It appears that work has started on a movie adaptation of DC's comicbook hero Green Lantern. But the latest news has raised questions over who is helming the project. On 4th August "Production Weekly" started listing Green Lantern as being in development, with a release date in 2010. The trade magazine lists the producers as Donald De Line and Andrew Haas, with Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Michael J Green down as writers.

 

According to the synopis printed in the publication "Each sector of space is protected by a Green Lantern, possessing a power ring that uses a powerful green energy to do anything within the limits of the user's imagination and willpower. When the Green Lantern assigned to this sector of space finds himself dying on planet Earth, he tells the ring to find a suitable successor. The chosen replacement, hot-shot test pilot Hal Jordan, finds himself with a new job he never expected."

Curiously, no director is mentioned in the listing. Co-writer Greg Berlanti has been attached to the project since last year. and is thought to have wanted the director's chair as well. But it's being reported that studio chiefs feel a big-screen comicbook sci-fi movie is "too big" for Berlanti, whose experience is so far confined to TV drama productions like Dawson's Creek and Brothers & Sisters.

 
Most rumours and reports are suggesting that George Miller (Mad Max, Babe, Happy Feet), who had been set to direct a Justice League movie, might now be taking on the Green Lantern project instead. Although George Miller has been quoted as saying Justice League was still going ahead.

A script for the Green Lantern film has already leaked out and has been reviewed by movie site IESB.

According to IESB, the characters include: Hal Jordan who becomes Earth's Green Lantern, his father Martin Jordan, love interest Carol Ferris, Kilowog (an alien who trains new recruits of the Green Lantern Corps), Tomar-Re (an alien scientist who is also a Green Lantern in his own space sector), Abin Sur (the dying alien who crashlands on Earth and whose power-ring is passed on to Hal Jordan), Thaal Sinestro (who instructs Hal in using the ring and later becomes an archvillain), The Guardians of the Universe (a race of immortals who set up the Green Lantern Corps to police the universe), and villains Legion and Hector Hammond. Cameos for the fanboys apparently include Superman's human identity, the mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent.

The IESB reviewer concludes that the film "...has the potential to be bigger than Iron Man or maybe even The Dark Knight."