Warner Brothers announced today their plans to release Green Lantern: The Beginning, a prequel to the Green Lantern movie currently in theatres, in July of this year. This will mark the first time a reboot is playing in theatres alongside the original.
The movie will be a complete reboot of the franchise and one Warner Brothers exec. had this to say, “We listened to the fans, the original Green Lantern sucked. It was time for a reboot, a fresh take, and that’s what we’ve got with Green Lantern: The Beginning.”
When questioned on how the studio managed to pull together a reboot so quickly, the exec responded, “Well, the timing really couldn’t have been better. A lot of footage from the first film was still useable, and there are quite a few deleted scenes from the original that made it into the prequel. Thanks to our fantastic staff and brilliantly creative editing team we really only had to shoot one or two new sequences. One, actually.”
Ryan Reynolds is expected to reprise his role as Hal Jordan.
While the success of the reboot remains to be seen, early predictions are pinning it around 250 million domestically. Hitting this number may in large part hinge on the effectiveness of WB’s marketing efforts, although according to the head of marketing, some of their work is already done for them. She commented, “In a lot of ways, the first film is just one extended trailer for the reboot. Also, after seeing the first film, we’re thinking that many fans will have such a bad taste in their mouth that they will have to see the second, just to get rid of it.”
On a related note, Warner Brothers has scheduled a press conference for next Monday where they will have “Exciting news for fans of the Lantern.” An announcement regarding the highly-anticipated third Green Lantern film is expected.
Mike says:
The sad truth is I can see this actually happening!