…at least, it believes in the first $53m dollars worth of you.

It seems most commenters have been skeptical at best about the prospect of a second Green Lantern getting off the ground, perhaps expecting WB to promise a follow up and then quietly ignore it until everyone forgets. WB head Jeff Robinov is still drawing attention to the franchise though, as he assurea the LA Times that it will go forward, despite its mere $150m worldwide total. Along with that, he says some dumb things and some less dumb things:

“We had a decent opening so we learned there is an audience… To go forward we need to make it a little edgier and darker with more emphasis on action…. And we have to find a way to balance the time the movie spends in space versus on Earth.”

Yes and no, buddy. I think many would agree the first film hit the right tone (however sloppily) well enough, with the bigger problems being generally shitty plot screenwriting, under-written characters, and yes, poor balance of the terrestrial and cosmic sequences. So I’m glad everyone at WB can see the plain fact that Green Lantern is a half-baked, off-balance mess, but “edgier and darker” isn’t going to do shit. I would think the immediate disdain for the Spider-Man reboot trailer would hint that low-key lighting and angst is not necessarily the path to good buzz (further enforced by the strengthening impression of Spider-Man from Comic Con, where the footage wasn’t all dourness and melancholy).

As much as we might hate to admit it, going forward with Lantern is still a natural move. Clearly they’d need to cheapen production a bit, but you can build a more successful sequel on top of modest start. We’re just now seeing studios introduce these more esoteric superheros as part of the modern blockbuster model, and there’s a chance that things like Lantern and Thor (which obviously had a much better start) will take a bigger hold their second time around, having gotten their foot in the cultural door. We’ll just have to see.

Robinov didn’t cough up the info, but LAT also has good assurance that the long-standing outline for a sequel developed by the first film’s writer will likely be scrapped, or completely overhauled. No shock there. Also not from Robinov’s mouth is that director Martin Campbell’s return is very much up in the air. Word is the studio isn’t keen on his return, nor did he seem to be particularly enthused before the first film’s release. I doubt he’ll be back, contract stipulations or not.

Is there any chance WB can rebuild something out of nothing very little for a sequel? Have any bright ideas beyond making it more Dark Knight-like? I’m sure they’d love to hear them, as would I. Twitter, boards, or comments below if you wish.

(via /Film)