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The IESB has reviewed Robert Smigel's Green Lantern screenplay and the verdict is that the story is everything that true fans of the character have been dreading. As many believed when they first heard Jack Black was attached to play the cosmic superhero two years back, Smigel's script dispenses with grounding the superhero in  believability and instead parodies the genre as well as turns the wielder of the ring into a out-and-out buffoon. Instead of any notion of drama we're given slapstick at every conceivable opportunity. "It's really hard to believe that Robert Smigel got paid to write this script, it is horrendous and he does not understand nor respect the legion of fans of the Green Lantern," writes Robert Sanchez in his appraisal of the Green Lantern screenplay.

Smigel's story doesn't use any of the established men who have worn the Green Lantern ring in the DC Comics' universe. Instead we're introduced to a new character, a man named Jud Plato who is selected to be given the power ring because he is a contestant on a Fear Factor-like game show. As Sanchez describes it, "The Green Light from the ring witnesses Jud eating a coyote during the competition, you read right, a coyote. He is eating the entire animal. The ring's green light had traveled around the world looking for the right person, after a selection that included a soldier, a legless mountain climber and so on, the best he finds is Jud Plato because he is eating an 'animal raw', great."

Later on in the story Jud is taken to Oa where he is given an explanation as to what the Green Lanterns are as well as trained in how to use the ring. Fans of the comic will recognize many of the alien Green Lanterns seen on Oa including Sinestro, Tomar-Re, Salakk and Kilowog, the corps' instructor. Unfortunately the story remains stuck in goofy comedy mode and never rises to treat the superhero material with the realism seen in Sony's Spider-Man or 20th Century Fox's X-Men films. 

"The Green Lantern and their fans deserve better than this script and so do studio stockholders," Sanchez sums up. "After the disappointments that the studios have suffered this summer with some of their tent poles, the last thing you need is a moderate size special effects film to help tank a genre that has been so profitable."

While appearing as a guest on the Cort and Fatboy radio program, actor Jack Black was asked the question if he was still interested in starring in a Green Lantern movie. Black told the duo that he was still keen on playing the emerald defender and was waiting on a new draft of the screenplay to come in. He said that he had hopes that the story would be good and that he would be able to live up to the character.

The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly would seem to shoot down the rumor that comedian Jack Black had been cast to play Green Lantern in the upcoming Warner Bros. movie based on the cosmic DC Comics superhero. In an article focusing on upcoming movie projects based on comic book characters, Black himself ends the gossip by being quoted as saying, "I took a meeting with someone who has the rights, but there's no script. I'd be interested if there was a really good writer attached, but it's far from a [done deal]."

Entertainment Weekly asked Jack Black about the rumor that he has been signed to play a portly Green Lantern. "I took a meeting with someone who has the rights, but there's no [Green Lantern] script," he told the weekly. "I'd be interested if there was a really good writer attached, but it's far from a [done deal]."

EW then asked DC Comics' vice president of marketing and sales what he thought the chances were of seeing Black starring as the emerald protector of sector 2814. "I live in no fear of ever seeing that movie," commented DC's Bob Wayne. Some people took Wayne's comment as meaning that the exec wouldn't be afraid to see a Green Lantern movie starring Jack Black but we're reading it the opposite way: it's never going to happen.

If there's one thing that we can take away from this next odd story it's that it certainly supports the theory of casting against type.

Ain't It Cool News reports that funnyman Jack Black (School of Rock) has been signed to play Green Lantern in the Warner Bros. movie of the same name. "Jack Black has closed his deal. He will be playing Green Lantern in a film that has been described as a 'zany comedy version a la The Mask,'" reports Moriarty, a.k.a Drew McWeeny, the site's west coast reporter. "All rights to the DC comic have been worked out as well, so you can expect to start hearing more about this project in the months ahead."

Jack Black as Green Lantern? Has Warner Bros. fallen into the Bizarro universe??

Not really. Back in the early 1980s, before Tim Burton sold Warners on a dark and gritty Batman, one of the ideas kicked around was to make a new Batman movie as a flat-out comedy. At one point Eddie Murphy, then riding sky high from his success with Beverly Hills Cop, was a contender for the film. In some alternate Earth that movie got made but here in this dimension the Batman film we got in 1989 starred Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight. Some of you may even remember the controversy that erupted amongst fans at the time Keaton was announced for the part. However, the key difference between 1989's Batman and the Jack Black take on Green Lantern is that the first film wasn't tweaked to become a comedy. In the DC Comics universe, the Green Lantern is played strictly as a serious hero.

Stranger things have happened in Hollywood...

Well that didn't take long. Coming Attractions was contacted by two members of Producers Chair, a website that allows people to "release" virtual movies. One of the site's past archived movies is, you guessed it, "Green Lantern: In Brightest Day", "starring" Jim Caviezel and "directed" by Gregory Hoblit. Posters for the mock movie were even created for this make believe movie.

We assume someone must have come across the posters or the website and thought that a real Green Lantern movie was happening.

Something doesn't smell right about this scoop. First off, it doesn't come from someone who was secure enough to tell us their identity, so we can't vouch for their claims. Second, if we had a nickel every time we received an email telling us about some "big" scoop that they heard from a "friend" who works in the "business", we'd be financing our own films at this point!

But crazier stuff has happened. A different little birdie told us about someone from NBC's ER starring in the next Batman picture and we didn't believe it for a second, and look at what happened there. For now take the following new Green Lantern scoop with a big dose of salt...but also ask yourself the question "What new superhero films does Warner Bros. have in development if Wolfgang Petersen isn't in any rush to make Superman vs. Batman soon?"

Here's the scoop that was sent to us:

"My friend's dad works at Warner Bros. and he heard that Gregory Hoblit is in talks to direct and Jim Caviezel is in the front for the title character and the working title is Green Lantern: In Brightest Day."

Anonymous or not, they're 100% right about this. The URL www.greenlanternthemovie.com leads to the main page of the Warner Brothers website. A Whois domain search reveals reveal that the domain was purchased last August, so if you were thinking there's been some recent activity on this project, you're mistaken. Looks like it was just pre-emptive move by the WB to secure the domain name, just in case this movie ever does happen.

True to our word, we gave the offices of View Askew a shout to see if we could get that confirmation or denial that Kevin Smith would be writing the Green Lantern movie shortly as yesterday's scooper reported to us. Unfotunately our call wasn't returned before the close of business, but we'll try and get that official word from The Kevin if we can.

But we're siding that Kevin is not penning a new script for any proposed Green Lantern movie. We know that Smith is gung ho about writing some Green Arrow comics, and as soon as we read yesterday's e-mail that Smith would be writing a GL movie, we immediately thought some wires may have been crossed in that Toronto auditorium. That's why were hoping for an official confirm/denial from Smith himself, but for the moment we have the comments of someone else who attended the same Toronto panel:

"I too was at the comic con on the weekend and Kevin Smith did not say what Thanatos reports. He said Warner had approached him about it, but he passed on it. What he said was that he was going to be writing Green Arrow the comic book for DC and that he was going to get started on THAT sometime in the next few months. Tell that guy to check his hearing." [Anonymous.]

That's why we believe that our Thanatos scooper may have misheard what Smith said at the con; we're feeling pretty confident that if Smith said he was writing the script for Green Lantern all the various Kevin Smith shrine sites would be all over the story. After a quick check around some of the major sites tonight we can report that the story isn't being repeated anywhere else...except in postings from curious Smith fans who read about it here and want to know if it's true or not. As we said, we're working on getting that official word, but for the moment assume that Smith is not writing the script for GL.

Last weekend  a scooper by the name of Thanatos attented the Toronto comic book/sci-fi convention and hear writer/director Kevin Smith speak at a panel. While discussing Smith's latest work Dogma and his thoughts on his abandoned Superman Lives script, he apparently also mentioned this movie project. "Smith also said he will for certain write the script for the Green Lantern," our scooper tells us Smith said to the audience. "He said will get started on it in the next few months, before the new year."

This harkens back to when we first launched this film's page back at the start of '98, and a rumor that was making the rounds that Smith was going to pen the GL screenplay. That was subsequently proved to be false by 'Mr. Clark', and we know that for a fact because he showed us his report. Perhaps things changed, but you know what the best thing to do is? Why not call the man up yourself and ask him if it's a vicious rumor or not, right?

Sounds like a plan. We'll meet you back here in a few days with the results.

A scooper that chose the name Mr. Clark informed us that this superhero film project is presently being developed by Tony Ludwig and Alan Riche (Mouse Hunt). Word is that the duo want to reinvent the comic book. The movie would begin similar to the comic's origin for the Silver Age Lantern: a crashed alien spaceship contains a wonderous lantern-shaped object that empowers its user with fantastic powers. But in the movie's take the lantern derives its abilities from a sort of nanotechnology, manipulating matter on a subatomic level. As our scooper said to us, "In other words, The Mask with physics." Work on the script continues ("floundering" is how our scooper called it). Kevin Smith was never considered to write this project.

Our investigations into the status of this movie adaptation of the DC Comics hero have turned up some pieces of information. According to one of our sources that work in show business, the state of this project is "on life support." A Green Lantern movie treatment had been written by writer Alex Zamm but apparently that take has been kicked to the curb. Zamm's story included, as our source attests, "as many outlandish hammers, boxing gloves and giant bugs bunnies as possible." There's also a rumor floating around that Clerks writer/director Kevin Smith has been asked to write a new screenplay.