It has been revealed that HBO’s upcoming Green Lantern series is run by a guy who hates … green.
Executive producer Damon Lindelof (pictured) hates green so much that instead of calling the series by its legendary comic book name, Green Lanterns, he decided to call it … Lanterns.
Here’s the trailer. A certain color appears to be missing….
Even the Green Lantern uniform is not green.
My favorite part is the Jerry-the-Mouse voiced female sheriff talking all tough.
Lindelof has made no secret of his contempt for the color green. “It’s called Lanterns, because we all agreed that the ‘Green’ was stupid, so now it’s just Lanterns,” he said on a podcast.
Also, as you can see in the trailer, Lindelof’s Lanterns is a neo-Western, but in the comic books, the Green Lanterns are space cops.
Why?
Well, DC Studios co-chief James Gunn thinks that whole space concept is absurd. “It’s a very grounded, real show,” he said of Lanterns. “It’s taking this outlandish concept of space cops with magic rings and putting it in as close to reality as it can possibly be.”
Why does Hollywood continue to hand beloved franchises over to people who hate the franchise?
- Star Wars
- Indiana jones
- James Bond
- Terminator
- Men in Black
- Charlie’s Angels
- Snow White
- Star Trek
Why not hand these golden geese over to people who love the goose as is? Who only want to make it cooler? Who only want to deliver something they love to a whole new generation? Who are desperate to recreate the magic?
This is like handing me the Thirtysomething reboot — Okay, I’d say, but no more whining or navel-gazing. Or handing me the Harry Potter franchise — Okay, I’d say, but no more of that magic and fantasy shit. Or handing me CNN — Okay, I’d say, but no more lying. Or handing me Jimmy Kimmel Live! — Okay, I’d say, but no more exclamation point and no more Jimmy.
Anyway, Grant Morrison, one of the most popular writers of the Green Lanterns comic series, chimed in to ask some obvious questions…
TV writer/producer Damon Lindelof’s comments notwithstanding, the ‘Green’ in ‘Green Lantern(s)’ green is not ‘stupid’. Why does a writer attach himself to this kind of narrative if he thinks it’s fundamentally ‘stupid’? You don’t hand CSI scripts to patronising writers who condemn forensics experts and their haircuts as ‘stupid’, so why hire people who are ashamed and in denial about the comic book material they’ve been assigned to develop? Why don’t they turn down jobs they’re not suited for? It’s not like he needs the money, and Lindelof has proven that he can come up with his own ideas. What is this jockish dismissal of superhero conventions intended to prove anyway? Does Lindelof imagine it makes him seem less nerdy? It’s a bit too late for that, so what’s it all about? The only people who give a fuck about the Lanterns TV series are Green Lantern fans. Why alienate them at the start? That feels more like ‘stupid’.
‘Green Lanterns’ is a much more evocative and dramatic title than ‘Lanterns’, (just as ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ is a better movie title than ‘Raise the Lantern’), and anyone who can’t grasp why that is shouldn’t be anywhere near superhero stories. The show might even be good, but how much better could this stuff be if studios were willing to hire the right people for the job instead of phoning their embarrassed friends to water the source material down? Hollywood will die of insularity and inbreeding.
For his part, Lindelof is now trying to explain himself…
I have upset Grant Morrison, which means I have now pissed off MOST of the brilliant British/Scottish comics writers that I grew up idolizing. To quote the bard (Otis Redding), this is nobody’s fault but mine.
I made a dumb joke on a comedy podcast. I’m not going to bob and weave about context, the joke was dumb, the fandom is not. I owe them an explanation and a genuine reflection of my actual feelings.
Oh, piss off.
These people, man.
What’s next from Hollywood? A Fast & Furious reimagining with electric cars? A Saw reboot without murders? A Hunger Games sequel where the games are chess?
