When the news broke that Goldeneye and Casino Royale director Martin Campbell had been hired to helm Green Lantern, it inspired a huge amount of confidence in the DC Comics adaptation. The 2011 movie had a lot going in its favour, but was ultimately a disappointment.
Very little about it worked; the special effects were subpar, the story was all over the place, and most agreed that Ryan Reynolds was miscast as the heroic Hal Jordan (Blake Lively also struggled to impress as Carol Ferris).
Talking to The Direct, Campbell reflected on the experience of shooting Green Lantern and revealed the one thing he believes would have made the movie "great."
"Oh, it's fair enough. You know, look, people didn't like it. It failed, right? I was the director, so, you know, obviously I take the heat for it, which is fine," he said of the response to the movie. "But all I can say is, Ryan's a very funny guy, very fun. We actually had a terrific time on the film."
"I thoroughly enjoyed working with him and with Blake Lively. She was terrific as well. And he's always, he's got a great whip, you know, Ryan."
"In fact, I wish to God he had written the script, and it would have been great," Campbell added. "But he's always taking jabs at it. And fair enough. Though, listen, it was a big success for him because he met Blake Lively."
It almost sounds like Campbell is a little hurt by Reynolds constantly ridiculing Green Lantern. The actor has never really had anything positive to say about the experience, and while Reynolds certainly hasn't put the filmmaker on blast, he also hasn't shared any kind words about their collaboration.
Green Lantern ended with Sinestro donning a yellow ring, setting the stage for the debut of the fear-powered Sinestro Corps. While a sequel was tentatively planned, it never came to fruition, though we'd imagine Campbell planned to direct.
Earlier this year, he offered up a slightly more scathing assessment of what went wrong with Green Lantern. "I’m simply saying I don’t think that the script was great. I also felt that Parallax, our bad guy, was just a cloud with a face on it — literally, that’s all it was," Campbell stated. "I think while all the characters were part of the story...part of the comics basically, I think the story was left wanting."
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Angela Bassett, and Tim Robbins, Green Lantern was released to largely negative reviews in 2011. With a reported $200 million budget, it grossed only $237.2 million worldwide and was one of the biggest box office flops ever at the time.
Hal Jordan has been on the shelf ever since, but will return, played by Kyle Chandler, in DC Studios' upcoming Lanterns TV series on HBO.