'Green Lantern' Co-Writer Talks Easter Eggs, Alien Lanterns, And The Deleted Superman Cameo
I spoke to Guggenheim a while back (before the "Green Lantern" trailer debuted) about some of the script rumors that popped up over the last year or so, as well as some of the elements of his original script with Greg Berlanti and Michael Green that weren't likely to make the final cut of the film.
I also asked him about some of the Green Lanterns fans are wondering whether they'll see in the film, and though he couldn't give me too many answers about who's in the script, it looks like we can cross one fan-favorite (okay, my favorite) Lantern off the cast list.
"I’ve seen a fair amount [of the film]," Guggenheim told MTV News. "Everything I’ve seen has completely blown me away — and I really say that as a fanboy. When we wrote the script, we did not expect to make the movie. It was really like, 'Let's do a good enough job that Warner Bros. wants hire us to write another movie.' As far as I’m concerned, the whole thing is... It's more than wish fulfillment, because I didn’t even have a realistic wish. It’s amazing."
"Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are so good together it is ridiculous," he continued. "Peter Sarsgaard is unbelievable. People are going to draw comparisons in his performance to Heath Ledger in 'The Dark Knight.' It is just that good. Mark Strong is ridiculously great. The cast is amazing. The look of the movie is unlike anything you’ve ever seen — and it needs to be. That’s what the concept requires. I think it’s going to be really spectacular."
Along with heaping on what he's seen of the film so far, Guggenheim was also happy to weigh in on the Superman cameo that was a part of one of the earliest scripts. When I spoke to the writer back in July 2009, he confirmed that Clark Kent was indeed written into an early draft of "Green Lantern," though director Martin Campbell later declared that the Superman cameo was removed from the film.
"Without trying very hard, you could probably find the leaked script on the internet," he laughed. "[The Superman cameo] is in the leaked script. It survived several drafts. Ultimately, it was cut for budgetary reasons. We took it out in one of our later drafts. After my interview with you, of course."
"The Clark Kent cameo is still near and dear to my heart. I really wanted it to be in the movie," he added, only to joke, "You never know — it can still happen. If Tom Welling has a free hour or two, you never know."
A self-confessed fanboy, Guggenheim said the Clark Kent cameo wasn't the only Easter Egg the writers included in drafts of the "Green Lantern" screenplay. Though there's no certainty what will make the final cut, he assured me that the script was filled with nods to keen-eyed audiences and comic book readers.
"It's always fun to have those things," he explained. "I’ll tell you another thing. Michael Green, my co-writer, had written a bit where when the ring is going over the Earth. We made a little bit more of Abin Sur’s speech about finding someone honest land brave, and the ring speeds right over Washington, D.C. without stopping, which I thought was funny. Every time I read that in a draft, that made me laugh out loud, but we took that out."
"You try a bunch," he said. "The whole point of writing a script, particularly when it is going into production, is to play around with a bunch of different things. Some things get changed for creative reasons. Some things get changed for budgetary reasons. Some things get changed just because you think you come up with a better idea. You play around. We did a minimum of five drafts so there was all sorts of different things that we tried and experimented with."
"I think there will be plenty of Easter Eggs in the movie on other fronts," he continued. "I’m a sucker for those. I’m the voice for those. I’m always thinking we can fit in that name or we can fit in that character. I’ll always do that."
On the subject of characters, Guggenheim kept mum about the presence of many of the lesser-known Green Lanterns in the movie — but he did manage to dash my hopes for one particular cameo.
"I can pretty much promise that Ch'p will not be in the movie," he laughed. "Martin’s favorite Lantern, who is in the movie, is Bzzd. The funny thing is, from our very first meeting with Martin, he came onto the project and really knew his stuff. He was able to quote Lanterns and said 'I love Bzzd' from the start. I was like, 'Okay, I guess Bzzd is in the movie.'"
So, my apologies to fellow Ch'P fans out there, but it looks like our favorite Lantern from H'lven won't be making the cut — not in this film, at least. But there's always time to start a campaign for "Green Lantern 2"!
Let us know what you think of Guggenheim's take on the script in the comment section or on Twitter! You can also follow me, Splash Page editor Rick Marshall, on Twitter!
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