Michel Gondry is an eccentric choice to direct a superhero movie like the Seth Rogen starrer The Green Hornet, but perhaps the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind helmer can use his left-field sensibility to mine something new in a very crowded genre. In a chat this afternoon with Movieline at Comic-Con, Gondry sounded off on working with Rogen (and his frequent collaborator, Charlie Kaufman), Nicolas Cage's brief flirtation with the film, and why Hornet's post-production conversion to 3D is no gimmick.
You've worked with some interesting writers before -- incuding Charlie Kaufman and yourself -- but what is it like to direct a movie where the star, Seth Rogen, is also one of the writers?
It's complicated. It's not easy, but it's not easy to work with Charlie Kaufman, for all the greatness there is, I have to say. When the actor is as well the writer...thank God Seth doesn't have a big ego. I don't think my ego is that big either, and I don't even think [producer] Neal Moritz's is that big! I think everyone on this project didn't have any agenda, which makes every conflict easy to solve. It could feel like a sandwich sometimes, to have the writer and the actor be the same person, but I think it worked very well. The good thing is that you don't have to call the writer at 3 in the morning if you want to change a line. You just change it!
It was a collaboration, and with Charlie Kaufman it was a collaboration, but they are both very demanding situations where there is material you have to respect. Sometimes screenwriters say they are making a bone and everyone will chew on it, but you can't do that with Charlie Kaufman or the actor who writes his own script.
Is this the first movie of yours that had a set release date when you started shooting it?
Hmm. I guess so.
Did that feel like added pressure?
There is more pressure, but I think I always have the pressure. If it doesn't come from the studio, it comes from me, so there is always pressure.
And now you've been bumped to the same year as The Green Lantern. Do you worry moviegoers will be confused?
It's fine. It's legal. [Laughs]
At least you'll come out first.
Yes!
Nicolas Cage was originally attached to play the villain, and there was some conflict over him wanting to make the character Jamaican...
Yes, that's true.
Was that something you would have been amenable to, ultimately?
Yes, that was something he wanted, and we were open to it. After, he changed his mind, and he didn't want to do the movie anymore. I think we have always been open-minded that each actor could bring their own contribution. Sometimes it could be a little complicated, but that was not the reason he did not do the film.
What was it like to direct Jay Chou as Kato, considering that neither of you are native English speakers?
I mean, I've been here for a while, but my accent will never change! I have a terrible French accent, and people have to get used to me and when I meet someone for the first time, it's difficult. After a few weeks, they get used to it. With Jay, he is who he is. In the film, he doesn't speak pretty well -- I mean, his English is pretty awesome, but he's a foreigner in the movie, so it makes sense. A lot of the time, we'd ask him to repeat what he just said to make sure the audience understood, but I think it went pretty well.
As someone who directed my favorite Daft Punk video--
Ah!
--are you excited for one of the other big Comic-Con films, Tron Legacy, which they scored?
Yes, of course. I can't wait to see that. I was a big fan of the original Tron. It was one of the first uses of 3D, and it was totally awesome. In fact, when we did Be Kind Rewind, we had a competition for people to do their own sweded films. The best one I've seen was an homage to Tron. He did the motorbike race, and oh! It was so awesome! It just shows how great this movie was.
Tron was shot in 3D, but Green Hornet will be converted after the fact. Are you worry that audiences have been burned by too many bad conversions this year?
I think there is always something like this whenever there is a change in technique, like people shooting on video or not video. I think it's so important to the film. If anything, you're going to use the 3D as a dimension to help tell the story, and I think to me, it's as much of a gimmick to not do 3D as to say, "I'm going to do 3D." Both are gimmicks!
You believe what you want to believe. It's like when the movies became in color, you could say, "Well, I'm not going to do my next movie in color, I'm going to keep it in black-and-white," and that's an approach. I always loved 3D, since I was a kid. To me, it's magical. I dream in 3D. Sometimes I watch a movie in 2D and I close an eye and the image is like I am watching it in 3D. It's like using stereo for the sound! Maybe some people have had a bad experience, but I think the audience is really excited to see it in 3D.
[Lead Photo Credit: Jemal Countess/Wire Image]