Ryan Reynolds On Why The ‘Green Lantern’ Movie Failed And Why ‘Deadpool’ Won’t
It’s usually a good idea for an actor not to bite the hand that feeds them. Unfortunately for DC, this was most definitely not the case for Ryan Reynolds. After the movie failed to meet critical and box office success, Reynolds made his disappointment in the film very evident in successive interviews. The actor expressed very little interest in joining the Justice League, and just like that, it seemed like his time in the superhero world was done.
Enter Deadpool, a property that has been on Fox’s back burner for some time now. Deadpool is finally getting some momentum with Ryan Reynolds attached as the lead. In an interview about Deadpool with Yahoo Movies, Reynolds was able to talk a bit about Green Lantern, and the simple reason why he thinks the movie failed.
“Well, script. When we shot Green Lantern, nobody auditioning for the role of Green Lantern was given the opportunity to read the script because the script didn’t exist. I’m not complaining about it — it was an opportunity of a lifetime, and if I were to go back and retrace my steps, I would probably do everything the exact same way,”
It’s such a simple thing, but big superhero movies are notorious for shooting without having completed a script yet, which that can irreparably send a film down a negative spiral. Green Lantern, unfortunately, was likely rushed out the door in order to start DC’s shared universe, and as a result, ended up crumbling the entire thing before it got started. Now instead of being only a few years behind Marvel, they are now eight years behind (with Batman V Superman scheduled for a 2016 release date).
This is a problem that Ryan Reynolds says will not plague Deadpool.
“We’ve had a script for three years. The script got leaked, and people even loved that. That says a lot — if you can create a script around a comic-book character that is directly within the canon of the character and be embraced. That’s a huge step in the right direction. I’ve since learned that a lot of superhero movies don’t really have a fully functioning draft of the screenplay ready until they’re already well into shooting.”
Sounds like Reynolds has taken his experience from Green Lantern to heart. Hopefully, DC and Warner Bros. have learned a thing or two from that flop as well, and similar mistakes won’t continue to plague their upcoming shared universe.
Do you agree with Reynolds? Was the script the weak point of the Green Lantern film? Let us know your thoughts below!
[Image Via news.entertainmentearth.com]
