As Green Lantern continues to tumble at the box office, both home and abroad, Warner Bros. is still holding true to the DC Comics hero. A script for the sequel has already been handed in, courtesy of Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim. You’ll notice that all three of these scribes had a hand in the first film, which sported impressive effects…and not much more.
Ryan Reynolds‘ turn as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern felt stale and miscalculated while Blake Lively was criminally ignored as the perennial lady-in-waiting (see Hayley Atwell in Captain America: The First Avenger for evidence of the opposite) and director Martin Campbell delivered something that looked a lot like a teenager who realized he had a big test the night before he had to take it and crammed, remembering only bits and pieces of all of the different elements he was meant to study.
Sure enough, Warners would like a new director for the sequel (but not new writers?) though apparently Campbell’s contract states that he can pursue a sequel if he so chooses. [L.A. Times]
While Marvel Studios pounds out another superhero movie a mile a minute to modest success every time, DC Comics is poised to lose its prized pig (Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy) next summer while they count on Superman reboot from Zack Snyder, someone who made a modest hit (Dawn of the Dead), surprise hit (300) and then three flops in a row (Watchmen, Legend of the Guardians, Sucker Punch). To say things are in flux is to put it lightly.
That said, they’ve got a script for Flash, a DC hero on the same level as Lantern in popularity and a character Mr. Reynolds was once rumored to play. Warner Bros. film group President Jeff Robinov says its a “solid script,” which means not much of anything.
What would you rather? A Lantern sequel or a Flash film or neither?