One of the hardest visuals to get right in a big screen comic book adaptation is translating the hero’s and villain’s colorful wardrobe from the page to real life without making them look ridiculous. It seems that, according to a report at /Film, the filmmakers working on the upcoming Green Lantern film have come up with a unique way of attacking the problem.
According to their sources, there will be no practical suit built by the production’s wardrobe department. Instead, it will be created in post-production through CGI.
For the unfamiliar, Green Lantern is more of a member of an interstellar police force than a regular costumed, super-powered vigilante. All members of the Green Lantern Corps have rings that emit enormous power, that they can control through shear willpower.
Given that hero Hal Jordan, being played by Ryan Reynolds, will undoubtedly switch on camera from his “civilian” clothes to those of his Green Lantern uniform in several scenes, this seems like a good way to easily realize the effect. Also, it makes me wonder exactly what costume designer Ngila Dickson, who won an Academy Award for Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King, has devised. This approach certainly hints that she has come up with something that will help convey the uniform’s other-worldly origins. And since DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer, and current fan favorite on the Green Lantern comic, Geoff Johns has reportedly given his blessings to the design, I’m not worried that the look will deviate too far from what is on the printed page.
Of course, we’re going to have to wait until Warner Brothers decides to release a photo of Reynolds in costume to get our first look at it. The best an unauthorized set picture of Reynolds walking from a makeup trailer will show is him in a gray motion tracking/performance capture suit covered with LEDs as production on the film continues in New Orleans.
Green Lantern will hit theaters next summer.
