Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Christoph Waltz had taken the role of Chudnofsky, the villain in the upcoming film of The Green Hornet. The role was, of course, earmarked for Nicolas Cage, and while there was never a formal announcement that he'd signed up for the film, it was widely accepted that he was on board.

After he apparently jumped ship, though, little was said as to the reasons why, short of the usual stuff about how the financial package wasn't quite right. However, Cage has now been speaking about his decision to leave the project, and it's creative differences with co-writer/star Seth Rogen and director Michel Gondry that were at the heart of his decision.

Cage said, reports The Canadian Press, that he "wasn't interested in just being just a straight-up bad guy who was killing people willy-nilly", and that with the film already before the cameras, he "had a different take on the character", and that there was no time to resolve it in the script. "'The Green Hornet' was something that I wanted to do," he said. "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."

Given that Cage complimented Gondry but not Rogen, are we reading too much into this to suggest that the differences were between those two? That said, it's hard to base any substance for that on a simple sound bite.

The Green Hornet, anyway, continues filming, and it's set for release at the end of 2010.

Canadian Press/Yahoo Canada