Martin Campbell has been making the rounds on interviews for his new film
Edge of Darkness starring Mel Gibson. He has been giving us bits of information on next year's
Green Lantern as well. In a recent interview with Sci Fi Wire, the filmmaker relayed his test for a superhero:
"I think the thing to do is keep a sense of reality about it. Any time we talk about it, we sit in meetings, we have a cheese meter. We talk about de-cheesing any scene. So it's quite funny. We've all sort of got a sort of cheese meter where that becomes our sort of yardstick in terms of keeping it, giving it some sense of reality."
"So often in these superhero movies, nobody seems to get hurt. I remember seeing Wolverine, and he picks people up and hurls them 100 yards into a brick wall. These people, apparently unhurt, sort of get up and continue to fight just as strongly as they did before. Well, there's something absurd about that, in my opinion."
Campbell was set to film a remake of
The Birds originally done by Alfred Hitchcock but opted for Green Lantern instead. He also hinted that a trilogy could be in the works:
"Well, it's like Sam Raimi on Spider-Man, isn't it?"
One of the trickiest parts of GL will be showing off the ability of his power ring:
"Well, of course it's willpower drives the rings and forms the constructs via the ring." "I think he's the only superhero that does that."
It also appears that Peter Saarsgaard is not completely on board yet.
"I think he's contracted," Campbell said.
"I'm not sure if negotiations have been complete, but he's absolutely who we want."
UPDATE #1: In a recent interview with Collider.com, Campbell discusses the tone of the film -
“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.”
UPDATE #2: More info from Campbell about both Sinestro and Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire's turn to the 'dark side':
"I think it will stick closely to the origin story, but we all know Sinestro, for an example, is a character who goes over to the dark side, and of course, Carol, played by Blake Lively, in later versions becomes a bad guy as well, I think people will be able to see forward to the characters that in the comic went on to [become bad guys] ... but people will be ahead of us on all that I think."
Information courtesy of SciFi Wire, Collider and SuperHeroHype.com