"When we wrote our first draft, we were like,
`Let's make this 100% realistic,'" Goldberg says,
"and that was our starting point. We kind of
got a little more surreal after that, but it's still
pretty realistic. So we removed things that
were impossible." A miniature flying
saucer/surveillance drone that launched from
the trunk of the Green Hornet's car went away.
So did "the Hornet's Sting," a telescoping cane
that used energy waves to blast open locks,
start fires and even take down criminals from
a distance. "You have to pick and choose,"
Goldberg says. "What are we going to re-ex-
plain to the world in this re-imagining? And
the answer is, not the crazy hard-to-explain
elements were fun, they'd ultimately be too
distracting and time-consuming.
technological heroes, the writers wanted The
Green Hornet to have a much more do-it-
yourself feel, and wanted whatever gadgets
that made their way into the script to also be-
come key elements of the story. "We wanted
to incorporate as much stuff as we could,"
Rogen says, "but not sacrifice the story or the
character." One such item was the Green Hor-
net's gun, which shoots knockout gas, a
weapon the writers realized would reinforce
critical character elements. "In our movie,
good at fighting as Kato is," Rogen explains.
Both men agree that the gas gun is a mild in-
sult coming from Kato, who doesn't need a
weapon and also doesn't think Reid can han-
dle an actual firearm.
Hornet's legendary car, Black Beauty, a vehi-
cle so heavily armed that it could give The
Dark Knight's Batmobile performance anxiety.
"We had a lot of companies bring us a lot of
crazy different car designs," Goldberg says.
Several people in development wanted to
bring the story into the present day and have
the car be a very sleek, futuristic vehicle. The