Amph Green Lantern Movie: NOT THE GREEN HORNET, ZAZ

Sourced from IESB.net

"But, there has been quite of bit of buzz lately coming from Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green's newest take on the Green Lantern and I managed to find a copy in my hands.

Let me start off with saying that within just reading the first few pages, I knew Berlanti, Guggenheim and Green had gotten the character right.

I don't want to do a traditional script review, instead I want to give IESB readers more of a sense of the story by going through some plot details and my thoughts on the screenplay. Wait a minute, that is a review. Let it begin...

It starts off with the revelation of Oa and The Central Battery with a voice over narration explaining that 1) there are extraterrestrials that protect the universe, 2) they have power rings, 3) there are thousands of Green Lanterns and 4) one of us has become one of them.

We go from one part of the universe to another and find ourselves in a familiar Solar System?our own.

Before I share some of the details let's do a quick character list of those we will see in the movie if this script gets the "green" light.

Martin Jordan
Hal Jordan/Green Lantern
Thomas Kalmuka
Carl Ferris
Carol Ferris
Kilowog
Tomar-Re
Abin Sur
Thaal Sinestro
The Guardians
Legion
Hector Hammond

A few cameos include a certain mild mannered reporter from the Daily Planet, a certain college football coach with the last name of Gardner (who we are promised in the script we will see more of in the second film) and loads of other characters sure to keep fanboys orgasmic throughout.

Back to the script - The story follows the traditional Hal Jordan/Green Lantern story lines to a certain degree 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.

Parts are straight out of the Emerald Dawn series including Jordan's simulator being ripped out of the training center and flown to a dying Abin Sur and Hal Jordan going to Oa to help defeat Legion.

The major difference is in the Sinestro character arch. I don't want to give too much away but the writers were very careful to stay true to the character without blowing their load on the first film.

The other difference is also introducing Hector Hammond into the story line and making him the big threat to Earth or Gaia if you prefer.

From the first major beat of the story - that is sure to bring a tear - to the revelations at the end of the movie that easily set up prequels as well as sequels this script has it all. Also, unlike other recent superhero movies, this Green Lantern story has science fiction elements such as visiting other planets and major space battles.

It's a quick read and is a mere 109 pages but is action packed from the beginning to end. It has the potential to be bigger than Iron Man or maybe even The Dark Knight.

The script, if greenlit, is a sure-fire hit for fan boys, but in scale it's big, VERY big, and we are hearing rumors that it may be too big for the director currently attached, Greg Berlanti.

But who would the studio trust to take on a franchise of this size?

First, let me say that the studio execs love this GL script, they really dig it - and get it which is always important - and word is they are prepared to spend a pretty penny."


Should have been Kyle Rayner.

 

Paging Zak Snyder....

For the amount of CG likely involved, Snyder would seem ideal. We should wait and see how Watchmen turns out though...

or maybe Chris Nolan?

 

They are really scraping the bottom of the superhero barrel with THE Green Hornet.

 

Fixed.

 

I would love to see this made. The question is who would be Hal Jordan?

 

Josh Lucas as Hal Jordan? I think that would be cool.

 

Nathan Fillion's name comes up a fair bit in connection to the role in fan circles. I think Dominic West from The Wire would make a good Hal Jordan, though perhaps he is too old.

 

I kept reading the title of this thread as Green HORNET. He's pretty second rate and I still think he's more interesting than Green LANTERN. But whatever.

 

Read some of the Denny O'Neil comics from the early '70s featuring Green Lantern and Green Arrow. Really good, thought-provoking stuff.

 

If done right, and this so far sounds like the right direction, Green Lantern could be a film franchise that DC and Warner Bros. can build a great comic movie empire from (The Nolan Batman series alone won't do it). There's the potential for positively epic sci-fi drama in GL, and to see it done properly would be amazing to me.

*imagines a "Sinestro Corps War" movie, faints*

 

Here's an interesting article about WB looking for a direction to take their comic book properties:

Warner Brothers and DC Comics Getting Their **** Together
July 11, 2008
by Kevin Powers


It looks like Marvel has officially scared Warner Bros. into action. With the success of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, and the possibilities on the horizon for a bridge-story with The Avengers (among other independent character films), the studio that is debuting The Dark Knight next week is presently meeting to formulate a strategic effort for its DC Comics film properties according to reports at Hollywood Reporter. As of late, DC projects haven't exactly progressed smoothly (e.g the continued uncertainty with Superman, the start-and-stop with Justice League) and Warner Bros. has little to show at the upcoming Comic-Con, save for Watchmen. Since The Dark Knight is almost assured to be a monster success, the timing of this meeting couldn't be more perfect, or just under the gun. If Warner Bros. and DC can properly leverage the Batman sequel, Marvel might have something to finally worry about.

After all, DC Comics does have Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, who can easily contend with the awareness of Spider-Man, Hulk and Iron Man, Warner Bros. just has to do these characters justice. They're already off to a solid start with the winged one. Superman needs some real help if it's to rise to a competitive level, so it's no wonder that the studio is rumored to want a reboot of the franchise, replacing director Bryan Singer. As for Wonder Woman, the news on that has moved at a glacial pace. The studio also has films on The Flash and Green Lantern in the works, and the prospect of one on Green Arrow is intriguing, but those pose little threat to Marvel's upcoming projects, some of which are Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, and maybe a sequel to The Incredible Hulk. Not to mention, Marvel has fan favorite Jon Favreau and the promising Louis Leterrier as directors.

The companies had little to report from the high-level meetings, except for the following: "We're constantly looking at how best to exploit the DC Comics characters and properties. DC is an incredibly valuable asset to Warner Bros. and plays an important role across the entire studio by providing development and franchise opportunities for all media, including films, television, home entertainment, animation, consumer products, video games and digital platforms." Standard PR bull****. I think it's safe to say that most fans are screaming to themselves, "It's about time!!" So what do you think? It's not only a question of who has the better characters, but who can actually execute on them. Marvel seems to have a more solid strategy in place already, so can Warner Brothers and DC Comics catch up?

Hopefully, after The Dark Knight, WB knows to invest in talent instead of telling the filmmakers "make it like Spider-Man," which according to Kevin Smith is how every studio has been doing it thus far.

Here's hoping that Green Lantern gets a good director.

 

Well, now WB has "The Dark Knight" to build off of, instead of "trying to do it like Spider-Man." If WB capitalizes on this, they can turn TDK into the beginning of a resurgence of DC films, just like Spider-Man (and X-Men) did for Marvel back at the beginning of the decade.

 

Aug 7 2009 04:58 PM ET

'The Green Hornet' finds its Kato in Jay Chou
by John Young

"Green Hornet fans, your Kato has been cast, err, recast. Taiwanese singer and actor Jay Chou will star opposite Seth Rogen as the Green Hornet?s sidekick, according to Variety. Chou, who previously appeared in Zhang Yimou?s The Curse of the Golden Flower, replaces Stephen Chow, who dropped out of the movie in July. The Green Hornet begins shooting in September under the direction of Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and is scheduled to be released next summer."

 

Zaz I am going to say this in the nicest way possible.

You

are

illiterate.

 

You'll note that, up thread and a little while back in time, I noted that I kept reading this thread title as Green HORNET.

I am not the only one. And you can imagine my confusion when I see that Kato, from the Green Hornet, is going to be appearing in the Green Lantern movie. I'm going to go lie down now.

 

And here I was trying to figure out what alien I'd forgotten about was named Kato.

 

same

 

All this talk about an Asian actor being cast as a character named Kato reminds me of a certain Peter Sellers series of films...

 

Apparently Ryan Reynolds was cast as Hal Jordan earlier this month.

 

September 08, 2009

Nicolas Cage drops out of 'Green Hornet'

"Cage was to play the villain in Columbia?s action movie, being directed by Michel Gondry, but the actor and the studio were not able to come to terms on a deal.
Columbia had no comment but sources said the studio is on the hunt for a new bad guy.

No scenes with Cage were on shot for the movie, which just began principal photography in Los Angeles last week.

Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz and Jay Chou topline the movie, which brings the classic crime-fighting hero to the big-screen."

 

[image=http://i27.tinypic.com/13z8t45.jpg]

Kato... KATO...!?

 

No, I'm not messing with him; I'm genuinely stupid.