The writer/director/actor talks candidly about his ability to deliver a superhero flick.
Why did Kevin Smith back away from the Green Hornet film after Miramax announced in early 2004 that Smith would write and direct the film?
"[I]t really comes down to I'm really not talented enough to pull off a movie like that. It was between that and 'Clerks II' and I drove toward 'Clerks II' in such a big, bad way and almost had to fight Harvey Weinstein to do 'Clerks II' as opposed to a 'Green Hornet' movie, cuz he's like, 'it's time for you to grow and stretch as a filmmaker' and I'm like, 'doesn't anybody get it after twelve years? I'm not that talented,” Smith told Superhero Hype.
"This is what I do [well].' This is why I got into film, to tell stories like that. I love watching comic book movies. I'd love to watch a 'Green Hornet' movie, but would not want to be the guy at the helm of that movie," he said.
"Number one, I make one of those movies and I lose the right to make fun of other people for making those movies. I learned that the hard way making 'Jersey Girl.' I can't make fun of 'Raising Helen' anymore. If I raise one finger to 'Raising Helen,' people are like, 'dude—you made Jersey Girl.' But number two, that's not the story I like to tell. I like to tell stories about people sitting around and talking to each other and what not. And that's really what I'm kind of good at and most people would argue that I'm not even that good at that to begin with," Smith said.
"So the notion of doing 'Green Hornet' is just not appealing to me. In comic book form—wonderful. I love to write comic books. You don't have to think about shooting that sh*t, plus you can get into the inner life of a character, you can deal with years of continuity, you can drop reference to a story that happened fifteen years ago. Doing that in the mainstream on a feature basis is just not the same," Smith said.