A few days ago, I got to sit down with director Martin Campbell for an exclusive interview on his new film Edge of Darkness (which I really liked). While I'll be posting our full conversation next week, I wanted to get what he said about Green Lantern online now as everyone is talking about it.
Since all the big casting has been announced, I decided to use my limited time to discuss what kind of tone he would be going for and is there any chance Green Lantern might be in 3D. If you were wondering if Green Lantern would be like Batman Begins or Iron Man, here's Campbell's answer:
"It will be much more in the tone of Iron Man. It's got to be. Certainly not Batman Begins, which is a pretty dark movie. No, he's the Hal Jordan character who's the sort of shoot from the hip, irresponsible kind of cocky test pilot if you will. In fact, the character seems to be the least likely to be chosen as Green Lantern. Well, of course that's the fun of it. So no, it'll be much more like Iron Man. So it'll have one foot in reality if you see what I mean."
He also told me Green Lantern is going to another planet! More after the jump:
Regarding 3D, Campbell said "[Warner Bros. and I] haven't really talked about it." But with the worldwide success of Avatar, it's hard to imagine every studio not re-examining their big budget properties to see if they can release it in 3D and make a few extra dollars.
Another bit of news that excited me was Campbell telling me Grant Major is the production designer on Green Lantern. He did a small indie you may have heard of called The Lord of the Rings.
Finally, while a number of superhero movies have been made over the past decade, Campbell told me something that should excite every comic book fan: Green Lantern goes to another planet in the movie! While I don't want to guess where he's going, the fact that we're leaving Earth in the film means we are in for a very cool ride in June of 2011. Here's what we talked about regarding Green Lantern. Again, look for the full interview next week:
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Collider: A lot of people are really looking forward to Green Lantern and they're very curious about what kind of tone you're going for. Is it more in the vein of say an Iron Man, that fun kind of movie? Is it more Batman Begins?
Martin Campbell: Oh no, it will be much more in the tone of Iron Man. It's got to be. Certainly not Batman Begins, which is a pretty dark movie. No, he's the Hal Jordan character who's the sort of shoot from the hip, irresponsible kind of cocky test pilot if you will. In fact, the character seems to be the least likely to be chosen as Green Lantern. Well, of course that's the fun of it. So no, it'll be much more like Iron Man. So it'll have one foot in reality if you see what I mean.
Are you kind of surprised about the buzz...did you know when you signed onto the project that there was going to be this kind of scrutiny with the casting, with what you guys are going to do or are you sort of...I mean you've handled Bond, so I'm sure you're used to that kind of limelight, but did you know what you're getting yourself into with Green Lantern?
Campbell: I think so. You learn by degrees. You know, when I first took on the job, I did it because I'd never done a superhero movie before and secondly he's just...he's a psychological character. His powers are psychological. They're to do with will and the enemy is fear and so on and so forth, as opposed to Superman who sort of runs into a phone box, gets the old spandex on and off he goes. So he's a much more complex character and also again, it's the origin story, which again is the Carol Ferris character, Carl Ferris. There's Sinestro, Kilowog, Tomar-Re. All these characters and all who appear in the movie. So it's such a kind of eclectic range of characters and also it's the only superhero to go to another planet, so you're creating at least another world that...and none of them do.
It has to be cool for you to be creating what will most likely be a big franchise for Warner Brothers, setting your sort of your take on what's going to be the future.
Campbell: It is, you know? It is fun and even creating the lamps and how you...you know what I mean? It's amazing just how much attention to detail you have to have. You know?
Totally.
Campbell: How do you create the lamp? What's the origin of the lamp? You've got the guardians. You've got the central battery. You've got all this stuff that you've got to deal with, you know? And we fortunately have a terrific production designer in Grant Major who did Lord of the Rings, so it's a good....you know.
Have there been any discussion about with the advent of 3D becoming so popular about doing Green Lantern in 3D, or are you thinking about 3D for your other future projects?
Campbell: Maybe. I mean Cameron's raised the bar on all that, so I think what he's done with Avatar will make every studio now sit up and look at the box office from 3D and the fact that audiences loved it and it's such a hit. I think he will...and of course they can do it in post now, you know 3D is so...even though we haven't really talked about it, I'm sure it'll come up.
