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Ryan Reynolds at the Green Lantern Panel

Jul 26, 2010 By Mark Redfern Photography by Wendy Lynch Redfern DC Comics

One of the most anticipated comic book movies of 2011 is Green Lantern, the first big screen live-action film to feature a major DC Universe character other than Batman or Superman since 2004’s Catwoman (and we know how that turned out). Critically acclaimed Green Lantern writer and DC Comics’ Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Johns, enthusiastically welcomed the audience to the “first Green Lantern movie panel in history” and said that the week he spent on the set was “the best week of my life.” The panel included director Martin Campbell (Goldeneye, Casino Royale), co-writer/producer Greg Berlanti, and several of the film’s stars: Ryan Reynolds (Hal Jordon/Green Lantern), Mark Strong (Sinestro), Blake Lively (Carol Ferris), and Peter Sarsgaard (Dr. Hector Hammond).

They are still in production on Green Lantern, with three weeks of shooting in New Orleans still to be accomplished, but they did screen a very short teaser trailer showcasing some of the footage shot thus far. The trailer didn’t show Reynolds in the Green Lantern costume, which will be finalized in postproduction via CGI, but in one scene Reynolds fights off some guys in a parking lot by creating a giant green fist with his ring. Abin Sur also showed up in the trailer.

Reynolds said that he sees Hal Jordan as an “amalgamation of Chuck Yeager and Han Solo.” Director Campbell said, “We’ve tried to keep the action very real…tonally there’s a lot of humor.” He said that the costume was still a work in progress, despite already appearing on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, but that it definitely won’t include white gloves. Reynolds said that while some of the flying will be accomplished via postproduction computer effects, they also used rigs to do a lot of the flying on set. Some of the other members of the Green Lantern Corps promised to be in the film include Kilowog, Boodikka, Bzzd, and Green Man. Parallax will also be in the movie. As per the comic books, Sinestro will be Jordan’s mentor in the first film, but will turn into a villain in a future Green Lantern film. Overall, it seemed as though everyone involved with the production was trying to remain as faithful to the comic book as possible. To illustrate this, Johns relayed a story of when he used to work for director Richard Donner (Superman) and they met a producer who was interested in doing a Green Lantern movie, but asked the ridiculous question, “Can we do the movie without the ring?” When asked whether or not Green Lantern was the start of a DC movie universe (similar to what Marvel is doing by crossing over all their characters), Johns simply replied “maybe.” When asked if there was room for the original Green Lantern from the 1940s, Alan Scott, to show up in one of the sequels to Green Lantern, Johns responded with, “There’s always room.”

Reynolds revealed that he had screen tested for the role several times and wanted to make sure that he was right for the role just as much as the producers did. He recited the entire Green Lantern oath after being asked by a kid in the audience to do so. When asked if there was some sort of rivalry between Reynolds and his wife Scarlett Johansson, since he’s now playing a DC character and she recently played the Marvel character The Black Widow in Iron Man 2, the actor joked, “We’ve probably got a lot more comic books laying around than the average married couple… Maybe not, judging by this room.” He also gave the Green Lantern ring he was wearing to a woman in the audience, adding, “This means we’re married, but in space.”

Johns summed things up by saying, “The scope and success of Green Lantern will really lead the charge for the DC [movie] universe.” We’ll all judge for ourselves when the movie is released on June 17, 2011.