2. Green Lantern
As flawed as the Green Lantern movie was, it did have its moments. And again, it could have been much, much worse. I dont mean that as a defense of a bad movie, but more that Im relieved it wasnt as bad as it very well could have been. Before Martin Campbell and Ryan Reynolds, Warner Bros was looking at a very different take on Green Lantern. They asked Robert Smigel to turn Green Lantern into a comedy starring Jack Black. Apparently, Warner Bros had a mad-on for turning the Green Lantern into a comedic superhero movie, because in the 80s they were reportedly interested in casting Eddie Murphy as the ring-slinger. Smigels take was what if the ring made a mistake and instead of picking someone worthy of the Green Lantern power, it malfunctions and instead picks a reality TV star who would have been played by Black. A loose (make that
very loose) adaptation of the Emerald Dawn storyline, Smigel said he intended for everything about the Green Lanterns mythos to be portrayed seriously, because it would have made it even funnier to introduce this Jack Black character into that world. The climax would have shown just how inept this Green Lantern was. With a yellow asteroid approaching the Earth, he would have used his ring to push the Earth out of its orbit and cause natural disasters. And with the only way to fix it by reversing time, he would have used his ring to create a green Superman to fly backwards around the Earth. Yes, they just basically ripped off Superman: The Movie. The Internet is sometimes a great place, and backlash over this leaked script led Warner Bros to make a film that was more in line with the comics. While your mileage may vary with Campbells Green Lantern, one thing we can say for certain: at least it wasnt Jack Black.