Christoph Waltz, in the running for Oscar consideration for his star turn in Inglourious Basterds, will play the villain in The Green Hornet.

The Austrian actor steps into the shoes of Nicolas Cage and will portray Chudnofsky, an LA mafioso with grand designs for a super mob. Cage walked away from the Sony project last week when the parties failed to agree terms.

Seth Rogen stars as the eponymous hero, a newspaper magnate by day who turns vigilante by night. Rogen wrote the screenplay with Evan Goldberg based on the 1930s radio deries and the cast includes Cameron Diaz.

Michel Gondry will direct and Sony has set a December 2010 release.