Green Lantern: Top 10 Things to Know Before Viewing

With the film Green Lantern out on dvd, here are 10 things to know before you rent or buy:

1. Three times a hero: Green Lantern star Ryan Reynolds is triple dipping in the superhero world, previously appearing as vampire hunter Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity, Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and now as Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern of sector 2814. Interestingly enough, Reynolds’ name was periodically mentioned to play the lead role in the upcoming The Flash film as the Wally West incarnation of the Scarlett Speedster.
2. Casting Couch: Prior to Reynolds getting the part, Chris Pine and Sam Worthington were discussed for the lead. Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto, Justin Timberlake all contributed a screen test to director Martin Campbell while 90210’s Brian Austin Green lobbied hard for the part of Green Lantern.
3. One Too many Villains: The movie will introduce fans to such villains as: Sinestro, Hector Hammond and Parallax.
4. Nixed Cameo: Originally Clark Kent was slated to appear in the film, but the filmmakers wanted Green Lantern “to stand on its own two feet and not depend on another superhero in order to survive.”
5. Hollywood Homage: According to Sinestro actor Mark Strong, the character of Hal Jordan was based on Robin Hood actor Errol Flynn while the film’s antagonist was based on legendary screen presence David Niven, Strong told coming soon.net: “That widow’s peak and thin mustache was for some reason originally based on David Niven, and Hal Jordan was based on Errol Flynn. In the ‘30s and ‘40s, they shared an apartment together in Hollywood when they were making movies and they were great friends. Obviously at the time, whoever was doing the original comics must have looked at them as guys doing very well in the film industry, and based those characters on them. So I would like to do justice to the Sinestro that was conceived for the comic books”. Other sources claim that character of Hal Jordan was based on Paul Newman and screen legend Elizabeth Taylor served as the basis for Carol Ferris, Jordan’s girlfriend.
6. Multiple Green Lanterns: The DC universe features many Green Lanterns in their continuity. Besides film headliner Hal Jordan, characters such as Guy Gardner, Alan Scott, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner and Jade Scott have all yielded the power of the Green Lantern ring. It should also be noted that in the Green Lantern mythology, there are over 3,000 Green Lanterns in the universe from different planets and regions. Look for names like Kilowog, Sinestro, and Tomar-Re to appear in the film.
7. Jay and Silent Bob to appear on Oa? Can you imagine Hal Jordan hanging out at the Quickstop or with Jay and Silent Bob? How about Tomer- Re arguing with Datne Hicks about his day off? This almost happened (sort of) when the brass at Warner Brothers approached Mallrats/Clerks filmmaker and comic book writer Kevin Smith to develop a Green Lantern film. Smith, who had earlier turned down an offer to direct a Green Hornet film, declined the offer felling “there were other suitable candidates to make a Green Lantern movie.”
8. Jack Black as Green Lantern: In 2006, Saturday Night Live (“TV FunHouse”) writer Robert Smigel created a script for a Jack Black version of Green Lantern, “Well, yeah, it was true that uh yes someone wrote a script for me, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Too many people were mad at the idea of me being Green Lantern,” Black told ComicBookmovie.com a few years back.
9. Great Scott, Where’s Alan? Strike One: Unfortunately for Golden Age Justice Society fans, the character of Alan Scott, earth’s original Green Lantern was written out of the script twice! (Is that possible?) Scott, whose powers are based on magic rather than cosmic energy via the Guardians of the Universe, was originally penned in to be the protagonist of the Green Lantern film prior to the arrival of the Hal Jordan character; this was nixed due to the popularity of the Jordan character. Strike Two: In another early draft of the film, Alan Scott was going to be the U.S. President who reveals his Green Lantern powers to Hal Jordan at the end of the film. The character was later changed to a Checkmate agent who would mentor Jordan. Guess what? For reasons unknown, Alan was removed from all subsequent drafts of the film.
10. New director for Sequel: Green Lantern director has already announced to scifipulse.net that he won’t be returning for a sequel, “In the July issue of Total Film, it has seemingly been revealed that the director of Casino Royale, Edge of Darkness, and most recently Green Lantern, will in fact NOT be returning for any future installments of WB and DC Entertainment’s latest superhero franchise,” the site reported.