The latest development in the long-standing on-again, off-again drama of the making of The Green Hornet is the attachment of genius director Michel Gondry. Best known for his brilliant, heartbreaking, and somewhat subversive films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep, he's also had a long career as a music video director, directing a number of classics in their own right. So what the hell is a mad visionary like Gondry doing getting behind a mainstream comedy-action film like The Green Hornet?

Who cares why? All I want to know is When can I watch it?

Gondry is one of the few artists working today that I honestly believe is eccentric at his best, and completely off his rocker at his worst. Either way, his madness is the key to his genius, and enables him to look at the world in a completely different way, with a pure, heartfelt, childlike innocence. He reinforces this vision with bizarre creations, flights of fancy that take the mundane and make it magical.

In Spotless Mind he gives us an unending love story, a pair of star-crossed lovers who, through science-fiction technology, keep wiping the memories of their broken hearts only to find one another again and repeat the cycle. We fall in love with them, only to learn that they do not belong together. It is one of the most honest films I've ever seen on the nature of love. In The Science of Sleep Gondry introduces us to a man who cannot distinguish his dreams from reality, and thus lives in a strange world of imagination juxtaposed against banality, with the two bleeding together time and again. And when that man falls in love, he offers us a romance that is sweet, good-natured, pitiable and creepy. We are as frightened by the hero as we are in love with him.

And that's what is important to keep in mind when thinking about a Gondry-directed superhero movie. Most people immediately think about the imagery of a Gondry film, forgetting entirely that his films are deep, complex and honest examinations of the human condition. He can be touching, he can be mean, and he can be funny -- all at the same time. And it appears that The Green Hornet is turning into a comedy: the current incarnation of the project stars Seth Rogen as the film's namesake (the actor has lost a tremendous amount of weight for the role) and Hong Kong legend Stephen Chow as his sidekick Kato. Up until recently, Chow was tapped to direct but stepped away from those duties due to creative differences (although he is still co-starring). It was erroneously reported that the film was killed again, as it was when the Kevin Smith version of the film from years ago fell apart. But Gondry's attachment shows us that there is life yet in this project.

So what will this look like? I've no idea. I think that rather than trying to seek his own glory, Gondry is going to try and capture the spirit and nature of the original character and world. He will also probably try to show us how much humanity he can get out of it, perhaps by mocking the well-intentioned do-gooder aspect of the crime-fighting characters. After all, putting on a mask and getting into fights is at least a little silly. If anyone can make that both touching and ridiculous at the same time, it's Gondry.

I don't anticipate this movie to be mainstream at all -- I doubt Gondry would have signed on for that -- but I also don't expect this to be self-indulgent either. I have a feeling Gondry will play it straight, but smart, much smarter than we'd expect from a superhero film.

At least, that's what I think, sitting here, looking at this through the hopeful, innocent eyes of a film and Gondry lover.

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