Warner Bros. has hired "Green Lantern" writers Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green to write a treatment for a potential sequel that the studio has already started developing a year prior to the original’s release, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Additionally, the trio will work on a treatment for "The Flash," who will likely be the next DC Comics charater to prepare for his big-screen close-up. DC was recently reorganized to strengthen its relationship with WB, which also has new Batman and Superman movies in development.
The deal indicates that the studio likes what it has seen so far from the New Orleans set of "Green Lantern." The terms of the deal also dictate that the trio will then write the screenplay for one of the two projects, though which one hasn’t been determined and will likely depend on how "Green Lantern" performs at the box office when it opens on June 17, 2011.
Ryan Reynolds is set to wear Hal Jordan’s emerald ring in "Casino Royale" director Martin Campbell’s superhero flick. Peter Saarsgard plays the villainous Hector Hammond, and Campbell has already revealed that Mark Strong’s Sinestro character doesn’t "go bad" until the end of the film, which means the door will unsurprisingly be left open for a sequel.
Berlanti recently directed the Katherine Heigl-Josh Duhamel dramedy "Life as We Know It. He previously co-created "Eli Stone" with Guggeheim, who is exec producing "No Ordinary Family," ABC’s upcoming Michael Chiklis superhero drama that Berlanti also co-created. Additionally, Berlanti created "Everwood," where he worked with Green, who created NBC’s "Kings." That’s an awful lot of creating for three mortal men, however talented they may be.
UTA-repped Michael Goldenberg also helped write "Green Lantern" but will not be involved in writing the sequel’s treatment with Berlanti, Guggenheim and Green, all of whom are represented by WME.
