It seems that the underwhelming reception for the Green Lantern movie hasn’t dissuaded Warner Bros. from taking another shot at it, Ben Fritz reports.
“We had a decent opening so we learned there is an audience,” said Warner Bros. film group President Jeff Robinov, pointing to the film’s box office debut of $53 million. “To go forward we need to make it a little edgier and darker with more emphasis on action…. And we have to find a way to balance the time the movie spends in space versus on Earth.”
[snip] Warner Bros. already has an outline for a sequel on hand written by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim, who all worked on the script for the original. However, several people familiar with the thinking of executives there who were not authorized to speak on the record say Warner will likely make significant changes to the outline, if not start over from scratch, in developing a sequel.
Darker and edgier! Like that time Green Lantern’s spine got ripped out. It seems that director Martin Campbell is not favored to return — given that he seemed to want nothing to do with the movie in interviews, he’ll probably be happy to oblige — after he gets a payout. Campbell, a talented but not notable journeyman, was an odd choice to direct, anyway – we’d suggest a younger, peppier director who actually likes Green Lantern ourselves. (Zack Snyder would be good but he’s already tied up on Superman, obviously.)
While given everything that went on, having another go at Green Lantern seems like a surprising move, Warners really has no choice. They’ve made a huge investment in their superhero franchises, and with Harry Potter gone, they need another tentpole franchise. Batman gets rebooted after next year and Superman is a big question mark at this point, so throwing money and marketing partnerships at it until the Happy Meals stick seems to be the only way to go.
Robinov is still interested in a Flash movie (which has a solid script, he says) and a JLA film.
BTW, we were reading one of the the addictive sex diaries over at Daily Intel when we found out at least one person thought GL was a big turn-on.
We see Green Lantern. I’m not interested but I go because he really wants to see it. I try to xxx his xxxxx outside his xxxxx during the movie but the theatre is too crowded for any naughty business.
See? At least two people will be happy about a GL sequel.
>> They’ve made a huge investment in their superhero franchises, and with Harry Potter gone, they need another tentpole franchise.>>
Books of Magic!
Are they really rebooting Batman? I had heard they were just changing the team but continuing the story. A La James Bond. Is that wrong? I wish they’d do it that way. It would be better.
@Kurt Busiek – a Books of Magic movie could be really, really great. Man, I should really reread those books.
P.S. I’m glad they are keeping it going. It wasn’t that bad! maybe it will end up being really solid?
I never understood why people were so hot for Campbell on this. So many bloggers took the studio at their PR and cited “Casino Royale” as his only big picture, but guy also directed the first Brosnan Bond flick and both those Zorro movies. That never screamed “space fantasy epic” to me, but what do I know?
We got the same spin after Superman returns.
I can’t believe the theater showing GL was too crowded for that person to xxx his xxxx outside his xxxxx. Must have been the opening Friday.
If I had been given the choice between seeing GL and getting my xxx xxxxxx, I would have chosen the latter.
Would love to see a film starring the Flash, but I don’t want it to become another mess of four or more screenwriters tinkering with one another’s drafts to appease studio meddling.
The basic concept of a man who can move, react and think at super-speed is filled with storytelling possibilities and the character (Barry Allen, Wally West or Jay Garrick) deserves to be handled by people with true creative vision, ideas and talent.
Just more PR spin in the wake of this past weekend’s news that Captain America didn’t totally collapse in its second week.
“To go forward we need to make it a little edgier and darker.”
Yeah, that’ll do it.
Jesus God.
Captain America: 124 minutes of things that Warner Bros doesn’t know how to do.
Agree with Mr. Waid, Marvel/Disney was able to get Thor and Cap made into good-great films, while DC/Warner can only get one good Batman film made every 4 years. How is this hard?
“We had a decent opening so we learned there is an audience,” said Warner Bros. film group President Jeff Robinov”
Fewer people went to see this in it’s opening weekend than Daredevil and Ghost Rider, it was only propped up by 3d ticket prices.
According to a reviewer of the CAPTAIN AMERICA film:
It might be that the people who work on the DC movies are too concerned about appealing to particular groups, which was a problem with the JONAH HEX film. It doesn’t help matters that the DC heroes are very simple characters. It’s much easier to fantasize about being Superman than it is to write a story about Superman which doesn’t generally repeat what was in previous stories.
SRS
“How is this hard?”
Too many suits over-thinking the concept. Jeff Robinov needs to learn the K.I.S.S. theory of making comic book movies.
Man, what is it with green superheroes and less-than-successful movies? Hulk tanked, then they made a remake that . . . slightly less tanked. Green Hornet . . . slightly less than tanked. Now Green Lantern’s tanked, and they’re talking about a remake that will hopefully . . . slightly less tank.
All I’m saying is, if anyone in Hollywood’s got their hands on a Green Arrow project right now, tread carefully! x[)
Thank you Mark Waid. My sentiments exactly. Leave the dark to Batman and instead focus on some super-heroic adventure-y fun.
Kind of makes you appreciate the first two Superman films that much more – aside from the Batman franchises and Swamp Thing, Warners hasn’t been able to deliver their vast catalog to the big screen in any meaningful way in decades.
Charles Skaggs says “Would love to see a film starring the Flash, but I don’t want it to become another mess of four or more screenwriters tinkering with one another’s drafts to appease studio meddling.”
I hate to break it to you Charles, but a lot of big budget studio films are made that way. It’s not just the super-hero / comic book ones. You can find exceptions, but just because the onscreen credit went to one or two writers doesn’t mean there weren’t a lot of prior drafts by other writers with credits determined via arbitration. It’s just not always public.
Plus there are a lot of script doctors around who will get hired uncredited to come in and do a joke-pass on a comedy script or fix a character arc or structural issue, stuff like that.
“Books of Magic”
Funniest thing that I’ve read so far this week. As is often the case, my thanks to Mr. Busiek.
Too many cooks in the kitchen, and they didn’t make sure all the cooks were Green Lantern fans.
Why is Warner Bros making a sequel? It’s obvious that the concept is great, but the movie was not. That’s why.
Saw the movie on a big white screen (with totally unnecessary 3D) yesterday and I had more fun than I thought I would
I surprisingly liked Reynolds as Hal Jordan, although I can imagine other actors doing a better job
Loved the special effects and in particular the scenes on the planet Oa.
Mark Strong = Sinestro
I thought Blake Lively was kinda very sexy.
I didn’t like :
not enough time on planet Oa and not enough GLC
the ending : a mega-turd that gets beaten in 3 minutes and credits roll…huh ?
the soundtrack dissapoints
Hopefully a second movie will follow because this one feels as a build-up for a promising confrontation between GL and you-know-who. A darker one, with more scenes in space would please me.
To go forward we need to make it a little edgier and darker” wow that’s original. it just got to work because that shitty batman movie was succesful.
Superman kind of fuckup incoming
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