Michel Gondry’s The Green Hornet had yet another setback last week when Nicolas Cage walked away after contract negotiations fell through (he couldn’t get enough money). And a new villain had to be found to fill the role at short notice. Well the search didn’t take long. Christoph Waltz has been cast as Chudnofsky, a Los Angeles crime boss who tries to unite the city’s various gangs in order to form a supermafia.

If you’re not familiar with Christoph Waltz, go and see Inglourious Basterds. He played ‘the Jew Hunter’ Colonel Hans Lander.

Outside of Germany Waltz was a relative unknown, but his amazing performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds has obviously caught the attention of Hollywood. Waltz won the Best Actor at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and there’s already talk that he’s a likely contender for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Seth Rogan is to play the title role of The Green Hornet. A newspaper publisher by day, and a masked crime fighter by night. Asian pop star Jay Chou plays his martial arts-skilled sidekick and chauffeur Kato, while Cameron Diaz plays the love interest.

I’m gonna be optimistic about The Green Hornet now that Waltz is involved and things are back on track. I think he’ll make a much better villain than Nicolas Cage. I only hope that Waltz doesn’t get typecast as ‘the villain’ in everything he now does.

Because of the setbacks, The Green Hornet will now be pushed back for a likely release of December next year.