There are certain film projects that seem to pick up a curse as they wind their way through development, perpetually threatening to get made but never actually ending up in front of the camera.  Right now, it looks like "The Green Hornet" is about to collapse again, and if this particular configuration doesn't happen, then I suspect it never will.

Ever since Stephen Chow started to waffle about his participation in the film, I've been hearing rumors that there were major hesitations at Sony.  Then at Sundance, I heard several people say that the film was off completely.  I spoke this afternoon with a source close to the film, and while they didn't call it completely dead, they did say it is "highly unlikely" that the film will shoot in 2009 at all.

That's a shame.  I'm not going to pretend to have some lifelong passion for the character or the property... I doubt anyone my age is genuinely nostalgic about "The Green Hornet," since it's really a relic of an earlier age.  The TV show was in the '60s, and the radio show predates that.  But I am aware of the property, and Bruce Lee playing Kato means that there's some historic relevance that they can play off of.  I liked the idea of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg revitalizing the material, and when they were talking about Chow as director and co-star, it seemed like a can't-miss proposition.  Seth even trained for the movie, and if you've seen him in the last few months, you probably noticed how much leaner Seth was looking.

I'll continue to look into this, but for now, it looks like "The Green Hornet" has gone onto life-support at Sony, with a good chance the studio's going to kick the plug out any moment now.

THERE IS A FOLLOW-UP TO THIS STORY THAT WE HAVE POSTED, DISPUTING THIS RUMOR'S ACCURACY.  CHECK THE UPDATE HERE.