It’s been a while since we heard anything about the development of the Green Arrow movie. I guess with the character disappearing from Smallville he suddenly found himself back on the B-list, with few people aware of his existence. Apparently David Goyer and Justin Marks haven’t forgotten though, because their script for Supermax has been seen and reviewed.
For those who don’t remember, the idea of the Green Arrow movie is that Green Arrow is arrested and locked up in a super-powered prison, where he has to fight for his own freedom against both the guards and the inmates. The script takes its title, Supermax, from the name of the super prison. If you don’t even know who Green Arrow is, you might as well stop reading now, because the rest of these ideas will probably lose your interest. I barely know about him and my interest isn’t exactly strong for this project.
El Mayimbe over at Latino Review has put together a brief script review for Supermax. At first glance, it just doesn’t seem like a concept that’s going to work, relying too much on fans and inside knowledge of Green Arrow and D.C. Comics B-list villains. Of the fifteen characters they mention, maybe I know who three of them are (and that’s a pretty big maybe). Even Green Arrow isn’t exactly recognizable, so how is Warner Brothers supposed to market a movie like this?
The script puts Green Arrow behind bars within 10 minutes of the start, so there’s not a lot of time for character development for newcomers, although apparently enough of the background is offered through flashbacks that the reviewer feels the movie is accessible to new audiences. Ollie Queen (the Green Arrow’s alter-ego) is set up for murder and arrested, while at the same time a corporate adversary is attempting to lead a hostile takeover of Queen’s company. The two are most definitely related.
Ollie is sent to Supermax which sounds pretty cool on paper. Convicts are color coded based on their skills and talents (super geniuses are blue while super-powereds like Oliver are green… allowing the Green Arrow to be in a green jumpsuit - clever, no? The prison changes nightly, moving rooms around and rearranging itself so the inhabitants are too disoriented to break out. The convicts are also controlled through something called a parallax device, which sounds important enough that it probably comes into play heavily in the movie.
Once Ollie is stashed away in prison, his corporate adversary realizes he needs Queen dead to aquire his company, which means a hit is put out on the former hero. Presumably this escalates the plot and drives a lot of the movie.
I’ll be honest, the script review sounds pretty interesting (especially with cameos from three of the DC Universe’s best villains) but I just don’t see this working as a movie. As a comic book miniseries, maybe, but as a big budget picture hoping to draw in a massive audience, it just doesn’t sound like it has the right stuff. Maybe I’m wrong. Head over to Latino Review to read their full article and let me know what you think.
