Negotiations are underway for Warner Bros.Martin Campbell onboard the potential franchise-starter “Green Lantern.” to bring director With sister company DC Comics, WB has been looking to answer Marvel Studios’ own ambitious plans with a 2010 launch for the “Lantern,” which the studio views as their answer to “Iron Man.” While Ryan Gosling was rumored for the role previously, there’s no assurance he’ll sign on. He seems like an Ed Norton-type who would snub his nose at the director of “The Mask Of Zorro” and “Goldeneye,” but then again, Norton did play the Hulk.
Some background: the Green Lantern is the story of a fighter pilot named Hal Jordan who is selected to be this planet’s bearer of a mystical green ring that is capable of nearly anything. In return, he must become a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic organization dedicated to protecting the universe from galactic threats. Previously, the character was slated for a comedic approach- Robert Smigel had penned a script for Jack Black to star in, but that project died on the vine. Another approach involved the character being one of the primary characters in a proposed “Justice League” movie, with rapper Common starring as the Green Lantern known as John Stewart, but that script looks to be entering a dormancy period.
What’s been heard about the script, from Greg Berlanti (“Brothers And Sisters”), Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green, is that it’s action-packed, sets the groundwork for an exciting franchise, and establishes the rules of the Green Lantern’s space travels immediately- the third act needed some work, but re-writes suggest that may have been accomplished. The humor and adventure are key if WB wants an “Iron Man” analogue- something fast, funny and irreverent, but not too different from the superhero template. WB is going to put a lot of juice into this project, as they view it as the beginning of a consistent onscreen DC universe, as a certain Kryptonian hero cameos. With “Lantern” set to shoot, a planned third “Batman” installment, a hugely reworked “Superman: The Man Of Steel,” and Josh Brolin-starring “Jonah Hex,” DC is poised to make a big dent in the superhero market, with “Justice League” the likely endgame.