# Please Og, tell me this isn't true - Jack Black as the Green Lantern! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 18, 2004, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692 "2004-07-18T16:42:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2004, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/1 "2004-07-18T16:42:43Z")
[AICN story](http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=17971) I don’t normally frequent this site, but it appears to be the original source. Does DC (or parent company Warner Brothers) no longer give a damn about their characters? ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/2 "2004-07-18T16:46:04Z")
The WB apparently doesn’t. They greenlit Catwoman, after all, and entertained several horrible Superman scripts (the powers are in teh coustume, Luthor is a kryptonian and Krypton is still around, etc) for far, far too long. DC doesn’t get to say shit. Yeah, this is a really bad idea. It worked for an episode of Duck Dodgers, but that was only 15 minutes long. If they want a funny superhero movie, just get Jim Carrey to do Plastic Man, or do the Giffen/DeMattis JL, or the Wonder Twins, or something. Green Lantern works too well as a straightforward Superhero movie. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/3 "2004-07-18T16:55:10Z")
Stuff like this make me respect Avi Arad even more. (For those who don’t know who he is - he’s the curent head of Marvel Comics and the man behind their latest cinematic successes, such as _Spider-Man_, _X-Men_ and _Blade_. Besides being an excellent businessman and Hollywood mover-and-shaker, he’s also a diehard commic geek who truly loves the characters in his charge. DC desperately needs someone like him.) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/4 "2004-07-18T17:03:40Z")
I could MAYBE accept him as the Guy Gardner GL. Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2004, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/5 "2004-07-18T17:26:06Z")
Jack Black isn’t an “actor”. He’s a “performer”, and a damned good one at that, but this means that he’s really not suited to step away from his usual comedic-quirky persona. Jude Law would be a good Green Lantern, but only if they wanted to take the franchise seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/6 "2004-07-19T16:34:59Z")
I dunno. JB was fantastic in [The Neverending Story III](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0110647/). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/7 "2004-07-19T16:44:27Z")
[Announcer Guy] From a world on the far fringes of space… comes an emerald warrior… who desires to be… man’s best friend. Jack Black IS … G’nort G’neesmacher! With Steve Buscemi as the Scarlet Skier. [/Announcer Guy] ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/8 "2004-07-19T21:23:01Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > [Announcer Guy] From a world on the far fringes of space… comes an emerald warrior… who desires to be… man’s best friend. Jack Black IS … G’nort G’neesmacher! With Steve Buscemi as the Scarlet Skier. [/Announcer Guy] Perfect! ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/9 "2004-07-19T22:05:12Z")
If Jack Black is going to play a DC character, it should be the Creeper. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/10 "2004-07-19T22:34:34Z")
But will he join forces with Sinestro and form a band the likes of which had never been seen? (by the way, this strike me as a BAD IDEA.) ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2004, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/11 "2004-07-21T03:11:19Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > or the Wonder Twins, or something Someone already optioned the rights to the Wonder Twins and was working on a movie. I’m serious. Apparently, to some studio execs, Spiderman and X-Men being successful means that any characters in costumes that ever appeared in a comic book will be a huge hit in film format. The Jack Black supercomedy should just be called Black Lantern or Jackolantern or something. Or, better yet, the idiots who came up with it should just lose their millions now instead of actually going through with it. ---
**Author:** ![RealTronic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9dc877/32.png) [@RealTronic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealTronic)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/12 "2004-07-22T02:25:23Z")
Hmm… Got a bit worried about this, cause I mixed it up with **The Green Hornet**. That really would have been bad casting… But it still seems like a bad idea to put Jack Black in a superhero movie as anything but a comic sidekick or a crazy bad guy. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/13 "2004-07-22T10:06:20Z")
If you [read the basic description](http://comicbooks.about.com/cs/dccomics/p/green_ljsbio.htm) of the Green Lantern’s powers, it does come across as pretty absurd - even after accepting such things as X-Men and Spider-Man. > [@](#): > > All Green Lanterns wear power rings that draw energy from the Central Power Battery on Oa. The rings respond to the wearer thoughts and can create any object imaginable. They are, in fact, some of the most powerful weapons in the universe, and can shoot energy blasts, allow the wearer to fly, create force-shields, to name a few uses. The sole weakness of the ring is an instilled impurity by the Guardians that renders the weapons helpless against the color yellow. It would be really difficult to do this seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/14 "2004-07-22T10:16:08Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > It would be really difficult to do this seriously. Why would it be any more difficult than a paternally inherited “mutant gene” that grants so different powers as telepathy, involuntary energy blasts from the eyes, ability to control the weather (how?), ability to walk through walls, pyrokinesis (again, how?) and wings? Why would it be any more difficult than the bite of an experimented-upon spider that gives enormous strength, a sixth sense warning against danger of any description (once again, how?), and the ability to stick to walls at will? ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/15 "2004-07-22T11:12:38Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > It would be really difficult to do this seriously. The fact that they have been taking it seriously, and doing it well for decades in the comics, and several years on the Justice League cartoon argues otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/16 "2004-07-22T11:16:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Why would it be any more difficult than a paternally inherited “mutant gene” that grants so different powers as telepathy, involuntary energy blasts from the eyes, ability to control the weather (how?), ability to walk through walls, pyrokinesis (again, how?) and wings? How about the power… to move you? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/17 "2004-07-22T11:26:20Z")
I meant in respect to making it work for a film - not in making it acceptable logically. His only weakness is the colour yellow? How do you really make that a serious threat or bugbear? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/18 "2004-07-22T11:34:00Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I meant in respect to making it work for a film - not in making it acceptable logically. His only weakness is the colour yellow? How do you really make that a serious threat or bugbear? It depends on which GL they use. Kyle’s ring has no problem with yellow. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/19 "2004-07-22T11:44:15Z")
The problem here is that Joe and Mary Sixpack don’t know the difference between Marvel and DC. When Marvel puts out a good movie like, say, Fantastic Four (assuming it will be good), they will think “No way, you talked me into seeing _Catwoman_ and remember how bad that sucked? No more comic book movies.” Then the budgets get lower. So the movies get crappier. So less people see them. Next thing you know we got David Hasselhoff reprising his role as Nick Fury. Oh well, I knew as soon as comic book movies got re-legitimized that they would eventually also fall again. As long as I get at least one more good big name superhero flick and a Black Panther movie starring Will Smith (NOT Wesley Snipes) out of this fad I’ll be happy. ---
**Author:** ![NothingMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b77776/32.png) [@NothingMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NothingMan)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692/20 "2004-07-22T12:17:11Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > Why would it be any more difficult than a paternally inherited “mutant gene” that grants so different powers as telepathy, involuntary energy blasts from the eyes, ability to control the weather (how?), ability to walk through walls, pyrokinesis (again, how?) and wings? Why would it be any more difficult than the bite of an experimented-upon spider that gives enormous strength, a sixth sense warning against danger of any description (once again, how?), and the ability to stick to walls at will? Ummmm…because neither Spidey nor Wolverine would get their ass kicked by Big Bird? 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-og-tell-me-this-isnt-true-jack-black-as-the-green-lantern/255692.md?page=2)