Just imagine this is a WB exec offering a check. Let's see how many zeros there are before we count on anything...
The ring of power (the MADE IN OA one, not the MADE IN MT. DOOM one) may have to select another human from which the will of the lantern can spill forth, as Martin Campbell could be interpreted as saying he’s not planning on returning to the director’s chair for Green Lantern 2.
This is another case of an ultimately meaningless throwaway quote being taken as something much more, though it is admittedly true that Campbell doesn’t often do sequels, and when he does they tend to be after very long hiatuses. That just barely makes this worth acknowledging. Regardless, let’s take a look at what ComicBookMovie has heard from the July Issue of Total Film.
Inevitably, chat turns to the possibility of follow-ups. Campbell admits it will be nice to have all the backstory and complicated rules of the character already taken care of. “This film has become the instruction manual if they do any further ones. It’s what we call pipe laying,” he says. Not that he has plans to return for a sequel – like Bond, he loves ’em and leaves ’em.”
Okay yeah, I think the pipe-laying comment is really the most important chunk too, but what’s got everyone hot and bothered is the implication that the film is simply set-up for a proverbial “they” to continue, and then indirect assumption from the magazine that he “has no plans to return.”
OK, so?
The fucking thing hasn’t come out yet! Of course Warner Brothers is going to get the cogs moving for a sequel- they’ve been working on this one so furiously down to the last minute that it would be foolish to do otherwise. If this first entry flops (it won’t) then you can scrap it all (not going to happen), and if it does well enough (it will) then you proceed (which they’ll do.) And of course Campbell isn’t going to publicly count on a new gig, but once an opening weekend happens and Warner Brothers slides the post-it note with the stupid huge number across the table and Campbell’s eyes bulge before he swallows and says he’s gotta think about it… After that I’ll listen to a word he has to say. Besides, in the unlikely case the film does tank, there’s no way Campbell will want to look like he was going to do anything else but move on.
While it’s far from a sure thing, the returns on Thor suggest that Lantern will at least open, as audiences are still receptive of new heroes, and that they don’t have to be A-list or straightforward to make a buck. Whether the film will do any notable business beyond that is hard to judge presently, but for now everyone’s keeping their eyes peeled for those opening weekend numbers…
(via Collider)
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