Apparently Stephen Chow wasn’t the only one who had creative differences with Seth Rogen on GREEN HORNET. Nicolas Cage, who was strongly rumored to play the villain in the film, recently told The Canadian Press that he had issues of his own with Rogen’s script, as well as director Michel Gondry’s vision for the film.

According to Cage, he “wasn’t interested in just being just a straight-up bad guy who was killing people willy-nilly.” He explained this in more detail when he said “I had to have some humanity and to try to give it something where you could understand why the character was the way he was but I don’t think there was enough time to develop it.” Cage went on to say “THE GREEN HORNET was something that I wanted to do, I think Michel Gondry is very talented and I had hoped it would work but I think Seth Rogen and Michel had a different take on the character.”

Humanity? Understanding of why the character is the way he is? So, like, a flaming skeletal motorcycle rider of death that rides because his “dad thought it’d be cool.” And I imagine that the different take Gondry and Rogen had on the character was that his hairstyle not look like boy band member with a terminal disease – that being one creative difference that Cage could not compromise on.

I think we are all thankful for Cage turning down the role, as it gave way to Christoph Waltz (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS) to play the villain Chudnofsky. To this, we say thank you, Mr. Cage. This will be your greatest role yet, as you played a large role in helping bring us what is sure to be another brilliant and maniacal performance from Waltz.