry AND Be Kind Rewind, thank you very much…Haven’t seen the trailer for this yet, but am really really excited to see that Gondry is directing. Now it’s a priority.

I just watched the trailer. The movie looks amazing…Ok maybe not amazing but it looks pretty damn good for what it is, a fun action movie. I think it’s one of those movies where you’d never know what the movie’s truly about just from the trailer.

Yeah, how the OP could “determine” such a conclusion from merely the trailer is ridiculous. It’s a trailer for god’s sake, just watch the film when it comes out then go on about ‘selling out.’

And honestly, I could see traces of Gondry’s signature style in the trailer.

honestly, this trailer makes the film look T E R R I B L E…Rogen is not funny anymore

He was funny once?

What’s his style?

there’s no reason for anyone to be upset about this movie. it looks fine.

just because gondry is doing a comic book movie doesn’t mean he’s selling out.
and even if he is, its not like he’s going to just stop making “good movies.”

“There is a sequence where Britt is trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together to understand the situation and we shot it in away that was really funny and absurd. But you have the physical representation of his brain in action and you end up with the most absurd tableau, where his father is involved, how his father was killed and it is pretty surrealist and major. When we shot it everyone was like, oh that is my favorite shot. Of course if I had come to the first meeting I had and told them I was going to do this they would have never hired me but now that I’m here I can push for some of the things that are more exciting.”

Sounds like he’s doing his thing.

I like Seth Rogen, I thought he was good in Funny People, Pineapple Express, Knocked Up and I even enjoyed Observe and Report to some extent. He was great in Freaks and Geeks and just needs the opportunity to express his talent. I think that Michel Gondry can do that for him, just like he did with Jim Carrey.

also

“Well I was trying to find a way to enhance the fight and use a technique that has not been used before. So basically we shoot at a higher rate. We shoot with one camera and then we separate and sometimes one guy is going faster and the other guys going slower and then the guy who gets slower gets faster, etc. It’s sort of like you buy a time from the future and then you have to reimburse it. So what it does is it really makes the transfer of energy when somebody hits somebody else so the guy who hits the next guy goes very fast and then the guy when he receives the hit he goes faster. It’s like if I hit you.. bam! First you’re slow and I’m fast and then when I hit you I become slow and you become fast so I can give you my energy. I can transfer like electricity in some ways. And all that with the camera moving, which makes it quite hard to shoot but it is pretty spectacular… [This will be seen] when Kato fights mostly. There is two, three sequence where you see that.”

I’m hoping this is just a bad trailer for a great movie. I’m putting faith that they’re doing the lost art of not showing their good shit all in the trailer.

That screenshot is awesome, probably my favorite part for the trailer. I hope there is plenty of cool visual effects like that. I thought the trailer was decent, I wasn’t expecting much out of this movie and now I at least want to check it out. I like Michel Gondry a lot (except for Be Kind, Rewind but that was mostly because of the writing on that one) and have enjoyed all of Seth Rogen’s films thus far.

Jay Chou is certainly no Bruce Lee.

Gondry has stated that he has ideas for 3D technology, and the best way to get there is to prove that he is capable of more than just quirky art house films. He mentioned that he wanted to avoid being typecast as the director who makes the same type of films.

I hope the 3D is good, but knowing how all post converted 3D movies have been it’s probably not going to be worth a damn. With these kinds of movies I actually would enjoy 3D but only if it’s actually shot in/for it. No pop up books.

Yeah, retrofitted 3-D is not good.

I was kind of expecting him to sell out following the disappointing BE KIND REWIND. He made one very good film six years ago, and he’s done absolutely nothing since. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be seeing anything that’s on the same level as ETERNAL SUNSHINE from Gondry ever again.

I admire The Science of Sleep, but for the most part I’m indifferent about Gondry. However, why does doing a big budget movie automatically = selling out? I’m glad to see something from Gondry that seems like it isn’t “typical” Gondry, and it’ll be interesting to see what he does in a new environment.

I also think its hilarious that people are considering this ‘selling out’ as Gondry is already a mainstream director. I wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to work outside of my usual environment with a ton of financial backing either, so I don’t blame him.

I was never impressed with him so its not surprise. A surprise will be Cunningham directing tom hanks. Hopefully not.