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— Films that start out in development hell sometimes emerge, but would have been better off staying there.

The action crime comedy THE GREEN HORNET, which opened Jan. 14, 2011 from Sony Pictures & Original Film, is a case in point. HORNET, which originated as a radio show about a masked superhero character , was created by George W. Trendle & Fran Striker and aired from 1936 through ’52. The series followed the adventures of Los Angeles playboy/ newspaper publisher Britt Reid, who’s secretly the mysterious vigilante The Green Hornet. Assisting him is his driver Kato, who’s happily a kung-fu pro.

Two 1940’s movie serials from Universal revolved around the masked superhero’s adventures and some of those chapters were later turned into two feature films. There also was a 1960’s HORNET series on ABC-TV, starring Van Williams with Bruce Lee as Kato, and there were decades of comic books.

In 1992 Universal began developing a new HORNET movie. A year later, a screenplay by Chuck Pfarrer (RED PLANET) had been written and was already being rewritten by Rich Wilkes (AIRHEADS). Wilkes’ draft brought in George Clooney with a pay-or-play deal. In December ’95 Clooney departed to do BATMAN AND ROBIN. The buzz was that Greg Kinnear would replace him and that Jason Scott Lee (no relation to Bruce Lee) would play play Kato.

In January ’97 Universal hired music video director Michel Gondry to make his feature directing debut with HORNET. Gondry had Wilkes’s screenplay rewritten by Edward Neumeier (ROBOCOP). After some 18 months in development, Universal pulled the plug on HORNET — despite having attached producers Lawrence Gordon & Lloyd Levin and having asked Mark Wahlberg to star. With the project back in development hell, Gondry departed.

By April 2000, Universal was talking to Jet Li about playing Kato and Dark Horse Entertainment & Charles Gordon had joined forces with Gordon & Levin to produce. As for the screenplay, by June 2000 it was being rewritten by Christopher McQuarrie — famous since then as one of TOP GUN: MAVERICK’s writers.

Universal, which had put about $10M into developing HORNET since ’92, put it in turnaround in November 2001. By then, neither Jet Li nor all those A-List producers were still involved.

From here, the plot thickens with years more in development hell. When HORNET finally did hit theatres Jan. 14, 2011, it was directed by Michel Gondry (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND) and starred Seth Rogen as Britt Reid & The Green Hornet and Jay Chou as Kato. The critics hated it with 44% on Rotten Tomatoes and so did audiences at 43%.

HORNET, which reportedly cost $120M to produce, had only a modest boxoffice buzz with $98.8M domestic and $227.8M worldwide.