It’s going to be a spandex-filled summer. There are four superhero movies on the way — “Thor,” “X-Men: First Class,” “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “Green Lantern” — and most everybody can agree that out of all of them, the latter has received the worst buzz so far. A trailer dropped last fall and it wasn’t promising. Sporting a dorky tone, cheesy special effects and nothing in the way of a hook, it was met with a collective shrug and then quickly forgotten and there has been little in the way of marketing since. However, Warner Bros. admits they got it wrong, are licking their wounds and are planning an assault of marketing in the run up to the film’s release in June.
“We are on a learning curve in getting 3-D materials and marketing materials on the same schedule,” Warner Bros. honco Jeff Robinov told the LA Times, citing that a lack of further trailers for the film “has been delayed strictly from production.”
It’s that extensive production time that has been holding up the studio from showing off the whiz-bang sequences they hope will dazzle audiences. “Part of the reason the response to the first trailer was lukewarm was that the big-scale sequences weren’t ready to show, and we suffered for it,” said Sue Kroll, head of worldwide marketing for the studio. “We can’t afford to do that again.”
Apparently, the post-production on a number of elaborate 3D sequences set in space and featuring aliens are taking much longer to lock down. So while it threw us at first, it’s no surprise that casting is still underway on the film. Sort of.
Latino Review report that Michael Clarke Duncan is in talks to voice Kilowog in the film. The character is glimpsed briefly in the trailer (see below) and in the comics, is one of the most powerful of the Green Lanterns who trains Ryan Reynolds‘ Hal Jordan. Coming in this late in the game, it looks like Duncan is doing a last minute replacement gig for Dennis Haysbert who is credited in IMDb for the role. Of the two, we can certainly say this: Duncan has a voice much more suited to the part.
So, Warner Bros. will be racing against the clock and hoping they can turn the tide on the film which right now, has the movie pegged as the comic afterthought of the summer. “Green Lantern” opens on June 17th and a new trailer for the film will arrive in front of “Thor.”