This past week brought big news on the cinematic Green Lantern front. It was announced that Warner Bros. and DC Comics have made some big moves in development of 2020's Green Lantern Corps, and have hired a writing team to take care of the script. Fans obviously have high expectations for the project - particularly after the debacle that was the 2011 effort - but one filmmaker who is a bit pessimistic about the feature is Warcraft director Duncan Jones.
With the Green Lantern news spreading this past weekend, the filmmaker took to his personal Twitter account to explain why he has a few issues with some of the inherent elements of the sci-fi hero. Specifically, he doesn't quite understand why every ring-bearer isn't completely unstoppable, given their access to a weapon that allows them to legitimately conjure anything they want. Furthermore, he believes the best way to tell the story would be to focus on a protagonist who has to overcome his own limited imagination in order to fulfill his destiny as the titular space cop. He wrote:
Much like those who criticize Superman for being invincible and therefore boring, this isn't an entirely new complaint about Green Lantern - and it's completely applicable to some of the early Hal Jordan stories from the comics (where the creations of green energy were legitimately limited). That being said, artists and writers in the more modern era have crafted new and creative plots and concepts that have significantly advanced the character - including the idea of multiple rings from the emotional spectrum - and have helped Green Lantern overcome some of the inherent narrative flaws.
That on the table, if Duncan Jones wants to read about a hero who can only conjure original ideas with every use of power, he should look into the Marvel comic The Runaways - and specifically Nico Minoru. She wields a magical weapon called The Staff Of One, and while it is immensely powerful, it has the caveat of only being able to cast a spell a single time. As a result, carrying it requires a certain amount of originality and creativity.
We may never see Duncan Jones' vision of a Green Lantern movie on the big screen, but for now David Goyer and Justin Rhodes are making 2020's Green Lantern Corps as a Lethal Weapon-inspired buddy movie centering on Hal Jordan and John Stewart. We don't know much about the project beyond that, but you can be sure that you will find regular updates about the production here on Cinema Blend as they become available.
