The heavily CGI special effects in Green Lantern have been an issue for the production from the very beginning, when the news broke that the entire Green Lantern costume would be CGI, and had a big impact on the film's first trailer, which featured effects so shoddy the studio eventually apologized. Now with Green Lantern less than two months away from its June 17 release date, the studio is sending another $9 million to the production to get the effects just right.
In a Variety article careful to point out that Green Lantern is hardly the only tentpole film left racing to the finish line, Warner Bros. executive VP of digital production promises, somewhat defensively, "There is no problem on Green Lantern .We try to add things to make the movie better until the 11th hour. That doesn't mean we're risking the movie up to the 11th hour." And Variety rightly notes that it's basically impossible that the studio will allow the movie to miss its release date, meaning all the fixes taking place right now are the kind of tweaks that add to the promise of an effects-heavy spectacle, the kind of movie we expect to be routine in the summer months. And Green Lantern is definitely not alone--Marvel visual effects executive Victoria Alonso admitted "we are feeling the heat" for the short schedule they have in finishing Captain America. And the Easter holiday for the effects team working on Transformers: Dark of the Moon was cancelled so they could continue working around the clock.
On one hand, it's good to see that Warner Bros. is still investing in Green Lantern and willing to put out the cash to make sure the movie looks right. On the other, it's infuriating that the studios show no sign of stopping these ridiculously rushed schedules. Just look at The Avengers, a tentpole release that has to combine the visual effects for four different marquee superheroes; it started shooting yesterday in time for a May 4 release date next year. Sorry, visual effects experts of the world-- your work schedules only seem to be getting more insane in the coming year.
