Speaking of comic book films you may be sick of…
You’ve probably heard rumblings that “Green Lantern” films two and three have already been greenlit and both films will shoot back to back, or so goes the recent internet rumors.
Those claims sound premature to these ears, but what is a reality is the fact that Warner Bros. has already hired Michael Goldenberg (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) to write the screenplay for the sequel. Directed by Martin Campbell and starring Ryan Reynolds, “Green Lantern” doesn’t hit theaters until June 17, 2011, but WB obviously has more than just high hopes. Based off the footage they’ve seen so far, they must be feeling very confident and are likely banking on having themselves a huge hit next year.
They better hope so. “Green Lantern” wasn’t cheap, reportedly costing upwards of $150 million. You don’t even need to read the Variety report to figure out what the sequel will be about. Mark Strong, who plays Sinestro, has already said several times — and just recently again — that his character is not a villain in the first film and “Green Lantern” essentially sets up his character as the antagonist in the sequel (Sinestro initially plays the protagonist Hal Jordan’s mentor).
Goldenberg’s script will be based on the treatment written by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim that was announced just a few weeks ago in June. “Green Lantern” just wrapped principal photography in New Orleans last week. Now months of intensive special effects work will go into the film including the CGI-made mo-cap suit.
Will “Green Lantern 2 & 3” shoot back to back? That might be a basic plan right now, sure, but WB and DC Entertainment aren’t dumb. They’ll get a script in place and get ready, but surely won’t actively green light (no pun intended) the sequels until the super hero property has proven to be the hit they already expect it to be. Hell, maybe audience fatigue will have hit by that point and people won’t care. All we know is that Campbell’s “Edge Of Darkness” is still in contention for one of the worst films of 2010 so far. The flipside optimistic view of that is the loose and light vibe of “Green Lantern” seems like a nice change of pace and something that “Iron Man 2” was missing.