Sci-Fi Storm

Despite the poor response to 2011’s Green Lantern movie, and no sign of any green-clad characters in the upcoming Justice League movie, it appears that Warner Bros still has the willpower to move forward with a sequel in some form, assigning David Goyer (the Batman Dark Knight movies, Batman Vs. Superman) and Justin Rhodes (Fantastic Voyage) to work on a script according to a report from Deadline.

According to the report, the script, based on a story from Goyer and DC story maven Geoff Johns will focus on two of Earth’s Green Lanterns – Hal Jordan, who was the first human Lantern (and played by Ryan Reynolds in the 2011 movie), and John Stewart, Jordan’s backup, a Marine veteran and the first African American superhero in the DC Comics universe.

A director has yet to be announced as would a cast. It would seem doubtful that Reynolds would reprise the Jordan character given the results of the first movie and the fact that he’s currently working on Deadpool 2.

Warner Bros is very busy the next several years, announcing today it’s release slate. And it features both dipping back in the well that works as well as trying to out-superhero Marvel.

Warner Bros.’ Chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara spoke at the Time Warner shareholder’s meeting and laid out a lot of their studio plans for 2016-2020.

First up is the expected Harry Potter spinoff, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, which is currently being set at three separate films, set to release in 2016, 2018, and 2020.

Next, after the HUGE success of The LEGO Movie, the already-announced sequel has been set for 2018, but it will be preceded by two others: Ninjago (2016), based on the Cartoon Network series, and The LEGO Movie: Batman (2017), a spin-off that follows the rather stuck-up (and not to mention, blocky) take on the character from the first movie.

And then there is the world of DC Comics…we’re already waiting for Batman vs. Superman (2016) and Justice League (2017), but Wonder Woman will indeed get her own standalone movie before Justice League (starring Gal Gadot, who will be introduced in BvS), 2018 will see The Flash (starring Ezra Miller, and apparently not connected at all to the just-started TV series) and Aquaman (with Stargate Atlantis and Game of Thrones Jason Momoa finally confirmed).

2019 will give us Shazam and a second Justice League movie, and in 2020 Warner Bros will try and get Green Lantern off to Oa again with a reboot after the disappointing Ryan Reynolds effort.

Shuffled in are two other titles, Suicide Squad in 2016 and Cyborg in 2020. And apparently this isn’t even ALL of the planned DC movies. Yikes!

DC finally appears to be gearing up to go head to head with Marvel. According to the returning Nikke Finke, DC has set a release plan that explains the delay of Batman vs. Superman – to better launch the upcoming Justice League, DC’s answer to The Avengers. It also includes a few new items, such as Shazam (a.k.a. Captain Marvel), the long-gestating Wonder Woman, and a Flash/Green Lantern crossover that reportedly will NOT feature Ryan Reynolds (honestly, I think it gets a bad rap…I enjoyed it) and not sure how it will deal with the upcoming WB series.

The reported schedule is:

May 2016 – Batman vs. Superman
July 2016 – Shazam
Xmas 2016 – Sandman
May 2017 – Justice League
July 2017 – Wonder Woman
Xmas 2017 – Flash and Green Lantern team-up
May 2018 – Man Of Steel 2

In addition, Justice League will feature cameos that will launch further standalone movies, but those are still being negotiated with potential stars.

Despite the lackluster performance of Green Lantern, Warner Bros. is still planning on a sequel, believing the franchise is worth pursuing. The studio is “somewhat disappointed”, with the movie falling 66% this weekend and a total cume so far of $89.3 million. Given that it took about $200 million to produce without including its extensive marketing costs, “somewhat” seems a bit light, but according to Dan Fellman, WB President of domestic distribution, such “fanboy” films see a similar drop off.

The only way I see a sequel making it is if they find a way to cut the production costs…which likely means less alien scenes and locations.