'Green Lantern' Release Pushed Back to June 2011

About 24 hours ago, we wrote that Warner Bros. and DC Comics might be strongly considering Bradley Cooper from the upcoming comedy The Hangover for the role of Hal Jordan/Green Lantern in its next comic book endeavor. Now, Warner has bought itself a little more time to get everything just right. Box Office Mojo reports that the film, originally scheduled for a December 2010 release, will now hit theaters on June 17, 2011. The studio has also moved Zack Snyder's Double X chromosone action flick Sucker Punch from October 2010 to March 2011. And one more change: Mel Gibson's comeback bid, The Edge of Darkness has been shoved off the '09 calendar and will now be released on January 29, 2010. There's a connection between Green Lantern and Edge of Darkness: They're both directed by Martin Campbell of Casino Royale fame. I doubt there's anything more to it than that, though. It could be post-production on Edge of Darkness forces a delay in the filming of Green Lantern. Also, moving Darkness could just distance the movie from Gibson's rather active private life at the moment. He's already going to be something of a PR hurdle. The shift in plans for Green Lantern are interesting. The studio has been rebuffed by every star it has apparently approached to this point, and that certainly won't speed up the process. Why June 17th? Because there's pretty much nowhere else to put it that summer. There are two Marvel comic book movies in May, plus Captain America in July. You've also got the last Harry Potter movie in July and possibly Transformers 3. In June, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Cars 2 are already penciled in, but there's not an action flick anywhere in sight. By the way, that's two years from now. There are only five weekends between the first of May and the end of July not already accounted for in 2011. I have to admit, I didn't get the winter superhero movie concept from DC, especially because it needs another hero to go alongside Batman. You can only compete against Marvel in the summer, so on that basis, this move makes tons of sense.

Comments

[John Lennon]

It will be good to see someone besides Batman