We have a date! Warner Bros. have announced a whole slew of movie release dates, included in this list was the Green Lantern movie adap­ta­tion which is set for Christ­mas 2010, 17th Decem­ber to be more accu­rate. This falls on the same date as Sony’s ani­mated Smurfs movie.

Mar­tin Camp­bell, direc­tor of Casino Royale, Gold­en­Eye and Ver­ti­cal Limit is in talks to direct the Green Lantern movie adap­ta­tion, report Vari­ety. With WB’s big Super­man and Jus­tice League movie plans falling through it looks like Green Lantern is mov­ing to the top of the hit list; bring­ing with it Mar­tin Campbell’s tal­ent and expe­ri­ence and a renewed desire to make this much more than another super­hero fran­chise, espe­cially given the recent and phe­nom­e­nal suc­cess of that dark and emo­tional Bat­man movie.

Greg Berlanti was orig­i­nally inline to direct, he has since been attached to the movie, “This is where I leave you”, yet remains a strong influ­ence as one of the three writ­ers that penned the screen­play (the oth­ers being Marc Guggen­heim and Michael Green).

The Syd­ney Morn­ing Her­ald are cur­rently report­ing that New South Wales and Vic­to­ria are in a bid­ding bat­tle to attract the busi­ness of The Green Lantern movie production.

The film­mak­ers have been scout­ing loca­tions and inter­view­ing key crew in Syd­ney for a movie with an esti­mated bud­get of more than $150 mil­lion. Cen­tring on a test pilot who uses a magic ring to become a crime-fighting superhero.

Alan Horn, pres­i­dent of Warner Bros., recently spoke to Col­lider about the future of Bat­man and other super heroes at the WB. The Green Lantern news comes towards the end of the brief inter­view, here is Collider’s transcript:

I then ask when we might be see­ing another Super­man. “Prob­a­bly in the next cou­ple of years. We’re very anx­ious to bring Super­man back also.”

I then say Green Lantern? “Also on the board. On the run­way. Hasn’t taken off yet, but we’re close.”

I finally ask what he thinks the next Super­hero prop­erty might be from Warner Bros. He says “I think Green Lantern is prob­a­bly the best guess but I can’t promise it at this moment.”

And Jus­tice League? “Not yet.”

The IESB have had a chance to sit down with Greg Berlanti’s Green Lantern. After read­ing the screen­play through it appears that first impres­sions are very good; Berlanti and writ­ers Marc Guggen­heim and Michael Green have got the char­ac­ter just right. (Unlike some unmen­tion­able Jack Black treatment).

To setup the story, it opens with a narrative;

With the rev­e­la­tion of Oa and The Cen­tral Bat­tery with a voice over nar­ra­tion explain­ing that 1) there are extrater­res­tri­als that pro­tect the uni­verse, 2) they have power rings, 3) there are thou­sands of Green Lanterns and 4) one of us has become one of them.

Con­tin­u­ing, the plot arc fol­lows the ‘tra­di­tional’ Hal Jor­dan / Green Lantern route, mak­ing sure to include a bat­tle scene between Legion and Abin Sur; Sur’s crash­ing to Earth and the “choos­ing of Hal Jor­dan over Guy Gard­ner and Clark Kent”.

IESB’s Robert Sanchez also reveals this list of char­ac­ters that are set to appear in the movie:

Mar­tin Jor­dan (Hal’s father)
Hal Jordan/Green Lantern
Thomas Kalmuka
Carl Fer­ris
Carol Fer­ris
Kilo­wog
Tomar-Re
Abin Sur
Thaal Sine­stro
The Guardians
Legion
Hec­tor Ham­mond

Cit­ing that the Sine­stro plot arc has changed some­what — in keep­ing with a setup story and stor­ing more for a pos­si­ble sequel. This leaves Hec­tor Ham­mond as the cen­tral threat to Earth. This script heav­ily focuses on the sci­ence fic­tion ele­ments — with inter­stel­lar travel and other galax­ies. Whilst the real­ity hit that the Dark Knight gave us may have swayed stu­dios away form the fan­tas­ti­cal, I’m sure with the release of Star Trek they’ll all be rush­ing to cash in on the next big scifi phe­nom­e­non; as fickle as this busi­ness is.

First word from the stu­dio exec’s is that this is good, no word of a bud­get yet but the mur­mur­ings are encouraging.

CHUD have been speak­ing with pro­ducer, Don­ald De Line on the set of “Observe and Report”. De Line is involved with the Green Lantern movie adap­ta­tion and has spo­ken to address some recent inter­net rumors.

Jack Black is no longer attached to the fea­ture and the adap­ta­tion shall not be pro­duced as a com­edy — I can hear fans breath­ing a sigh of relief! Cur­rent sta­tus leaves them wait­ing for a first draft from direc­tor Greg Berlanti, which should be arriv­ing soon.

Vari­ety have stated that the rel­a­tively inex­pe­ri­enced Greg Berlanti (writer for char­ac­ter dri­ven shows such as Ever­wood and Broth­ers & Sis­ters) shall both direct and script write the live action film adaptation.

Marc Guggen­heim and Michael Green will also be involved in the script writ­ing process, with Don­ald De Line pro­duc­ing and Andrew Haas as exec­u­tive producer,

Both Guggen­heim and Green have worked with Berlanti before and each has Comic Hero writ­ing expe­ri­ence. Guggen­heim wrote the Mar­vel comic books “Amaz­ing Spider-Man,” “Wolver­ine” and “Blade.” Whilst, Michael Green, cur­rently the “Heroes” co-executive pro­ducer, was a writer-producer on “Smal­l­ville” and was involved in the “Superman/Batman” pub­li­ca­tion.

The project is offi­cially under way, under the guid­ance of Warner Broth­ers and DC Comics