14 DAY TRIAL // “Green Lantern” is now labeled a “troubled” project, with troubled being the new normal. The film, a summer tentpole, is being rushed to meet the June 17 deadline: for that to happen, another $9 million was added to the original budget.
Warner Bros. estimated the budget for the film at $45 million (but 3D was not factored in, and neither were marketing costs), Variety reports.
Now that it’s become clear that production needs to be rushed for the film to meet the deadline, another $9 million were added to the budget – and this money will be spent on visual effects only.
Though it may sound tragic, this is the reality of every summer tentpole released these past couple of years: in a bid to get as many people in theaters as possible, movie studios are promising a lot over a very short period of time with their movies.
Because they can’t afford to miss the deadline / release date, they’re forced to make adjustments to the budget on the go: and the same goes for “Green Lantern,” starring Ryan Reynolds.
“The visual effects budget for Warner Bros.’ ‘Green Lantern’ has risen by $9 million, with new vfx houses recruited to bolster the team that’s been working overtime to meet the film’s June 17 launch,” Variety says.
“The Warner Bros. pic will no doubt meet its date, but other effects-heavy films continue to scramble. In fact, the kind of sturm and drang that’s swirled around ‘Green Lantern’ is actually par for the course on most visual effects-heavy tentpoles these days – and the problem’s growing,” says the publication.
Other summer productions are in the same situation: “Captain America” and “Transformers: The Dark of the Moon” are also billed “troubled” projects and have vfx people working overtime to get the job done in time for the release.
Chris de Faria, Warner’s exec VP of digital production, animation and visual effects, offers a slightly different perspective on the situation with tentpole movies, saying that rushing them to meet the deadline is not “risking” but “perfecting” the film “until the 11th hour.”
“Movies this year, like the movies last year, are more spectacular, the vfx are more ambitious than ever before,” de Faria says for the aforementioned publication.
“The stresses that it places on production management are very real. I feel them every day, but our job is to develop new tools and new systems for dealing with that,” he adds.