Green Hornet

During the car-crazy 1950s in Southern California, Dean Jeffries was one of the first hot rodders to chop, channel and soup-up automobiles. His distinctive paint jobs and sculpted body work attracted many admirers to his auto shop, including the likes of James Dean, Steve McQueen and A.J. Foyt. A legendary car painter and customizer who made the "Monkeemobile" and the original Green Hornet's "Black Beauty," Jeffries died in his sleep Saturday at his home in Hollywood. He was 80 and had been in declining health.

During the car-crazy 1950s in Southern California, Dean Jeffries was one of the first hot rodders to chop, channel and soup-up automobiles. His distinctive paint jobs and sculpted body work attracted many admirers to his auto shop, including the likes of James Dean, Steve McQueen and A.J. Foyt. A legendary car painter and customizer who made the "Monkeemobile" and the original Green Hornet's "Black Beauty," Jeffries died in his sleep Saturday at his home in Hollywood. He was 80 and had been in declining health.

Comic-Con attendees weren't quite sure what to make of "The Green Hornet," Seth Rogen's reincarnation of the 20th century radio/television superhero. In Hall H on Friday, the footage played to a decent, if not rousing, reception and afterward, many of the questioners were as eager to talk about their love of the actor as they were about their excitement for the January film. It's not for lack of some heavy-hitting talent. Rogen, who wrote the script with Evan Goldberg, of course succeeded in landing top-tier names, including indie auteur Michel Gondry and Oscar winner Christoph Waltz, both of whom turned up at the Friday panel.

Michel Gondry denies feeling stung by "The Green Hornet. " The $120-million action-adventure arrived in 2011 as the Oscar-winning French filmmaker's first Hollywood-backed studio movie. A modest hit starring Seth Rogen and Cameron Diaz, it required him to make no small number of creative compromises on its way to the screen, marking the only time final cut on one of his films was wrested away during an idiosyncratic dozen-year feature career. "Doing a big studio movie, the process could be, at times, challenging," Gondry admits in Inspector Clouseau-like English.

"The Green Hornet" may not be the most tedious superhero movie ever ? the competition is admittedly tough ? but it is certainly in the running. An anemic, 97-pound weakling of the action comedy persuasion, "Hornet" is a boring bromedy that features mumblecore heroics instead of the real thing. Though the Hornet's been around since the 1930s in various incarnations, including a TV series that featured the one-of-a-kind Bruce Lee as his sidekick Kato, the Hornet's technically not a superhero at all. Rather, like his animal kingdom cohort Batman, the Hornet fights crime from behind a mask with just his ordinary human powers, plus nifty inventions like a tricked-out Chrysler Imperial.

Martin Luther King Day weekend has increasingly become a lucrative one for Hollywood, but that's much more likely to hold true for the debut of "The Green Hornet" than "The Dilemma" this year. The 3-D action- comedy "Green Hornet," starring Seth Rogen, is well positioned to be No. 1 this holiday weekend, according to people who have seen pre-release polling, while "The Dilemma," which pairs comedy stars Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, has much softer prospects. "The Green Hornet" should sell $40 million to $50 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Monday, while ticket sales for "The Dilemma" probably will be much lower, at $15 million to $20 million.

With the male-skewing "The Green Hornet" currently dominating the box office, Paramount Pictures is hoping to take the top spot with a movie aimed at young women. Paramount's Ashton Kutcher-Natalie Portman romantic comedy "No Strings Attached" is the only new film opening nationwide this weekend and is generating solid interest among females under 25, according to prerelease surveys. People who have seen the results of such surveys said "No Strings" should open to about $20 million, a good start given that it cost about $25 million to make.

It's not easy being a hard-luck hero. Just ask Seth Rogen, who for the better part of four years has been trying to get "The Green Hornet" feature film off the ground despite changes to the script, the tone, the director and, well, pretty much everything except the hero's cool customized car. The comedy- action movie, finally, has a solid release date set for January and Rogen, who stars in the title role and co-wrote the script, will bring the...

Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow said he will no longer direct the Hollywood adaptation of "The Green Hornet" and may not star as sidekick Kato. Chow, whose credits include "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle," said he wants to free up time to work with Jack Black on a comedy about a superhero. "If I direct 'The Green Hornet,' the superhero comedy will have to be delayed for two years," Chow said. "The timing might not be right for a superhero comedy in two years. And I want to make a movie based on an original idea."

With the first major releases of the year, 2011 started off with neither a bang nor a whimper. Over the four-day holiday weekend, big-budget comedic superhero movie "The Green Hornet" opened to a solid though not spectacular $40 million, according to studio estimates, while adult comedy "The Dilemma" started off with a soft but far from disastrous $21.1 million. Total receipts were off a whopping 26% from the same weekend last year, when "Avatar" continued to dominate the box office.

The Green Hornet, a storied Shelby Mustang prototype that many pony car enthusiasts assumed was destroyed decades ago, will come up for auction early next year. The Barrett-Jackson auction house will sell the car at its Scottsdale auction on Jan. 19. The Shelby “represents a rolling history of what Ford and Shelby American, the auto-design firm owned by Carroll Shelby, were producing in the heyday of the American muscle-car era and is considered one of the most innovative and unique vehicles of its time,” said Craig Jackson, chief executive  of Barrett-Jackson and the current owner of the car. It is expected to sell for about $2 million.

With the male-skewing "The Green Hornet" currently dominating the box office, Paramount Pictures is hoping to take the top spot with a movie aimed at young women. Paramount's Ashton Kutcher-Natalie Portman romantic comedy "No Strings Attached" is the only new film opening nationwide this weekend and is generating solid interest among females under 25, according to prerelease surveys. People who have seen the results of such surveys said "No Strings" should open to about $20 million, a good start given that it cost about $25 million to make.

With the first major releases of the year, 2011 started off with neither a bang nor a whimper. Over the four-day holiday weekend, big-budget comedic superhero movie "The Green Hornet" opened to a solid though not spectacular $40 million, according to studio estimates, while adult comedy "The Dilemma" started off with a soft but far from disastrous $21.1 million. Total receipts were off a whopping 26% from the same weekend last year, when "Avatar" continued to dominate the box office.

Martin Luther King Day weekend has increasingly become a lucrative one for Hollywood, but that's much more likely to hold true for the debut of "The Green Hornet" than "The Dilemma" this year. The 3-D action- comedy "Green Hornet," starring Seth Rogen, is well positioned to be No. 1 this holiday weekend, according to people who have seen pre-release polling, while "The Dilemma," which pairs comedy stars Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, has much softer prospects. "The Green Hornet" should sell $40 million to $50 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada from Friday through Monday, while ticket sales for "The Dilemma" probably will be much lower, at $15 million to $20 million.

"The Green Hornet" may not be the most tedious superhero movie ever ? the competition is admittedly tough ? but it is certainly in the running. An anemic, 97-pound weakling of the action comedy persuasion, "Hornet" is a boring bromedy that features mumblecore heroics instead of the real thing. Though the Hornet's been around since the 1930s in various incarnations, including a TV series that featured the one-of-a-kind Bruce Lee as his sidekick Kato, the Hornet's technically not a superhero at all. Rather, like his animal kingdom cohort Batman, the Hornet fights crime from behind a mask with just his ordinary human powers, plus nifty inventions like a tricked-out Chrysler Imperial.

In the magical realm of writer-director Michel Gondry's films, characters defy common sense and dream the impossible dream ? sometimes literally ? as a matter of course. In his 2006 surrealist dramedy "The Science of Sleep," Gondry conjured a lo-fi version of the nocturnal subconscious from papier-mâché, bad horse costumes and stop-motion animation. And in the filmmaker's 2004 romantic drama "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (for which Gondry shares a best original screenplay Oscar)

It's easy to see why Universal Pictures wanted to make "The Dilemma. " And unfortunately for the studio, it's just as easy to picture how the movie could struggle this weekend at the box office. The film pairs two of Hollywood's most reliable comedy superstars: Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. It is directed by Ron Howard, one of the most commercial filmmakers in town, and written by Allan Loeb, who penned 2008's surprise hit "21. " And when Universal first dated the movie opposite "The Green Hornet," it looked as if Sony's action-hero movie would be the film that might labor to sell tickets.

Filmmaker and comic book aficionado Kevin Smith will write and direct an adaptation of "The Green Hornet" for the big screen, Miramax Films said Wednesday. "Longtime comics geek gets to make comic-book movie? This is a dream come true," Smith said in a news release. His previous films include "Clerks," "Chasing Amy," "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and "Dogma."

"The Green Hornet" needed a superhero to save it. Sony Pictures has long been counting on the big budget action-comedy to be a new franchise that could stand alongside hit movie series like "Spider-Man. " Coming off a disastrous holiday season, capped by James L. Brooks' flop "How Do You Know," the studio could ill afford to have "The Green Hornet" play to empty theaters after it invested more than $200 million to make and market the film around the world. But last summer, early cuts of "The Green Hornet" and scoffs from fanboys at the Comic-Con comic book convention in San Diego had Sony executives worried that they had a flop on their hands, people close to the picture said.

It's easy to see why Universal Pictures wanted to make "The Dilemma. " And unfortunately for the studio, it's just as easy to picture how the movie could struggle this weekend at the box office. The film pairs two of Hollywood's most reliable comedy superstars: Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. It is directed by Ron Howard, one of the most commercial filmmakers in town, and written by Allan Loeb, who penned 2008's surprise hit "21. " And when Universal first dated the movie opposite "The Green Hornet," it looked as if Sony's action-hero movie would be the film that might labor to sell tickets.