Batman: Burnett Talks GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT

Author: Jett
May 27, 2009
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Four-time Emmy Award winner Alan Burnett departs from a 17-year stint in The Batcave to establish intergalactic justice as the screenwriter for GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT -- the next DC Universe animated original PG-13 movie coming to DVD on July 28, 2009.

Burnett’s stellar talents have merited four Emmy Awards, three Annie Awards and two Humanitas Prizes. His work within the Batman realm includes as a series producer on BATMAN AND SUPERMAN and BATMAN BEYOND, and most recently as supervising producer and story editor for Warner Bros. Animation’s award-winning series The Batman. He has remained active in crafting the words behind numerous DC Comics projects, both animated and in comic book form. In the direct-to-DVD arena, Burnett co-produced and co-wrote the animated feature film BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM, was supervising producer and writer for BATMAN: MYSTERY OF THE BATWOMAN, and served as producer on the feature-length BATMAN BEYOND: RETURN OF THE JOKER. He also served as movie story editor and the writer of the anchoring segment of the DC Universe animated original movie, BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT.

Here are a few blurbs from Burnett about GL:FF…

* On why/how he got involved with the project: “They had been going through some ideas for Green Lantern stories and none of them were quite working out and I came up with this notion that I thought would be interesting. So, I just pitched it to them in one line. ‘Have you ever done Green Lantern as TRAINING DAY?” with the idea of the Denzel Washington role being Sinestro. They said, ‘That sounds pretty good – start writing.’ And that’s how it began.”

* On GL:FF being a “police story”: “We’re treating all the sectors of the universe as precincts and there's, I believe, about 3,600 Green Lanterns – one for every precinct. Hal Jordan covers our section. The story is essentially Hal Jordan’s first day on the beat as a cop and he's partnered with Sinestro. He's seeing the universe for the first time, and we get to look at the universe through his eyes. It’s a bizarre place, but it's also pretty recognizable.”

* Any message in the film?: “I suppose it's the old ‘Don’t judge a book’ thing. Appearances are deceiving. Those who you think might be your greatest friend can be your greatest enemy, and those you might think are of no use to you could be the most important person in your life.”

* On Green Lantern: “Green Lantern is sort of a unique super hero. When you’re writing his powers, they do seem a bit odd – at times, they’re very sci-fi and at other times very magical. It's like that old saying about the technology being so advanced that it looks like magic. He has a ring that allows him to construct anything he can imagine. One of the tricks to writing about those powers is that, when you come up with something he does with the ring, the audience is expecting to be amazed, but also – and this is odd to say about a comics/science fiction story – they need it to be in context, and it needs to be believable. Hal is also a very colorful character and he’s in the middle of this big soap opera in space. It’s a very involving backdrop that opens the door to telling a million stories with him. He also has one of the great costumes – that great Silver Age suit from the 1950s. He was one of the few, and maybe he was the first flying character, who didn't have a cape. So he has this sleek outfit and it’s very striking.”

* On Sinestro: “We play Sinestro as sort of the bad half of Hal Jordan. As I was writing them, I figured they were pretty close. They both have distaste for authority. But Sinestro is the dark side of the Green Lanterns – he wants absolute control, while Hal Jordan is more about serving the people. The other thing about Sinestro is that he doesn't think of himself as a villain. He has a plan which he thinks is going to benefit everyone, but unfortunately what this plan does is give him absolute power. And, of course, absolute power corrupts absolutely – and you can see that it's corrupting him even as he tries to wield it.”