Green Lantern Will Be "Loving And Respectful"

Given that Martin Campbell's Green Lantern is meant to start shooting in the next couple months, we really know nothing about it. Which is probably a good move on Warner Brothers' part. This is one that can be kept quiet. So we don't know what the story is, we don't know who's playing Green Lantern, we really don't know anything. SciFiWire talked to screenwriter Marc Guggenheim recently, and got next to nothing out of him. His most significant statement? "It is a very loving and respectful approach." Guggenheim also spoke about the casting process, after the jump.

OK, bit of bait and switch there, because all he said is:

[The casting rumors are] all false. I mean, they're all false insofar as we haven't chosen anyone yet. They're still in the negotiations, you know? There's a lot of names being talked about, and there's a lot of people being met, and a lot of ... actors reading the script.

The rest of his comments were pretty standard 'screenwriter who doesn't want to get fired' boilerplate. It's respectful, it's about doing the best movie version of the character, they have an incredible amount of source material to draw from, etc. All stuff we've heard before with respect to a dozen similar projects. But we can perhaps expect some classic Green Lantern moves like making a giant green fist via the ring that channels the character's willpower. "There's no desire on anyone's part to completely change the character and just call this other character Green Lantern and try to ... draft off the name recognition."

Though 'name recognition' is a bit funny. Because outside of comic book circles, how much name recognition does Green Lantern really have? Sure, you could do a lineup of various superheroes and many folks could I.D. Green Lantern, but that's because he's, y'know, green. Folks who know that Clark Kent is Superman and Peter Parker is Spider-Man probably don't know that Hal Jordan, test pilot, was given a power ring by a dying alien because Jordan is a man totally honest and without fear. They probably don't know that the ring channels willpower, or that it has always had a really dumb weak point when it comes to the color yellow.

And that's fine. It lets WB craft a real movie instead of a thing that has to conform to global perception of the character. The below the radar presence of this one has me curious and interested; looking forward to seeing who gets the nod to be Hal Jordan.