It’s officially time to scrape the bottom of the comic-book barrel.  WB has announced that The Green Lantern will shoot in Australia with Casino Royale director Martin Campbell and a $150 million budget. Besides a favorable exchange rate, the government of New South Wales also provides a 15% “location rebate.”  The lead hasn’t been named yet, but rumors thus far have included Emile Hirsch, Anton Yelchin, Sam Worthington, and Ryan Gosling.

To put the budget in perspective (and these are all estimated numbers…), Fantastic Four was $100M, Iron Man was $140M, Watchmen was $150M, The Dark Knight was $185M, X-Men: The Last Stand was $210M and Spider-Man 3 topped $258M. [/Film]

Keep in mind, The Green Lantern gets his superpowers from a magic ring.  No, really.  An alien named Abin-Sur crash lands on Earth, meets a young man, and likes him so much he puts a ring on him.  And the ring inspires the him to put on a full-body spandex suit and knee-high green F-me boots.  What that has to do with lanterns, I have no idea.  Maybe when he’s not fighting crime, he’s really into shabby chic.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have sounded so positive about the trailer for Todd Phillips’ The Hangover, because it must have been based on that that WB has greenlit a sequel, since the actual movie doesn’t come out until June 5th. Paramount recently did the same thing with JJ Abrams’ Star Trek.  Fast and Furious and Dragonball are also rumored to have sequels ready to go.  In related news, there is no Santa Claus and maggots eat your eyeballs when you die.

While studios often wait to see box office results before committing to a sequel, “The Hangover” has tested strongly, and a trailer brought down the house at ShoWest. Phillips will be back to direct and produce “The Hangover” sequel through his Green Hat Films banner. WB also has made deals to reunite Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms, who star in the original. [Variety]

Recession? What recession.  Lunch is for faggots.  Why wait? Everyone loved it: unemployed construction workers, theater owners, the association for albino hemophiliac movie bloggers – we’ve never heard such enthusiastic flipper clapping.  You gotta strike while the iron is hot, you pussies.  Like my Cambodian maid when she pressed this suit.  It’s made of Italian baby rhino leather.  That’s why I’m the boss.

_{Smith, in happier times}

Kevin Smith’s next directing project starring Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis apparently won’t be called A Couple of Dicks as originally reported, but rather the extraordinarily banal A Couple of Cops.

The scripting team of Robb and Marc Cullen penned the screenplay, centered on a pair of cops who track down a stolen baseball card, rescue a Mexican beauty and must deal with gangsters and laundered drug money. [Variety via /Film]

WB had originally acquired the script not realizing “dick” was a double entendre.  Once they found out, they took immediate action, first experimenting with more literal titles such as A Couple of Dicks – Not Penises, This Isn’t That Kind of Movie At All.  For his part, Kevin Smith is said to be unhappy with the change. “It’s like there’s a hole in my heart where some dicks used to be,” he reportedly told friends.

Reports Variety:

Warner Bros. is turning to Tom and Jerry to create its own “Alvin and the Chipmunks”-like family franchise.

God that’s a shitty sentence.  The cat and mouse are going to write a movie?  About Alvin and the Chipmunks? And who will it belong to?  But putting aside my incredulity that a professional writer wrote that, a movie about Tom and Jerry isn’t any less stupid.

Studio-based Dan Lin, currently producing the upcoming “Sherlock Holmes” and exec producer on “Terminator: Salvation,” will adapt the classic Hanna-Barbera property as an origin story that reveals how Tom and Jerry first meet and form their rivalry before getting lost in Chicago and reluctantly working together during an arduous journey home.

Finally!  Every time I see the mouse drop an anvil on the cat’s head I think, “Wait, why are they fighting?  What’s their motivation?  OH MY F-CKING GOD, THERE MUST BE A THRILLING MOTHERF-CKING BACKSTORY TO ALL THIS.”

As expected, Fox and Warner reached an agreement over the Watchmen case yesterday.  Under the agreement, Nikki Finke reports that Fox will get:

* 8.5% of the gross
* A piece of any sequels or spinoffs
* A cash payment upfront including recoupment of its legal fees, development costs, and possibly more

Fox won’t distribute the film, which will be released March 6th as planned.  Warner Bros, meanwhile, who are already sharing the revenue with Legendary pictures, may still sue Larry Gordon, the producer who brought the project from Fox to WB (it’s too bad he can’t grow a giant goatee on his forehead – then he probably wouldn’t have needed that facelift).  All in all, a nice little payday for Fox for doing nothing.  The good news is, now they have enough money to make Big Momma’s House 4: Momma vs. Madea.