I imagine $52 million for the “Green Lantern” start is lower than WB was hoping for out of a potential franchise-starter but solid enough given the critical thrashing (and seems about right for the film). I totally forgot “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” was coming out this weekend, and so did most others, it seems. “Midnight in Paris” expanded wider than any Woody Allen film to date and keeps chugging, while “Super 8” had a pretty good hold.
(Courtesy: Exhibitor Relations)
I gave Martin Campbell’s “Green Lantern” a big fat pass this week, while the rest of the critical establishment was busy tearing it down. (Guy joined their ranks with a take 180 degrees from mine.) I still think there is a lot of reaching for negativity in many of these assessments, but as the steam from the Hyperbole Express begins to clear the loading platform, I’d love to hear what the readership thought of the film, which hits theaters tonight at midnight screenings. (I may even give it another look because I’m interested in the largely hailed 3D conversion.) Sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below when you get around to seeing it this weekend.
In coming up with an idle, pop-related title for this post, I was faced with two choices: the one I eventually went with, or “We don’t need another hero.” I decided against the latter — partly because I’m sure other writers have already exhausted it, partly because The Bangles can always do with another shout-out — but in This Our Summer of the Superhero, it’d certainly be apt. With “Green Lantern” following “Thor,” “X-Men: First Class” and, earlier, its troublesome near-namesake “The Green Hornet” on the 2011 release schedule, and with “Captain America” still to come, casual moviegoers could be forgiven for wondering if their local multiplex has been part-colonized by ComicCon.
It stands to reason that with so many darts being thrown at the same aesthetic and commercial target, some will hit their mark more squarely than others. If “Thor” managed to widely surpass expectations, the law of averages decrees that at least one of its Spandex-clad rivals will likely fail to meet them — or at least live down to expectations that had already been lowered. Critically, at least, it seems “Green Lantern” is taking that bullet: Kris may have appreciated Martin Campbell’s revival of one of the DC library’s dustier properties, but the first wave of reviews has been largely dismissive, with even the film’s vastly expensive effects work taking a beating from both high-end print critics and more genre-friendly bloggers like Drew McWeeny.
It didn’t really hit me how excited I (still) was for “Green Lantern” until the lights dimmed and the green hit the screen. It can’t be understated how much of a long-time-coming type of thing this is, a theatrical version of such a vast cosmic comic book creation. And given the mechanics of the world, the amount of digital wizardry needed to conjure it, not to mention some dense continuity that never presented a clear-cut story for the screen, it’s understandable that it took so long.
But things started to change in 2004. Geoff Johns, a long-time DC guy who had written on a number of the company’s books (and already had a nice film education under his wing from his time as a Richard Donner mentee), started re-tooling the DC universe, beginning with one of his favorite characters: Hal Jordan. The “Rebirth” storyline led into a revitalized line of books featuring the Green Lantern Corps, a more than 3,000-member strong organization of intergalactic peace keepers, with Jordan right in the center of things. The elements Johns began tinkering with and re-envisioning — which were themselves building toward the “Blackest Night” and “Brightest Day” comic events of the last two years — began to reveal a way into the material for the screen. And now, “Green Lantern.”
Summer movie season is just heating up. We’ve already seen “Thor” delight and annoy with equal measure. “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” stinks up cinemas this weekend. I’m beginning to get nervous about “X-Men: First Class,” right around the corner, but mainly I’m holding out hope for “Green Lantern,” which could go either way at this point. Yahoo! Movies has debuted a trailer that got a lot of people excited. I’m trying to keep my hopes in check. Give it a look by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.
Hm. Something is bothering me about the trailer for “Green Lantern.” I liked the footage — however brief — at Comic-Con, but, well…the mask stinks. It just does. I like the idea of the suit being fully CG and always have but that damn mask. And there’s something Wishmaster-esque about Abin Sur’s makeup. Hey, I’ll be front row, center. But something’s nagging at me. Check out the trailer via Apple by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.
One of the most anticipated events at this year’s convention was Warner Bros. Pictures’ presentation of footage from Martin Campbell’s upcoming “Green Lantern” adaptation. Starring Ryan Reynolds as test-pilot-turned-intergalactic-enforcer Hal Jordan, the film is the first big screen adaptation of the superhero to date.
Comics writer and head of DC Entertainment Geoff Johns said during the panel discussion, moderated by Hero Complex‘s Geoff Boucher, that there was a time he thought an adaptation would never see the light of day. Working as an intern with Richard Donner over a decade ago, the project had begun to pick up some momentum. When he heard a studio exec ask if the film could be done without the ring, his heart sank and he figured it was a doomed property.
Today Johns is one of the key architects of the new DC universe on the page, having spent five years re-inventing and streamlining the world of Green Lantern as well, and for him, the film is a dream come true.
Full disclosure: I don’t do comics. It’s not a matter of snobbery or dislike — I quite admire the medium, in fact — but I wasn’t brought up on them and can’t fabricate the kind of lifelong enthusiasm they inspire in others. The pile of unread novels on my bedside table is high enough without bringing graphics into the equation.
This is a roundabout way of saying that talk of the rivalry between Marvel and DC Comics means about as much to me personally as that of the teams atop the German Bundesliga table — I understand both the game and the stakes, but my knowledge of the players themselves is elementary at best. So I found this LA Times article, in which Geoff Boucher and Ben Fritz break down the recent fortunes of Marvel and DC’s respective film production divisions, rather enlightening.
With DC Entertainment’s extreme polarities of success (Christopher Nolan’s Batman pictures) and failure (the still-reeking “Jonah Hex”) putting them on shakier economic ground than the more consistent Marvel, the studio has appointed former “Harry Potter” brand manager Diane Nelson and comic-book writer Geoff Johns to take the reins. Nelson’s background is telling: parent company Warner Bros. will be relying heavily on DC Entertainment to plug the gap left when the Potter film series concludes next year.
Well, the inbox is getting stuffed with this and that regarding breakfasts and panels and viral marketing and yada, yada, yada. That can mean only one thing: Comic-Con is around the corner. And as I poured over the recently released schedule over the weekend, I found myself excited for…very little.
DreamWorks Animation will make its first appearance with the Will Ferrell-starrer “Megamind.” Disney will pretty much take over the place as “TRON Legacy” makes its third trip in as many years to San Diego. Sony will be in Hall H two days, first offering up action fare with “Salt” (which opens the Friday of the convention) and “Battle: Los Angeles,” then coming back with comedies “The Other Guys” and “The Green Hornet.”
Warner Bros. will tease “Green Lantern,” “Sucker Punch” and the new “Harry Potter” while Overture will have “Let Me In.” Lionsgate will break out “The Expendables” and Universal is planning some hijinks for “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” to go along with Hall H presentations for the new Greg Mottola film “Paul” and the more appropriately positioned “Cowboys & Aliens.”
Oh, and fresh off of giving Edward Norton the heave-ho for, I imagine, deigning to try and make “The Avengers” a better movie than it’s likely to be, Marvel Studios will strut its stuff with “Thor” and “Captain America: The First Avenger.”
Remember all that talk last year about how actors saw “Avatar” as a threat to the future of their profession? Well, it seems the costume designers should be shaking in their boots as well.
Thanks to Peter Sciretta at /Film, news has trickled down that the reason we haven’t gotten a glimpse of Ryan Reynolds in full dress from Martin Cambell’s “Green Lantern” is that there isn’t a practical costume in effect. Writes Sciretta:
The suit that Ryan wears on set is a grey tracking motion/performance capture suit with led lights. I’ve heard that Ryan Reynolds has been joking on set that Warner Bros is going to make him into a Na’vi when the final cut is released. His joke, not mine. The Green Lantern suit you will see in the final film will be almost entirely created using computers.
“Precious” star Gabourey Sidibe couldn’t be here last weekend for the Virtuosos presentation, which recognized her, Carey Mulligan, Saoirse Ronan, Emily Blunt and Michael Stuhlbarg, so she was in town this evening as part of the Vanguard presentation. Stanley Tucci, meanwhile, couldn’t be here this week to accept his Vanguard prize, so he was here last week and filmed a video acceptance.
They roll with the punches here in Santa Barbara.
The four Vanguard award winners this year, which is the first year that saw more than one recipient, were Tucci, Christoph Waltz, Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga. The award recognizes an actor (or actors) who has forged his/her own path, taking artistic risks and making a significant and unique contribution to film.
It fits the quartet. These actors has found their way to this point in their careers in baby steps, Waltz’s career actually the most extensive of the four, ironically enough, regardless of his new appeal in the states.
I don’t usually bother with fan art because it’s always a dime a dozen, but this is pretty good. Of course, the mask is too small/tight and the pleather look is just SO early-2000s. And the logo should be a littler bigger (or maybe not). But on the whole, very cool.
(Courtesy: /Film)
• Alex Pappademas talks “Inglourious Basterds” with Quentin Tarantino the day following David Carradine’s death. [GQ]
• How producer Don Murphy turned and online tiff into a novel option. [The Big Picture]
• Eight blatantly misleading movie posters. Hear, hear on “Reign of Fire.” Never felt so burned… [Empire]
• Who dropped the “Moneyball?” [CNN]
• Steven Soderbergh can see the end of his career. [The Guardian]
• Michael Adams talks to filmmaker Mick Garris about the all-but-forgotten 1997 short film “Ghosts,” starring Michael Jackson. [Movieline]
• Need a “Green Lantern” primer? Here’s a good one. [Empire]
Entirely slipped my mind to do this on Friday, but here’s what we (and you) were talking about this week:
• At 2009’s halfway mark, this week’s list shone a light on the year’s most undersung films thus far.
• In Page to Screen this week, we eagerly sank our teeth into Dennis Lehane’s “Shutter Island.”
• As the respective “Ice Age” and “Transformers” rehashes battled for box-office glory, “Up” quietly became Pixar’s second-highest grosser.
• Meanwhile, soon-to-be titan “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” garnered mixed-to-positive notices.
• Burton, Lasseter, Miyazaki, Zemeckis … the upcoming Comic-Con just got a lot more auteur-heavy.
• Speaking of comics, “The Green Lantern” has a lead … and his name is Ryan Reynolds.
• Away from the big screen, we discussed the joys of bargain-bin DVDs.
• And stirred up debate with a celebration of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”
It all started with a recent Hollywood Reporter piece claiming that Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Timberlake (WTF) were up for the lead role in WB’s “The Green Lantern” (a script I’ve had for a while but preferred to satisfy the inner geek in me by reading the Geoff Johns saga in full, leading up to this summer’s “Blackest Night” event).
Of those three, with a gun to my head, I’d prefer Bradley Cooper, which was tossed into the mix by a Drew McWeeny report a few weeks back. I love Timberlake and actually think he’s a fine actor, but I don’t buy him as a cock-sure-test-pilot-turned-intergalactic-police-officer, do you?
But according to this Michael Fleming scoop at Variety’s new industry blog BF Deal Memo, the news strangely being dumped at the end of the week and the start of the weekend, it seems Warner Bros. is going with Ryan Reynolds. Ugh.
