We here at the Bucket love movies based on comic books! So we thought we would tackle the casting of a movie that is not being filmed only speculated about: The Green Lantern. As a kid I dug superheroes especially; Superman, Spider-Man and the Green Lantern. Green Lantern was my father's favorite, and when you are a kid who idolizes his father that hero becomes your favorite too. That particular Green Lantern was Hal Jordan. This guy is a pilot in the army, kind of a Chuck Yeager type always flying by the seat of his pants, a hot dog who doesn't know fear. He receives this powerful weapon in the power ring but he always leaves it at home while flying a million dollar death trap thousands of feet off the ground. Man without Fear indeed.
I heard a rumor a while back that Warner Brothers was developing a film with Jack Black. To my horror I discovered they were developing this film about the Green Lantern. As much as I enjoy Jack Black I think casting him as the Green Lantern would be incredibly ignorant and a mis-casting of biblical proportions. So let's see if we can help Warner Brothers out and get them a cast for a kick ass sci-fi Green Lantern film.Hal Jordan/aka. Green Lantern
There are five prominent Green Lantern's that you could do a film on. Alan Scott, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardener and of course Hal Jordan. They are great characters and definitely stand on their own, but none of them hold a candle to Jordan. He's the signature Green Lantern and for the reasons I said above he we will be the primary for today. My first choice would be Nathan Fillion from Buffy, Firefly and most recently Driven. He's a solid actor, with a good sense of humor, he can kick ass and this guy is completely fearless. Another choice could be Jason Patric, although he is a little older I think he could be an interesting choice. Billy Crudup has the chisled jaw and the acting chops to take on the duality of Hal and his alter ego Parallax if they so choose to go in that direction. Dennis Quaid would have been the best choice for Hal Jordan, unfortunately age is an issue. Maybe he could play Hal's dad.
Sinestro
An alien from the planet Korugar. Sinestro is a weird looking dude, he's magenta in color and he has a giant noggin with a David Niven mustache. Very hard to make this fella look cool so you would need an interesting actor to play this guy. Sinestro was apart of the Green Lantern Corp until Hal Jordan had him booted cause he used his powers to become a dictator over his world. I think Jeffrey Combs (as pictured) would be a great choice he's played weird and evil aliens before, like in Star Trek and Babylon 5 so the makeup wouldn't be a problem for him. He's a great character actor and could really build on the role. Another possibility would be Adrien Brody, he's got the weird part down and given his roles in The Jacket and The Village he can certainly play psychotic.
Carol Ferris aka. Star Sapphire
Carol is Hal Jordan's hot girlfriend. She also runs Ferris Aircraft where Hal gets his planes. Now in the comics Carol later becomes Star Sapphire a big boobed villainess that is obsessed with defeating GL. I think Scarlett Johanson would be great as either just Carol or, if they wanted to, she would look gorgeous if they put her in the Star Sapphire outfit.Kilowog
Kilowog is a member of the Green Lantern Corps. He is an alien from Bolovax Vik, he is also the key instructor for all new Green Lanterns. Now you can do one or two things with Kilowog you can either suit up an actor in rubber which I'm iffy on or you can completely CGI this guy which if you look at the picture may be recommended. Since I'm more inclined to go with CG, I'll give you a few actors that could fill in for the voice. Now Dennis Haysbert, who played President Palmer in 24, is also the voice of Kilowog on the Animated Justice League and I think he's obviously a good choice. He's got a nice deep commanding voice. Carl Lumbly, another veteran of Justice League and he also played Dixon for five years on Alias would scare the crap out of any wannabe Lantern Poozers.
The Guardians and Ganthet
They are little blue guys that run the Green Lantern Corp, kind of like little blue Yodas. You could probably do CGI with them but if you have to use a human I like Vern Troyer as Ganthet, the last of the Guardians. Warwick Davis would be good as well. Only little people will do and that is a short list.
John Stewart
It would be asking a bit much to put all of the Green Lantern's in this one movie or even a trilogy but since it's not real I say, why not one more. John Stewart, an architect and former military man he was given the ring as a replacement for Hal Jordan. I think I've gotta go with Chiwetel Ejiofor (pic below) for first place. He's young and fit and he's a great actor. He was nice and complex in Serenity, Children of Men and in his latest role Talk to Me. I think Jamie Foxx and Tyreese Gibson could be great choices as well. Laurence Fishburne would be fantastic but he might be a bit old.
Guy Gardner
The comic relief and the muscle of the Green Lantern Corp all wrapped into one. There are a few people that could pull off Gardner but if they were to do it at all I would want only Dennis Leary. He's got the smart mouth and the kick ass attitude that would make Guy a really fun addition to the films. I didn't really add Kyle Rayner cause that may be one Green Lantern too many but if they were to be daring and use all four Green Lanterns I would say grab former Cyclops James Marsden.
Mongul
The last big baddie other than a CGI Parallax which of course we won't really cast. Mongul is another alien from the planet Warworld who gets the distinct honor of destroying Coast City causing Hal Jordan to flip out and go to the dark side. He's big and he's yellow so we need someone who can take up space but look convincing under heavy prosthetic. My personal fav would be Michael Ironside (pic below)he's no stranger to evil fuckers like the one he played in Total Recall. He also provides the commanding voice of Darkseid on Justice League.
As far as the Director goes Warner should shoot big. It is a Comic book movie but it's also deep into sci-fi territory and there isn't anyone I would want more than Ridley Scott. His resume says it all. Blade Runner, Alien, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. He could make this a massive intergalactic film while simultaneously building strong character arcs for each of the vastly different Lanterns. I totally believe Ridley Scott could pull this off.I think this film would work best as a trilogy starting off with Hal Jordan fighting Sinestro in the first film and at the end his lantern becomes infected by Parallax. For the second film the evil Mongol could destroy Coast City, GL's hometown, causing the now infected Hal Jordan to cut loose and become the evil Parallax. You can introduce John Stewart as the second Green Lantern tasked with taking Hal Jordan down. At the end you can have Hal redeeming himself by re-igniting the sun and sacrificing his life in the process. For the third film you can skip over The Spectre storyline from the comics and have one of the Guardians, maybe Ganthet, revive Hal Jordan when the Green Lantern Corp needs him the most. The reborn hero is asked to stop Sinestro once more except this time his evil nemesis has help. Hal and the GL Corp duking it out with Sinestro and his fear mongering Sinestro Corps. The special effects budget would rival Pirates of the Caribbean and Spider-Man 3. It would be the most beautiful thing these geek eyes would ever see.
No comments:
Post a Comment