Is $150 Million Enough To Replicate The Success of "Iron Man" for DC's "Green Lantern"?

By: Garrett Thomas Posted: April 17, 2009 Filed under: Official Info

Well here we are again, only it's not in Marvel's playground. Here we have another semi-recognizable comic book adaptation being made from the DC Comics workshop using a similar budget. Pre-production begins July at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney with a reported budget of $150 million. Is this enough though for an effects laden film? Iron Man may have been deceptively easier on the CGI strain than most films of its ilk do to the mechanics of having an entirely enclosed human being. For a film like Green Lantern there's going to be much more work in terms of creating a seamless transition between practical and computer generated effects. In regards to story quality I have complete faith in Warner Bros., having been behind the wildly successful Batman franchise reboots which had similar budgets at $150 million (Batman Begins) and $185 million (The Dark Knight).

This is a good opportunity for DC to get another solid superhero film out and capitalize on any shortcomings Marvel's line of films have had. There's plenty of room for improvement on many of them, although Spider-Man and Iron Man leave a very small margin of error in both the quality of writing and film direction (as well as a solid supporting cast). Rumors speculate that Chris Pine is in line for the title role as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. Perhaps we'll know more after the U.S. release of Star Trek, in which he fills the shoes of James T Kirk. I'm certainly a tad excited to see what DC can do to begin to catch up to Marvel's plethora of film adaptations. But where as some of their moves might have been deemed too hasty, I think DC can afford to take the time to ensure quality over quantity.