While this summer’s superhero film Green Lantern underperformed at the box office and with critics, it has a defender in Geoff Johns. Johns is the comic book writer who reinvigorated the Green Lantern comic book franchise for publisher DC Comics and who serves serves as DC Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer, overseeing the creative direction of the comic book line as well as consulting on the various film adaptions of those characters.

Yesterday, at a New York Comic Con panel devoted to the four titles in the Green Lantern comic franchise, Johns was asked about the film and the possibility of a discussed sequel still happening.

My favorite thing about the movie is that introduced the character to a lot of people. I thought Sinestro was great and Hal had a lot of good moments and there’s a lot of really good stuff there. Obviously you want it to be as big as Titanic. I continue to root for it. I hope we get another film in, and it will be live action.

Peter J Tomasi, another of the writers on the comic book franchise, jumped in to say -

One of the things about the film, all of the things Geoff said apply, but I had four eight-year-olds sitting in a row watching it and they walked out of there and all they could think about was blasting each other with rings and talking about the characters. So that is seeding a love for those characters that’s going to go for many years.

Jones added -

A friend of mine’s kid was at my house and I asked him what his favorite superhero was and he said “Green Lantern” without even blinking.

Johns also took a moment to promote the director’s cut of the film which was just released on Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo with the new UltraViolet Digital Copyand in doing so obliquely mentioned that this version of the film addresses some of the criticisms leveled at it.

It has a lot of scenes that add a lot of heart to Hal’s story. It’s interesting, you should check it out.

Superheroes are taking a beating this summer, and not just at the hands of their arch nemesis’s. In terms of tickets sales, Thor, X-Men: First Class and Green Lantern have all not quite measured up to the bar set by the likes of the Iron Man, Batman and Spider-Man films. But the one that has proved to be the greatest and perhaps most unexpected disappointment at the box office has been Warner Brothers’ Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds. In the ten days of its release it has barely cleared $120.5 million domestically and internationally as of June 27 (as per Box Office Mojo), not a good number when compared to its estimated production budget of $200 million.

FilmBuffOnline publisher Rich Drees and comic book film editor William Gatevackes got into a discussion as to what went wrong with the film. The conversation started with Gatevackes admitting that he had gone back to the theater to see the film for a second time.

Rich Drees – What brought you back for a second viewing?

William Gatevackes – My wife. She hadn’t seen it. I wanted to get her opinion on it. She liked it a bit better that I did, but admitted it could have been better.

RD – So did you see it in 2D or 3D? I saw it in 2D and was glad I did. The opening scene where the alien astronauts accidentally free Parallax was so dark and murky I’m afraid it would have looked terrible in 3D.

WG – I saw it in 2D as well. The shame of it is that the scene was pretty much designed for 3D. Filmmakers just haven’t got it that keeping scenes dark for CGI purposes and shooting scenes in 3D don’t go together.

RD – Well, Michael Bay has been making a big push to get Transformers: Dark Of The Moon shown properly in 3D, but that’s another topic. Putting aside the 3D, it seems that a lot of the reviews have bagged on the film for the amount of CGI used, but isn’t that the point of CG? To show things you couldn’t do any other way? And for the scope of a Green Lantern story, you are really going to need CG.

WG – For me, if anything there was too LITTLE CGI. The green light constructs were born for CGI. They don’t need that fine of definition, which CGI lacks, so they would look awesome in computer generated art. They should have included more. And when it comes to aliens in the Green Lantern mythos, it wouldn’t be cost-effective to create make-up effects for an alien that is only onscreen for ten minutes. Just the amount of time it would take wouldn’t make it worthwhile.

RD – So would say that the scope of the story was a problem? That it was just too big a story?

WG – My main problem, storywise, was with the lack of definition on several plot points. I would have liked the relationships between the characters developed more, especially between Hector Hammond and the other characters.

RD – I agree with you there. The film could have used about ten more minutes or so of character work. Also, I think I would have started the story on Earth and then gone to the scene where Parallax was freed. I think the way it is structured now it is too much of an infodump on non-comic fans. It’s a big, sprawling story and I think it needed to start small to allow the audience to connect.

WG – Another bad thing about the infodump at the beginning is the fact that much of the info is repeated later on in the movie. One of the best ways to lose an audience is to show them something after you told them something. And they have a perfect way to introduce that info – a new person from a new race joining the Corps. Hal could have been the audience’s representative, we would learn as he did.

RD – But at least all that info is out of the way if Warners definitely goes ahead with a sequel.

WG – Yeah, but in a way that killed the film critically and via word of mouth, which puts any sequel in jeopardy.

RD – Well, Warners is still considering it. If they do move forward, what advice would you give them?

WG – Wow. Where do I start? Show, don’t tell. Create an emotional bond between your characters and your audience. Hammond was a good villain, but would he have been better if we saw a reason why he’d give up on the human race? Why did Hal become a test pilot after watching his father die in an accident as a test pilot? That was something that would have strengthened the character. That’s the thing they need to fix for the sequel.

RD – Part of me wants them to pull back and do an Earth-bound story, but that would mean possibly ignoring the cliffhanger involving Sinestro.

WG – One of the things that bothered me about the comic was that most of the stories took place on Earth. That’s like being a beat cop who only patrols the street he lives on. If his beat is the Milky Way, logic dictated that most of his time should be spent off-planet. But that could be addressed in a number of ways. However, I still want to know why Sinestro put on the ring in the first place.

RD – I thought they covered that a bit when he argued with the Guardians for the need to forge a yellow ring? Still, I would have liked to see more of his “fall from grace” as it were.

WG – The argument was that they need to fight to fear with fear (which I didn’t think would work – Parallax “ate” fear to make himself stronger). Parallax ended up being cooked in the sun, so there was no need for Sinestro to put on the ring. Who was he going to fight with it?

RD – Good question. I’ll grant that it did seem like a fan service moment. Surprising, as there wasn’t too much of what I would call fan service in the film. I’m thinking of the scene in the early draft of the screenplay that had the ring bypass Clark Kent and Guy Gardner when Abin Sur sent it out to find a replacement.

WG – Yeah, and I was waiting for that too! But think of it, if Parallax was attacking an Earth that Superman was on, he’d be the one to take care of it. No cameos either, but that kind of made sense. John Broome and Gil Kane, the creators of this version of the character, are dead. Geoff Johns would be self-serving.

RD – I think that the only bit of fan service was Carol’s callsign of “Sapphire,” a nod to the character becoming the villain Star Sapphire later in the comics. Getting back to the script problems, I was surprised that we didn’t see Hal’s family again after that one scene.

WG – They served their purpose. They told the audience that Hal was trying too hard to be his dad (and set up the Hot Wheels track for use as a construct). After that, they weren’t needed. However, that bit of info would have been better if they had a longer scene with Hal and his dad that showed us that.

RD – But I think that showing the family in the third act would have given Hal a greater personal stake in his final conflict with Parallax. Besides, I think it’s bad scripting to introduce something like his family in the first act and not have them be part of a payoff in the third.

WG – Definitely. On a quasi-related minor note, that shot of the school bus full of kids at the climax in the line of Parallax’s attack is a sign of an ugly trend in films like this. Maybe this is just my being a parent talking but it seems whenever they want to sell the villain as a threat, they put kids in the line of fire. It’s cheap, manipulative and bad story telling.

RD – I’ll agree, but that can be traced back to Superman saving the bus load of kids on the Golden Gate Bridge in Superman: The Movie. (Side note – DC Entertainment’s Geoff Johns, who oversaw this film started off as a personal assistant to Superman: The Movie’s director Richard Donner.)

WG – But it’s been done more often in more blatant ways. There was no need for the bus to be there other than to put the kids in peril. Because, unlike Superman, Green Lantern wasn’t able to save everybody.

RD – I actually thought that how they showed Parallax “eat fear”/kill his victims was a bit on the strong side for a PG rated movie.

WG – That’s more on the MPAA than anyone else. You know how arbitrary they can be. Maybe they thought that because most of the victims were aliens it wouldn’t be that bad.

RD – Are you saying that the ratings board is racist towards non-human intelligence life forms?

WG – Hah! Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Now a question for you – Do you think the filmmakers went into this trying to make a great film or just not to screw things up?

RD – I don’t think anyone spending close to $200 million on a movie starts out with any other intention than to make a great movie. However, I think that in everybody’s mind was the specter of the Catwoman movie and more recently the fan reaction to the briefly mooted Green Lantern film that would have starred Jack Black and have been written y Robert Smiegel. Combine that with the studio’s need to launch a franchise to replace the Harry Potter income streams and it very quickly can become a case of “Don’t screw this up.”

But I’m wondering two things – 1) Did they pick too ambitious a hero to start a DC Comics film franchise with and 2) Are they trying to follow the Marvel Studio model too closely and will that prove a detriment? OK, that was three things.

WG – Don’t forget that Jonah Hex, a film with studio involvement that ruined it, was even fresher. This goes to answer #2, since the heavy hand of the studio changing the film to what they think audiences wasn’t didn’t work, following Marvel’s lead was a smart way to go. And answering #1, I belive that Green Lantern was an ideal choice to make a movie – if they made it correctly. A big part of the concept that was missing was the awe and grandeur aspect. This might be where following Marvel’s lead was bad. Marvel’s films lend themselves to be more grounded. DC’s comics are more about being mythic and bigger than life in nature. When you lead character is so blasé about meeting different alien races and travelling to alien planets, it ruins the awe aspect.

RD – true, there was no real feeling of awe. Hal seemed pretty nonchalant with the whole going to a different planet thing. But I was thinking of Marvel’s Kevin Feige and his philosophy of only asking the audience to accept one fantastic concept per film, i.e., a man can build a flying suit of armor. As much as I like the character of Green Lantern and its mythos, I’m wondering if perhaps they should have started with someone not quite so complicated, perhaps the Flash or Green Arrow, both of whom are currently being developed for their own films.

WG – Well, if not being complicated was the idea, Thor would not have been made. Asgardian gods, frost giants, evil half-brothers, hammers that control the weather is not all the much less complicated than space cops, evil forces, corrupted humans and wish granting rings. So I don’t think that Green Lantern being too complicated played a role.

RD – But with Thor, audiences had three movies to acclimate themselves to Marvel’s cinematic world. Green Lantern is a bit of a plunge into the deep end.

WG – Not really. Outside of SHIELD, there was nothing to really set up anything in Thor. It’s a big leap to go from altered humans and technological geniuses to a thunder god. Thor was different enough from what came before that it was still a struggle to overcome.

RD – Well, I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on this point.

WG – Yes, you ignorant slut.

RD – Hah! So any final thoughts?

WG – I know that I probably came out sounding like I absolutely HATED Green Lantern. I thought there was a lot of good there too. But the film should have been a slam dunk. And it wasn’t because of some bad choices. That’s frustrating.

RD – Well, all I’m hoping is that if Warners goes ahead with a sequel (and since I have trouble seeing them hit $150 million, let alone $200 million I doubt that they eventually will), I hope that they concentrate more on the story and remember the human element in the grand scheme of things.

WG – Ditto!

Here’s the difference between the Marvel and DC film empires. The Marvel film efforts are such a well oiled machine that nothing short of a fistfight on set will get mention in the trades. However, all it takes is a casual mention about a potential film schedule from a head executive at Warner brothers to have all the people to start running around like a chicken with their heads cut off.

What’s causing all the chicken’s to run, including this one, is information culled from an L.A. Times interview with Warner Brothers executive Jeff Robinov and reported on the paper’s Hero Complex blog about the company’s plans for  DC Comics properties. The information concerns the future of the Bat-franchise after The Dark Knight Rises—and what role Christopher Nolan’s role in that future will be—and a potential restart to the aborted Justice League film.

While it does appear the The Dark Knight Rises will close out the Christian Bale starring/Nolan directed Batman trilogy, the Batfilms will go on as the property will be rebooted once again immediately afterword. The good news is that Nolan will stay on board, producing the reboot with his wife Emma Thomas.

The bad news is that producing isn’t the same as directing or writing. Nolan’s involvement in both those areas is what makes the current series of films great. Well, maybe they learned a lesson from the first films series. If they rebooted at three back then, we wouldn’t have had to suffer through Batman and Robin.

The news about Justice League being in the works is interesting for a number of reasons. Robinov makes it seem like the film is on the fast track, with a 2013 release date mentioned.  Of course, a Justice League film got all the way to the costume-making, cast-relocating-to-shooting-location stage back in 2007 before a litany of problems caused Warners to pull the plug on it.

Also, Geoff Johns, DC’s liaison with Warner Brothers concerning film adaptations of DC characters, stated as recently as last October at the New York Comic Con that there was no Justice League film in the works.

This film is mean to be a vehicle that restarts the stalled Flash and Wonder Woman film franchises. This fact cause many to question if, like Marvel’s The Avengers, will this be shared universe project, meaning Henry Cavill as the Justice League’s Superman and Ryan Reynolds as its Green Lantern. This kind of shared universe was expressly disavowed by Nolan back when he took over producing the Superman reboot. He made it clear that his Batman films were definitely in a different universe that the Superman films.

One question was addressed by Robinov—how Wonder Woman in the Justice League and her own film franchise would affect the Wonder Woman TV series in the works. Robinov considers it to be like Smallville and Superman Returns—two different takes on the same concept, different enough to avoid confusion. However, it worked that time because Smallville was an unique take on Supeman’s life as a teen and young adult, while Bryan Singer’s film dealt with a grown Superman. The Wonder Woman in the films and the TV show would appear to be much closer in age, so the lines of distinction will be far muddier.

Although it had been widely speculated, DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns confirmed earlier today at the New York Comic Con that the first trailer for the upcoming Green Lantern film from Warner Brothers will be attached to Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1, which hits theaters on November 19, 2010.

Johns, under whose penmanship the Green Lantern stable of characters have enjoyed a revival for the last several years, has been actively advising director Martin Campbell in an effort to help the film keep to the spirit of the comics. He promised those in attendance at his panel, “If you guys like the comics now, you’ll probably like the film.”

While I am a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see a trailer today at the con, it is nice to know that we know have a definite date when we will be able to see it.

We’ll have more from Johns’ panel later on this weekend.

Green Lantern hits theaters on June 17, 2011.

The last major piece of the Green Lantern casting piece was unveiled yesterday, when Green Lantern comics writer Geoff Johns tweeted that Sherlock Holmes bad guy Mark Strong has been cast as the titular hero’s mentor-turned-nemesis Sinestro. Johns had been visiting the set as part of his new duties as DC Comics’ Chief Creative Officer, a position that in addition to overseeing the creative direction of DC’s comics line, also has him consulting with moviemakers about translating the company’s characters from the page to the big screen.

Johns had been on a quick trip down to New Orleans, where principal photography is set to start on Green Lantern in a couple of weeks. Apparently, he was pleased with what he has saw there, as he also tweeted “Kilowog, the Guardians, Oa…all breathtaking. The age of Green Lantern is upon us!!”

DC Entertainment’s announcement of Johns appointment to the newly created post of Chief Creative Officer last week was a great move on the part of new president Diane Nelson. Johns has been writing for the company’s various titles for over a decade now and has been praised by fans and critics for his strong sense of the histories of the characters he handles. Previously, Johns worked as an assistant to Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner. Additionally, Johns has contributed two scripts to recent seasons of the Clark Kent-before-he’s-Superman television series Smallville, which many have called the best that the series has done in recent years.

I guess they figure that he did such a good job revamping the Batman franchise, why not give him a shot at doing the same for Superman?

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Warner Brothers has tapped Christopher Nolan to oversee the oft-talked about reboot of the Superman franchise. It is believed that he would be more of a creative overseer and not sit in the director’s chair of any of the films.

The article also states that Nolan has come up with the story for his third film in his Batman saga, and the story has been given to The Dark Knightscribes Jonathan Nolan and David Goyer to fashion a script from it.

It should be pointed out that Deadline Hollywood is essentially a gossip site (the above story was credited to “insiders” at Warner Brothers), but they have a fairly good track record of things panning out.

When will Nolan’s take on the Man of Steel go into production? Soon, if Deadline Hollywood is to be believed:

Attorney Marc Toberoff, who keeps suing Warner Bros on behalf of creative rightsholders, warns that, in 2013, the Jerome Siegel heirs along with the estate of co-creator Joe Shuster will own the entire original copyright to Superman — “and neither DC Comics nor Warner Bros will be able to exploit any new Superman works without a license from the Siegels and Shusters”. He’s also pointed out that, if Warner Bros does not start production on a new Supermansequel or reboot by 2011, the Siegels could sue to recover their damages on the grounds that the deal should have contained a clause in which the rights returned to the owners after a given time if no film was in development. The heirs of Siegel have already been awarded half the copyright for Superman. And in 2013 the heirs of co-creator Joe Shuster get the remaining half. After that, neither DC Comics nor Warner Bros will be able to use Superman without a financial agreement with the heirs. There are also stipulations on what parts of the origins story can be used in future Superman movies and which require re-negotiations with the creators’ heirs or estates. 

Of course, to many chicken little’s, this means the end of Superman in any media–comics, television of film. What this probably means in reality is that Warner Brothers and their subsidiary DC Comics will have to throw some money at the Siegel and Shuster families to keep the rights to the character. If the Nolan supervised Superman is a The Dark Knight level success, then that would give Warners/DC more money and more reason to write those checks.

In another extrapolation of the rumor, if that is in fact allowed, let me present this train of thought. Nolan has a partnership with David Goyer. Goyer co-wrote the JSA comic book with Geoff Johns. Johns is one of the current writers on the Superman comic book franchise and has recently wrote some episodes of Smallville for Warner Brothers’ television arm. Could this mean Johns might have a shot of being creatively involved in the Superman reboot?  Just throwing that out there.

At this point last summer, fans of comic book movies were buzzing over Marvel Studios’ slate of films. With both Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk getting positive response from critics and ticket buyers alike, the studio announced plans to bring several more of Marvel Comics’ heroes to the big screen in a series of films that would culminate with them meeting up to form the superhero super group, The Avengers.

But fans of the heroes published by Marvel’s main rival, DC Comics, were wondering why their favorite characters weren’t making the transition to the big screen as well. True, the Batman film The Dark Knight would become the highest grossing film of the summer, but he was the lone character from the publisher’s 70-plus year history to find themselves on the silver screen. Despite pulling in over $391 million at the box office worldwide, the lackluster fan reaction to 2006’s Superman Returns had studio Warner Brothers floundering to find a new direction for a further cinematic adventure of DC’s most famous hero. The anticipated adaptation of the classic graphic novel Watchmen also failed to generate the expected excitement at the box office this past March. Meanwhile, film adaptations of Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash and Green Arrow continued to languish in development hell, with Warners reluctant to give the go-ahead to any of these projects.

But what a difference 12 months can make. Where there were none scheduled before, there are now several DC Comics characters with dates to appear in your local Cineplex, in addition to several television and direct-to-video projects. With the San Diego Comic Con getting underway today, we thought it would be a good time to roundup the state of the various DC Comics film projects that are being worked on.

The biggest news on DC Comics movie front is a recent Hollywood Reporter story which stated that last fall studio Warner Brothers quietly hired three of the comics publisher’s top writers – Marv Wolfman, Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison – to serve as creative consultants and writers for many of the films being produced under the Warners corporate umbrella. Johns, who worked as an assistant to Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner before moving on to becoming one of DC’s most critically and fan praised writers of the last several years, has already turned in a treatment for a film based on the speedster hero The Flash that screenwriter Dan Mazeau is currently fleshing out. While the Hollywood Reporter story doesn’t state it, Johns is also listed as a producer on an in development Metal Men flick which would feature a team of eccentric robots who battle weird science threats.

The Reporter piece doesn’t specifically state which films Wolfman and Morrison are working on, though a few educated guesses can be made. As Wolfman was the driving force behind a critically acclaimed run of The Teen Titans in the early 1980s, he is probably working with producer Akiva Goldsman, who is currently developing the property. Goldsman is also serving as producer for a possible Doom Patrol feature. As Morrison redefined the team in his classic run on the book in the late 80s/early 90s, he may be working with Goldsman on this.

As for the many other properties that have been optioned, their statuses break down as follows-

Batman sequel- Warner Brothers wants a new Batman film. The fans want a new Batman film. Christopher Nolan has indicated that he would like to make another Batman film. However, we’ll have to wait until Nolan completes his current project Inception, which started filming last week in the UK. But whatever Nolan cooks up for a third installment, it will almost invariably be worth the wait.

Superman sequel- As noted, Warners has not made any concrete steps in following the poorly received 2006 Superman Returns. Director Bryan Singer has promised that his plans would give a sequel film a tone similar to Star Trek II. However, Warners let Returns star Brandon Routh’s contract option lapse earlier this month, so it is a safe bet that they don’t want to go with Snyder again. But Warners will have to get a new film in gear soon. As part of a settlement between DC Comics and Warner Brothers and the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, the trademark to the character will revert from Warners back to Siegel’s and co-creator Joe Schuster’s heirs, where they could conceivably turn around and offer the character to another studio. If Warners is smart, they’ll put together an incredible Superman film and cut the families in on the profits in order to ensure that they want to continue working with the studio.

Jonah Hex- Josh Brolin stars as the titular scarred old West anti-hero. A former Confederate soldier, Hex roamed the western territories as a gun for hire, though being a comic book character, he has encountered foes a little outside of the western genre. In the film, Hex will face off against a voodoo practitioner played by John Malkovich who plans to help the South rise again with an army of zombies. Filming recently wrapped in Louisiana and now post-production is being done in anticipation of the film’s June 18, 2010 release.

The Losers- Principal photography kicked off today in Puerto Rico on this tale of a CIA black-ops team who were betrayed, left for dead and who are now looking to find out why. Watchmen’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan heads up the cast which includes Jason Patric and Zoe Saldana.

Green Lantern- Now that Ryan Reynolds has been cast as the power ring wielding Hal Jordon, expect more announcements leading up to the time when cameras are scheduled to roll next January in Australia. Casino Royale helmer Martin Campbell is directing this origin story showing how a fearless test pilot is recruited to join an elite corps of interstellar law enforcers.

Justice League: Mortal- Warners has backburned this super hero team-up film in favor of having many of the characters being established in their own films. Don’t expect to see this one in anything less than seven to eight years.

Green Arrow- Although the character’s appearance on the pre-Superman adventures of Clark Kent television series Smallville proved fairly popular, Warners has been slow in leveraging that in to getting the character to the big screen. Currently the studio is two different approaches they are considering. One is a more traditional origin story, while the other features an older version of the Emerald Archer who has been arrested and incarcerated in a prison full of his former foes entitled Supermax.

Wonder Woman- Producer Joel Silver has been working on bring the Amazonian Princess Diana to cineplexes for most of the past decade. Scripters like Joss Whedon and Laeta Kalogridis have come and gone from the project, with it getting no further along the production process. That lack of progress has never stopped rumors from sprouting up that such-and-such an actress as being considered for the title role. Newcomers Matthew Jennison and Brent Strickland are currently taking a crack at the screenplay.

Lobo- Another project that Silver has been developing is a cinematic adaptation of the wise-cracking alien bounty hunter, Lobo. Although the character exploded into popularity in the early 1990s due to a mix of social satire and extreme comedic violence, Silver told SciFiWire that a recently completed script, from an unnamed writer, is PG-13 in tone. But despite having a screenplay, the project still has no director attached or a greenlight from the studio.

Sgt. Rock- Silver had been trying to get a movie based on DC’s World War Two action comic off the ground for almost two decades now. At various points in time both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis were attached to star. Silver recently put the film on the backburner when director Quentin Tarantino, who was not tied to the Rock project, went off to make his own World War Two picture Inglorious Basterds. He may return to it sooner or later, though I would suspect sooner if Basterds does decent box office.

Billy Batson And The Legend Of Shazam- John August was the most recent writer to work on the project, but in January announced via his blog that he was off the project. There has been no news of a new writer having been hired.

Bizarro Superman- Galaxy Quest writing team Dean Parisot and Robert Gordon are currently developing a screenplay about the botched Superman clone who inadvertently acts as a villain. Given who is working on it, it looks as if it will be a more comedic take on the character, which is good, as Bizarro is one of the few DC characters where this approach could work.

Suicide Squad- The series about a group of supervillains being forced to undertake covert black ops for the United States government is currently being developed by Terminator Salvation producer Dan Lin. The script is from Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li scribe Justin Marks.

Aquaman- A film directed by none other than James Cameron adapting the underwater adventures of DC Comics’ Prince of Atlantis was a major plot point a few seasons back on HBO’s Entourage. Unfortunately, the current prospects for such an Aquaman film remain much dimmer. The character is currently being developed by Apian Way, actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company. Don’t expect any developments soon, though, as they are still looking for a writer.

Adam Strange- Warner is looking for a writer to bring the adventures of an archaeologist transported to an alien planet to be their champion to the silver screen.

Preacher- American Beauty helmer Sam Mendes is the latest director to have been signed to bring Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s controversial series to life. Ennis recently commented that he doubted a film could faithfully adapt the complex work, but screenwriter John August is giving it a try anyway.

Constantine 2- Producer Lauren Shuler Donner indicated last spring that the possibility of a sequel to the 2005 film starring Keanu Reeves as an urban mage fighting demons “Looks very good.” However, no writer has yet to be hired for the project.

Now granted, not all of these projects are going to make it to the big screen, but a reasonable percent age of them should, giving comics fans plenty to look forward to for the next several years.