Treatment For ‘The Flash’ Completed; ‘Green Lantern 2’ Up Next
This past summer, Warner Bros. hired on the screenwriters ofThe Green Lantern(Greg Berlanti,Michael GreenandMarc Guggenheim) to pen drafts forThe Flashand aGreen Lanternsequel. This says a lot about how satisfied the studio must be with their work, sinceGreen Lanternhasn’t even hit theaters yet.
So where do these screenplays stand right now? One of the writers, Marc Guggenheim (who has also worked on many Marvel comics, in addition toThe Flash), has weighed in on the situation, sharing some interesting details about additional sequels in the process.
Newsaramaspoke to Guggenheim about the progress thus far on the screenplays forThe FlashandGreen Lantern 2, and whether or not we should be expecting a thirdGreen Lantern, as per theComic-Con rumorsof a trilogy. His answer was brief and to-the-point: “We’ve turned in the treatment for Flash. And we’re talking about Green Lantern 2. It would be a quality problem to have, to think about a third. But one step at a time.”
But who wants brief and to-the-point when finding out details about aGreen Lanterntrilogy? Here’s his follow-up response, which explains where the rumor about a thirdGreen Lanternoriginated:
When Greg Berlanti originally pitched the movie to Warner Bros., he pitched three movies. So there’s always been, and he’s said this publicly, that there’s always been enough story for a trilogy. The scope of the character and the character’s world requires that. But we’re really just focusing on the treatment for Green Lantern 2. And I know that everyone involved in the production of the movie is just focusing on completing the first film.
Guggenheim also shed some light on the screenwriting process for these films, which seems to indicate that the films' sequel possibilities help inform where the story goes, even while all of the focus is being put on the current film at hand.
I think it’s very hard to talk about these characters in a closed-ended, sort of non-sequel way, especially characters like The Flash and Green Lantern, which have such rich, long histories. You can’t help but talk about the characters and go, ‘Oh, I really want to do the movie where we get to this moment, or that moment.’ So you’re always talking in terms of sequels, but no, nothing’s planned. We haven’t even written the script yet for The Flash. It’s very much one step at a time for The Flash. But it’s terrific that people are talking along these lines. I think that talk really comes out of the great amount of faith and the movie and the optimistic feeling about it. So I think that’s only a good thing.
One film at a time is right. Sequels can be fun, but if the first film isn’t any good or fails to find an audience at the box office, there’s no point getting excited for a follow-up. We’ll find out how successfulThe Green Lanternis once it hits theaters June 17th of next year, but Guggenheim doesn’t seem too worried about the film’s sequel potential. Or at least, he’s doing a fine job of helping hype the film.
I went down to New Orleans two months ago to see some of the Green Lantern filming, and I got to see a whole bunch of things in connection with the movie. In all honesty, I was completely blown away. I don’t think it dawned on me how huge this movie would be until I went down to New Orleans and really saw everything that I saw. It was incredibly eye-opening. I was really rendered speechless. There’s just no way for me to put it to words, just how huge this movie is going to be.
As forThe Flash: now that a treatment has been handed in, maybe we’ll finally start to seesome movementon this thing. Right now, co-writer Greg Berlanti still appears to bethe front runnerto direct.
