Warner Bros. has authorized an extra $9 million for special effects for its Green Lantern tentpole.  This is on top of the projected $45 million special effects budget, which is actually fairly moderate for a movie the size of Green Lantern, which was rumored to have cost $200 million to produce even before the revelation of the recent expenditures as new vfx houses have been recruited to bolster the units that have been working overtime to get the film ready for its June 17th debut.  At stake is Warner Bros.' attempt to create another major superhero movie franchise built around a character that is hugely popular in the narrow confines of the comic book industry, but not very well known outside of it.

 

Chris de Faria, Warner Bros. Executive Vice President of digital production, tried to make it abundantly clear to Variety that the last minute additions to the special effects budget were not moves of desperation: “There’s 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.”

 

After having its marketing efforts for the Green Lantern hamstrung for months due to the amount of time needed to create the film special effects (see “Green Lantern Trailer to Run With Thor”) Warner Bros. is now making up for lost time with the release of a number of TV spots and character posters (see “Two-Minute Green Lantern Spot”).