Entertainment Weekly's Comic-Con Preview with Green Lantern

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Entertainment Weekly's Comic-Con Preview with Green Lantern
By The Editor
July 15, 2010 - 10:05

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Ryan Reynolds is Hollywood’s newest superhero, as he prepares to star in next summer’s Green Lantern. This week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, which is the third annual Comic-Con Preview issue, takes a look at whether Reynolds’ power ring (and his six-pack abs) can save the universe.

As he was propelled at 60 feet a second on a wire to create the illusion he can fly, Reynolds opens up about the perils of flying at high speed. “The first time you do it, you’re deeply considering an adult diaper,” he admits. He’s spent countless hours training for elaborately choreographed fight scenes and maintained a monklike diet. “It’s all part of the job, so I guess I can’t complain,” he says. “You spend one day a week eating what you want and the other six days eating drywall and wood chips.”

Since being created in 1940, Green Lantern has been one of the most beloved characters in the DC Comics stable of heroes, but beyond a hardcore audience of fanboys, he’s basically known as just a guy in a green suit with a magical ring. “Green Lantern doesn’t enjoy the familiarity or renown of, say, Batman or Spider-Man,” producer Donald De Line acknowledges. “We have to make the movie stand on its own.”

Figuring out the right way to bring the story to the screen wasn’t simple. In 2004, reports surfaced that a zany comedic take on Green Lantern was in the works, but fanboys didn’t like it and the project quickly died. Greg Berlanti, a comic-book fan and TV producer (Brothers & Sisters), wrote a screenplay and pitched Warner Bros. an outline for a grand trilogy. “I had to convince them this was the most valuable property they hadn’t tapped into and that it wasn’t just a cartoony thing about a guy with a magic ring,” says Berlanti. “Of all the comic-book movies, there hadn’t been something with an Americana feeling on earth and an epic feeling in space.”

Reynolds got hooked by the notion that power-ring slinging intergalactic do-gooder Hal Jordan’s ring can conjure anything he dreams up. And the actor already had experience in the superhero realm, playing the acerbic Deadpool in X-Men Oirins: Wolverine and flirted with playing the Flash. Though a Deadpool spin-off is in development, Reynolds foresees no problem juggling two superhero characters. “Green Lantern is a totally different bag of tricks,” he says. “I wouldn’t think twice about playing a cop in one movie and an FBI agent in another one.”

With Reynolds’ wife, Scarlett Johansson, playing Black Widow in the Iron Man franchise, he says, “We have a lot of comic books lying around the house – more than the average young married couple.”

The actor reflects on the burden of carrying a superhero movie on his shoulders: “The pressure is all on me,” he says. “I try not to think too much about that.” He muses about the merchandising blitz that this summer tentpole movie will eventually unleash, a bonanza of green-hued products, each with his face plastered on it. “There’ll be the Green Lantern hubcaps,” he says drily. “The Green Lantern terry-cloth onesie. The Green Lantern prostate check.” For his part, there’s just one souvenir he wants when it’s all over: “I’m definitely leaving with a ring,” he says. “And maybe an ulcer.”

PLUS: AN EXCLUSIVE COMIC-CON PREVIEW

Each July, Hollywood offers sneak peeks at the hottest movies and TV shows at Comic-Con, the ultimate comic-book convention. This week’s issue offers an early look at some of this year’s coolest stuff, including Thor. Comic-book history might have been very different if Thor didn’t have a hammer but instead fought evil with, say, needle-nose pliers. “The look of the hammer was the very first conversation I had the day I started the job,” says director Kenneth Branagh. “We had conversations about Thor’s hammer the night before we started shooting. We had conversations about the hammer – the look of the hammer, how to shoot it – on the set. We’re still talking about the hammer.” Other exclusive sneak peeks include Sucker Punch, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 Motion Comic, Tron: Legacy, Paul, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, The Expendables, and more.

TRUE BLOOD’S NEW BLOOD

This week’s Entertainment Weekly welcomes five new characters to the True Blood family: Denis O’Hare (as Russell Edgington), Theo Alexander (as Talbot), Lindsay Pulsipher (as Crystal), James Frain (as Franklin Mott), and Joe Manganiello (as the werewolf Aclide). EW talks to the new stars about what it’s like working on the provocative hit series.

O’Hare discussed feeding time – the show’s fake blood is made of a sugary syrup, and for O’Hare, getting the unappetizing goo down is just a matter of commitment. “If you’re in the moment, it’s actually really fun,” he says. “It’s only after, when you’re thinking about it, that you get the shakes.”

Manganiello opens up about being nude on camera. “You have three options,” says the actor of the show’s penis-covering protocol. “A sock, a thong, and the ‘manty’ or man panty. You can go sans sock, [but] I come from a good Pittsburgh up-bringing that raised me to wear a sock.”

Frain, who has also starred on Showtime’s The Tudors, says that wearing the regal period clothing during that show was much more of an occupational hazard than the costumes on True Blood. “You’ve got on a fur coat, jacket, shirt, and we’re indoors in the summer shooting and they couldn’t use the AC because it makes too much noise,” he says. (Feature, Page 58)

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: THE GLEE PREQUEL

Before our favorite characters sang their first note, there was plenty of drama at McKinley High. This week’s issue has a peek at what New Directions’ brightest stars were doing before the show began. One choice snippet about Rachel: “’I’d like to sign off this morning by awarding Rachel Berry’s Gold Star of the Week – a very special award given each week to a person who has done something outstanding to improve life at McKinley High.’ She’d thought of this last night, and it seemed to be an appropriate way to give back to the school. ‘This week I’d like to award the gold star to’ – she paused for effect – ‘myself, for taking over morning announcements and bringing them back to life.’ Maybe it was a little much to give herself the first gold star, but she was doing the school a big service. And what was wrong with giving herself a little pat on the back when no one else was?”