Rogen and Gondry unite! The Green Hornet trailer debut

As promised, the trailer for Michel Gondry‘s The Green Hornet has debuted online, featuring Seth Rogen as the famous vigilante and Jay Chou as his loyal (and versatile!) sidekick Kato.

Although the trailer failed to debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live as intended, Yahoo were good enough to post it online.

Despite early concerns, it looks like Gondry and Rogen have worked together to find an appropriate tone for their take on the classic comic figure (at least based on this short clip). Gondry’s electrifying and inventive visuals remain, as does Rogen’s plucky, conversational banter. He co-wrote the screenplay with partner Evan Goldberg. The duo together penned both Superbad and Pineapple Express.

We only get a brief glimpse of love interest Cameron Diaz and villain Christoph Waltz in action here. However, considering this film’s production history, we’re lucky to have a trailer at all.

Check it out below and let us know your thoughts!

http://d.yimg.com/m/up/ypp/movies/player.swf

Here is the film’s official plot synopsis:

Britt Reid (Rogen) is the son of LA’s most prominent and respected media magnate and perfectly happy to maintain a directionless existence on the party scene — until his father mysteriously dies, leaving Britt his vast media empire. Striking an unlikely friendship with one of his father’s more industrious and inventive employees, Kato (Chou), they see their chance to do something meaningful for the first time in their lives: fight crime. But in order to do this, they decide to become criminals themselves — protecting the law by breaking it, Britt becomes the vigilante The Green Hornet as he and Kato hit the streets.

Using all his ingenuity and skill, Kato builds the ultimate in advanced retro weaponry, The Black Beauty, an indestructible car equal parts firepower and horsepower. Rolling in a mobile fortress on wheels and striking the bad guys with Kato’s clever gadgets, The Green Hornet and Kato quickly start making a name for themselves, and with the help of Britt’s new secretary, Lenore Case (Diaz), they begin hunting down the man who controls LA’s gritty underworld: Benjamin Chudnofsky (Waltz). But Chudnofsky has plans of his own: to swat down The Green Hornet once and for all.

We’ll find out if the rest of the film can be as fun as that trailer when it debuts January 14, 2011 – in 3D.

Discuss: I’m going to ignore the haters and state that – at least based on this trailer – I’m convinced Rogen can pull off the leading man role in an action film. What do you think?