Reynolds Goes Green, But Will There Be a New Big Blue?
Late this week Interweb chatter in the geekverse spiked twice. First over the release of the San Diego Comic Con schedule for later this month. It revealed that, due to conference-hall scheduling, James Cameron-worshiping fanboys drooling for a peek at some Avatar footage might have to push and shove in line with rabid Twihards squealing for a New Moon presentation and a possible Bobby Pattinson appearance. Oh, the indignation! Oh, the humanity! Oh, the deadly spread of cooties!
The second web-shaking news was of more interest to the general movie-going public. There had been a month of speculation that Hangover-hot Bradley Cooper was a likely shoo-in to play Hal Jordan in the film adaptation of DC Comic’s Green Lantern. (To be directed by Martin Campbell of the Zorro films, Goldeneye, and Casino Royale.) But then came news this past week that in fact three actors were in contention to wear the Lantern’s Power Ring (not to be confused with Sauron’s Ring of Power—totally different geek rings): Cooper, Ryan Reynolds, and Justin Timberlake.
And on Friday Warner Brothers announced that instead of the presumed Cooper it would be Reynolds playing the hot-shot test pilot-turned-intergalactic cop in the live-action superhero flick. This comes after the word in May that Marvel Films would develop a Deadpool spin-off film from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, with Reynolds reprising his role as the wisecracking, fourth-wall-breaking “merc with a mouth.” Having played Marvel vampire hunter Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity, and once on tap to play DC’s Flash (that project is currently stalled out), Reynolds could now become the first actor ever to play heroes for both Marvel and their long-time rival DC.
So, fresh off the success of The Proposal, Reynolds is now being expected to carry two budding superhero franchises? I’ve long been on record as an unabashed Reynolds fan, so I have no problem with him doing either or both masked franchises. And despite lumping them together as “superhero movies,” these are very different characters and stories. Wade Wilson/Deadpool is a sarcastic, manic, pop-culture spouting jester with big guns and swords, whose story will no doubt revolve around down-and-dirty semi-criminal work.
Hal Jordan/Green Lantern is one of the classic DC characters—somewhat temperamental and headstrong (it's that nature that makes him such a galactically renown wielder of the ring, which amplifies willpower), but overall a noble heroic companion to Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. (Except for that one time when he went insane and tried to destroy the Earth and then died. But he got better.) And hopefully the Lantern film will primarily be an outer-space action tale.
My only hope is that the no-doubt grueling, time-consuming task of appearing in simultaneous big-budget, big-effects, action movies doesn’t severely limit Reynolds’ ability to keep doing the occasionally comedies or rom-coms where he's so good. After all, look what happened to Christian Bale: he becomes both Batman and John Connor and suddenly you just never see him in lighthearted, charming romantic comedy roles anymore… like American Psycho or The Machinist.
And follow over the jump for the confused current state of the Superman film franchise.
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