With the premiere of Green Lantern rounding the corner, the fans excitement is certainly starting to get amped up, and here's something to make you guys even more excited until the movie is released. Over at the official website for Green Lantern they give you the option to check out some of the production notes for the film in which the cast and crew discuss everything from the CGI costume, the practical stunts, creating Oa, and the decision to use Geoff Johns' work as the basis for bringing the DC comics character to the big-screen.
The Decision To Use Geoff's Work As A Starting Point.
“Our film is the Hal Jordan origin story,” De Line says. “In telling it, we wanted to be faithful and true to the spirit and the canon of Green Lantern, and Geoff’s body of work provided an ideal place to start.” Just starting at the beginning, however, was not the only task at hand for writers Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. “Unlike Superman or Batman, who most people are familiar with, Green Lantern isn’t part of the everyday vernacular…yet,” Green smiles. “We wanted to hold the audience’s hand and guide them as they got to meet this great character and see a place like Oa for the first time.”
The Character Of Hal Jordan & Speaking The Oath.
“What I love about Hal is that there’s nothing extra-ordinary about the guy,” Reynolds says of the Corps’ unwitting draftee. “Of course, he’s not necessarily your average human being, in terms of what he does for a living, but for the most part, he’s not an exceptional example of his species. He’s just a guy, and a fairly irresponsible one at that, though there are, of course, reasons for his reckless behavior.”
“Hal is kind of a man-child,” De Line observes. “In a lot of ways, he’s never really grown up, due in part to losing his father when he was only 11. So he has a lot to overcome if he’s to get past those childhood fears and be the hero that everyone needs him to be. Ryan played all of those layers so well. You really feel what Hal is going through, and how it’s affecting him, at every moment.”
Perhaps Hal’s most transforming moment comes when he recites the Green Lantern
oath for the first time. Reynolds remarks, “He’s not really even cognizant of what he’s saying, it just sort of comes out of his mouth, almost unbeknownst to him.”
Both Campbell and Reynolds were very careful about how those integral lines would be portrayed. “Actually saying the oath for the first time was a little nerve-wracking,” the actor reveals, “because it’s something that a lot of people know inside-and-out, so I tried to handle it with kid gloves. The next time Hal says it, he understands the weight behind the words and that they’re part of his arsenal, so it needed a completely different approach.”
“I felt that the way to do those scenes was not to go all ‘Shakespeare’ or ‘StarSpangled Banner,’” Campbell adds, “but to honestly give it the import that the character’s mythology required. Each time, we treated it as just part of the scene, and I think it worked beautifully.”
The Character Of Carol Ferris.
“Hal and Carol have a bond that goes back to when they were kids,” Reynolds
relates. “There’s a great deal of history there, both good and bad. There are moments when they’re like magnets flipped the wrong way, pushing off one another, but you can always tell there’s something pulling them together, too.”
Blake Lively, who plays the part of the go-getter pilot-turned-businesswoman, offers, “Carol and Hal have an interesting dynamic, and Ryan and I had that same sort of playful banter.”
“Blake and Ryan had great chemistry right off the bat,” De Line confirms. “They really hit it off and I think that translated nicely onto the screen, whether the characters are in the heat of passion or the heat of battle.”
Lively adds, “Regardless of what they might have felt, or feel, for each other, Hal and Carol have always butted heads. She’s no damsel in distress. Like Hal, she’s a test pilot, and now that she’s about to inherit her father’s company, she’s in a position to really question him. And even after this unbelievable thing happens to him, she challenges him as much as he challenges her. If he can’t believe in himself, she’ll believe in him enough for the both of
them. She’s not about to let him walk away from this amazing opportunity.”
“Carol is the alpha female in the film, and she really helps to enrich the story’s emotional spine,” Campbell asserts. “She’s strong and capable and responsible—everything Hal is not when we first meet him. And Blake truly combined all those qualities in a completely natural way. She was just great."
“All hell breaks loose, but for Hector, it’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him.” This was pretty wild for me—stuff I’ve never done before. It was such a catharsis for Hector, finally being able to do whatever he wants, and it was really liberating for me, too."
“Even though he’s ultimately a villain, Hector is really sort of tragic, and the way Peter played him, he manages to evoke your sympathy,” Campbell says. “He’s an actor who savors playing the kind of role where he can completely transform into a complex, intriguing and even dark character, and Hector offered him that opportunity.”
The Character Of Sinestro.
“He doesn’t think humans are worthy, so he is extremely dismissive of Hal,
thinking him bound to be the weak link. Of course, a lot of those feelings exist because he doesn’t think Hal can ever live up to the memory of his former colleague, mentor and friend.”
“Mark Strong brought so much gravitas to the role of Sinestro,” De Line says. “Every time the camera rolled, he had great presence and commanded total attention and respect, which is precisely what was called for.”
The Cast & Martin Campbell.
“Our cast was truly ideal for this film, and the performances that
Martin got from them were beyond my greatest expectations. I look forward to seeing the audiences’ reactions when the characters they’ve loved for so long finally come to life on screen.”
Lively says, “When I first sat down with Martin to talk about the story and my
character, his enthusiasm made me really excited to be a part of this movie. Now, after being on set, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone work as hard as he does. That level of commitment makes everyone around him that much better.”
“Martin has such a distinct vision for big, adventurous filmmaking like this, you can’t help but be swept away with the possibilities,” Reynolds states. “I knew he was gonna light this thing on fire, and that’s one of the main reasons I wanted to be there.”
The World Of Green Lantern.
Co-producer and Green Lantern specialist Geoff Johns declares, “The first time I saw the production art, what they planned to do with the Corps and Oa and the Guardians, I was blown away. It was exactly what anyone who loves Green Lantern would dream of; my dreams for the film were realized when I saw it.”
“Think of the universe as a sphere divided into 3,600 sectors,” Johns explains. “Each sector is a kind of pie wedge, all pointing to Oa.”
“Even though Oa is completely digital,” Campbell says, “the design had to be organic and believable. And because it is alien, it couldn’t be Earth-like in any way; the only thing from Earth would be Hal, when he arrives there. Everything else had to be fantastical, while at the same time plausible.”
The Lantern & The Ring.
“I wanted it to be a bit mysterious, and to look like it originated from Oa,” the designer shares. “The whole sense of willpower being part of the emotional spectrum, and green representing that particular emotion on the color spectrum, became a component of the lantern, which reflects something of a prismatic lens motif,”
Campbell states that “because the ring is one of the most powerful weapons in our ‘world,’ and such an important part of who Green Lantern is, it was definitely worth the extra effort to get it right.”
The CGI Costume.
“The first thing I did was run to the local comic book store to do the research. “I wanted to reinvent that wheel a little. So I thought of the suit being organic in nature.”
Dickson was inspired by old anatomy drawings she had found by 16th-century illustrator and anatomist Vesalius. “That was a gift,” she says, “and from there I found my way forward.” “Ngila came up with the idea of going back to the physiology of the body,” Campbell offers. “It’s in the character’s DNA; it’s essentially a second skin that follows his own musculature, not something he slips on from the outside.”
Having never executed her craft in the computer world before, Dickson took the leap, initially creating a 3D digital model from which to work. “From that, I completely understood the costume and was confident that we could make it happen,” she says.
“I am so glad that Ngila didn’t choose to go the traditional route, because her ideas were exactly what this character and this film needed,” Berlanti affirms. “And they came at just the right moment—as technology finally caught up with design—and we could render this kind of costume successfully.”
Flying.
“I know that going up in a fighter jet sounds pretty phenomenal, but I have a deep fear of flying,” Ryan Reynolds confesses. “So in that respect, I was sort of shadowing Hal’s story by having really no choice but to overcome my fear." The first time Hal is transported to Oa, he is essentially shot through space. So was Reynolds—and without a rehearsal. Campbell set up the shot using a stuntman, then filmed Reynolds’ first attempt in order to capture his—and Hal’s—naturally terrified reaction.
“We filmed the sequence in downtown New Orleans, using cables and a 95-foot
crane,” Reynolds remembers. “They fired me up into the air with the cameraman attached just above me. I think the rate of speed was around 60 feet-per-second, so it was a real quick ride, maybe three seconds, tops. It was probably the scariest experience of my life, but it was also pretty amazing.”
“A lot of flight in superhero movies has traditionally been done on a soundstage, against a greenscreen, but we really wanted to try to make it more realistic, to do as much as possible in a real environment,” stunt coordinator Gary Powell says. “It helped that Ryan was very willing to do anything we could allow him to do.”
Be Sure To Click The Source For A Tonne More Interviews & Production Notes.
Green Lantern Hits Theaters June 17th.