There’ve been rumors for YEARS– the last of which was a high profile comedy-take starring Jack Black. Rumors of a Lantern in the now (thankfully) aborted JLA film had all of us arguing over WHICH Lantern it should even be.

Finally there is some official word. The script is being written by Marc Guggenhiem, who is experienced in comics (Wolverine, Amazing Spider-Man, The Flash) as well as TV, (he’s one of the execs/writers for the show Eli Stone). The film will be directed by Marc’s co-exec producer on Eli, Greg Berlanti.

Newsarama has an interview with Guggenhiem, where he had this to say about the GL film:

NRAMA: Can you tell us why you think the reaction will be positive?

MG: Because, it’s not only a respectful approach to the character, but it’s a loving approach to the entire mythos. So while there is this desire to be quiet and secretive and let the movie speak for itself, it’s hard for me, because I feel like I know — as a comic book fan — I know what I want to see in a comic book movie. And I know… look, I’m like everybody else. I vividly remember Tim Burton’s Batman movie. If you look back, there’s Superman: The Movie and the first Batman movie, and those two movies are the first big budget, superhero tent-pole movies.

And you kind of hold your breath because we’ve all seen the disastrous effect that the Batman TV series had on the respectability of comic books. So I actually feel like comic book movies need to be better than your average movie. I think it’s wonderful that we’re living in a time and I’m working at a time when comic books have really gained that respectability, but I don’t take it for granted. I don’t want us to lose mainstream respectability. I think comic books have come an incredibly far way and I want to make sure we don’t take a step back. I certainly don’t want my name on a movie that would take it back.

I think Green Lantern has the potential to be a very highly regarded superhero movie. We’re approaching it with such respect and such care. And really, it’s written to be a movie that everyone who’s not familiar with the character can enjoy, but there are so many nods to things that I know the fans love and care about that I think people will be very happy.

NRAMA: You said it’s the whole mythos. Can you tell us what characters might be included in that? We’ve been told it’s about Hal Jordan.

MG: I can confirm that it’s Hal Jordan, but I can’t really talk about anything else. I really wish I could, because there’s lots of stuff I want to brag about.
Green Lantern is a great, great character, and Greg and I are always talking at every step of the process about what makes Green Lantern great. We want to be focused on that. We always start all our meetings and story discussions and all of our scene discussions with, OK, what’s cool about Green Lantern? Why Green Lantern? And we always come from that place, which is an incredibly useful thing to do because you don’t want Green Lantern to be a generic superhero movie. You want it to be all the things you expect when you buy a $10 ticket that says Green Lantern on it.

Come join our conversation about the film HERE

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