All kids have dreams: some want to be scientists, some want to be rock stars, race car drivers, some what to be like their dads, some wished to be pilots and some (like Kal-El and myself) wished to be super heroes. Of course, the next best thing is to see those super heroes hit the big screen !
The next best thing for me is the upcoming Green Lantern movie !
As fans may already know, the film will star Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan alongside a cast of relatively well-known actors portraying penultimate characters such as Sinestro, Carol Ferris, Dr. Hector Hammond, Abin Sur and Pie-face Kalmaku. Green Lantern is scheduled to be released on June 17, 2011.
Warner Bros. initially changed the direction of the film into that of a comedy; by June 2006, a script was completed which was set to star Jack Black in the lead role. However, the studio dropped the comedy idea due to poor fan reaction on the Internet. In an attempt to change the tone of Green Lantern to be taken more seriously, Zack Snyder was approached to direct, but he turned down the offer due to his commitment on Watchmen.
Actor-writer Corey Reynolds, a comic book fan and personal fan of the John Stewart character, pitched Warner Bros. an idea for a trilogy, with him starring as John Stewart and performing screenwriting duties. Reynolds intended to introduce Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern Corps and Justice League in possible sequels. He finished the script for Green Lantern: Birth of a Hero in June 2007, receiving positive feedback from Warner Bros. with a potential 2010 release date. However, the studio abandoned Reynolds' concept, and in October 2007, Greg Berlanti signed to direct/co-write the film. The decision was made to have Hal Jordan as the protagonist instead of John Stewart. Comic book writers Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim were hired to co-script the film with Berlanti.
Berlanti, Green and Guggenheim found it difficult writing the script because two of their drafts of the screenplay had been leaked on the Internet during the scripting phase. The new script features Martin Jordan, Carl Ferris, Carol Ferris, Thomas Kalmaku, Tomar-Re, Abin Sur, Sinestro, Kilowog, the Guardians of the Universe, Legion and Hector Hammond as well as cameos by Guy Gardner and Clark Kent.
The story follows the original Hal Jordan/Green Lantern storyline, including the battle between Legion and Abin Sur, Abin Sur's crash landing on Earth, as well as the choosing of Hal Jordan over Guy Gardner and Clark Kent. Some parts will be drawn from the Emerald Dawn mini-series.
By December 2008, the writers had written three drafts of the screenplay and Warner Bros. was preparing for pre-production. However, Berlanti was forced to vacate the director's position due to scheduling conflicts. In February 2009 it was reported that Martin Campbell is set to direct the film, replacing Berlanti. In April 2009 it was reported that Warner Bros. has decided to shoot the film at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia, and was given a $150 million budget, however as of October 2009 it will no longer be filmed in Australia but has instead moved the majority of first unit filming to Louisiana.
It was announced in July 2009 that Ryan Reynolds had been cast as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. It was also reported that Hal Jordan's love interest, Carol Ferris, would be played by Blake Lively. Carol ultimately will become the villain Star Sapphire, although there's no word whether there might be some hint of that in the first movie.
Later that same month, it was revealed that Peter Sarsgaard (from the movie, Orphan) would portray Hector Hammond and that Mark Strong was in negotiations to play Sinestro. Also in January 2010 concept art for Kilowog, Abin Sur, and Tomar-Re surfaced.
On February 9, 2010 Tim Robbins joined the cast as Senator Hammond, the disapproving father of Hector Hammond. On March 14, 2010, it was announced that Temuera Morrison and Taika Waititi had joined the cast as Abin Sur and Tom Kalmaku, respectively.
In an interview with MTV News, director Martin Campbell when asked about the film's effects-heavy epic scale commented; "It's daunting, just the process, (there are) something like 1,300 visual effects shots, it's mind-blowing, quite honestly". When asked about the constructs created from the power rings Campbell stated; "One of the nice things is, we'll all sit down and say, 'Well, what are we going to do here?' Really, it's as much as your imagination can go to make the constructs". The studio also confirmed to MTV News that the film will have a 3-D release.
According to Comics Continuum, an animated Green Lantern film is in the works at Warner Bros. Animation and will be part of a direct-to-video project that will be timed for release of the live-action Green Lantern movie in the summer of 2011. The Green Lantern animated project will likely take a look at the origins of the Green Lantern Corps, including the first ring wielders. In an interview with Bruce Timm, the producer revealed that a sequel to the Green Lantern animated movie had been discussed but cancelled, along with a sequel to the Wonder Woman animated film, because of the two pictures not achieving the immediate success that they had hoped for. However, Timm did hope the live action film would renew interest in a sequel. There has also been a lot of talk about a Green Lantern animated television series. When Geoff Johns was speaking at the Emerald City Comic-Con in 2010, he was asked about the series possibility and said "There's a very, very good chance."
Director Martin Campbell has confirmed the possibility of seeing a Green Lantern trilogy during interviews for Edge of Darkness. In June 2010, Warner Brothers studios hired Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim, all of whom worked on the Green Lantern screenplay, to write a treatment for the second installment already !
That's just a little taste of the progress so far of this little kid's dream.
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