SDCC 2010: GREEN LANTERN Panel Featuring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Martin Campbell, and More

From brightest day, to the dark recesses of Hall H at Comic-Con, Warner Bros. unleashed the first footage from Green Lantern.   The superhero film is based on the famous DC Comics character, a man who is given a ring which makes him a member of an all-powerful universal police squad.  The film — which stars Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard and Mark Strong — is still shooting. But in the short trailer, we all got a glimpse at the planet of Oa, the Ring making a huge fist, and plenty more teases.

The footage looked hugely promising, and the enthusiasm of everyone on the panel was infectious. Read all about it after the jump.

The Chief Creative Office of DC, Geoff Johns, came out first and presented the footage. It began with a green orb and the voice of Sinestro (Strong) telling someone to concentrate on it. It then exploded into actual footage, which was pretty much just a montage of images. Among them were the ring, speaking of the oath, Abin Sur, a laboratory, the crash site, Reynolds as Hal Jordan punching a group of toughs with a big green fist and then looking surprised after and it ended with a shot of the Lantern home planet, Oa, then back to the green orb. That then morphed into the well known symbol and the words “Await Further Contact 2011.”

The cast and crew then came out including screenwriter Greg Berlanti, producer Donald DeLine, director Martin Campbell then the stars Sarsgaard, Strong, Lively and Reynolds. Here are the bullet points.

-Reynolds didn’t know a lot about the character when he first heard about the role but fell in love with Campbell’s passion as well as the art department. He saw him as a mix up of Chuck Yeager and Han Solo, which seemed like a guy that he really wanted to play for a movie… “Or two or three” he said.

-Sarsgaard loved working in the makeup of his character because it let him feel really free as an actor. He also loved the character progression.

-Sinestro has a huge role to play later in the series but Mark Strong didn’t think like that. He played the role in the moment.

-Campbell described the tone as light and humorous but with real relationships and real action. “Terrific entertainment.”

-He made sure to say that, even on the EW cover (pictured right), the suit was a “work in progress.” They got rid of the white gloves but its more a second skin than a suit. All the lines you see are specific to muscles. He said it will “eventually look incredibly cool.”

-On Oa, we will see over 3000 green lanterns including Kilawog and almost every other fan favorite.

-When writing the movie, the screenwriters had so much information that they were constantly putting things off for a second and third movie.

-There are three weeks left to shoot.

-Lively loved the role because she’s such a strong female character and it made her the coolest aunt ever. She’s even more excited to become a villain later in the series and kick butt.

-The characters in this movie were chosen because they were important to Hal Jordan’s history.

-Johns dodged several questions about other films in the DC Universe and the possibilities of other movies, or even a Justice League movie. He said that everything is basically riding on the success of Green Lantern.

-Reynolds ended up having to work very hard to get the role, including several screen tests.

-The relationship between Hal and his father is very important in the film.

-Each person on the panel was asked who they would come to Comic-Con dressed up as. Reynolds said a wookie, Lively said Harry Potter, Sarsgaard said Captain America, Strong said Sinestro and then Geoff Johns said “Ryan Reynolds.”

-A little boy in a Green Lantern shirt then asked Reynolds what it felt like to say the oath. So, to answer, Reynolds decided to just show him and recited the oath from memory. It was really awesome and after it was done, the camera in the hall cut back to the boy who had a great look of surprise on his face. They then gave him an autographed comic.

-“There’s always room” for Alan Scott in the Lantern films.

-Paralax, the physical manifestation of fear, is in the movie and Reynolds acted like he wasn’t supposed to reveal that. I believe it’s actually the main villain of the movie, even influencing Sarsgaard’s character.

-Each character talked about the fact that they got to do flying on some new kind of rig to make it look real. Aviation plays a huge part in the movie too, as both the main characters are pilots and the two of them flying against robot planes ends up being one of the huge action set pieces.

The panel then ended with Reynolds giving away a replica of the lantern ring, which he was wearing, it went to a girl who found a notice on the bottom of her seat.

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Green Lantern is a huge property and hugely important for both DC and Warner Bros. It’s being treated with respect and, even about a year away, it looks like it’s on the right path.

Green Lantern will be out June 17, 2011.

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