David Goyer Talks Green Arrow and Supermax

David Goyer Talks Green Arrow and Supermax

What would you call it if I told you there was a super hero script that featured no real costumes, no real aliases, no signature features, and it took place in a prison instead of a metropolis? Well if you’re up to date on the news, you’d call it the David Goyer co-scripted Green Arrow film Super Max. News has recently been popping up as more becomes known about this unconventional approach to the superhero genre.

The film will follow billionaire playboy Oliver Queen, better known to comic fans as the green cloaked Green Arrow, a mortal man who hones his archery skills to Robin Hood levels and uses that skill, and a quiver full of awesome, to fight crime. No word yet on whether or not he’ll have his trademark funny arrows, which include glue arrows, tear glass arrows, or even the fight ending boxing-glove arrow.

Super Max starts with a quick flashback retelling of the Green Arrow’s origins, which involve a yachting trip gone bad, some Robinson Crusoe island survival, and the capturing of a handful of drug-runners. Changing his hedonistic ways, our young Ollie becomes a champion for good in the world, using his billion dollar businesses to benefit the city and using his bow and arrows to bring justice to the streets. In the beginning, Queen is the Green Arrow, complete with green leather pants, quivers on his legs, a compound bow on his back, and a green hood. However, after he’s set up for murder, he’s tossed in the Supermax Penitentiary for Metahumans and hell, they even shave off his trademark goatee. So now we’ve got a Green Arrow with no costume, no goatee, and no bow. Though I’m sure he’ll make some sort of bow-shank!

Goyer had this big tidbit to give away:

“He’s Green Arrow for the first 10 minutes of the movie, and then he’s arrested and his secret identity is revealed. They shave his goatee and they take his costume and send him to prison for life, and he has to escape. It’s like ‘Alcatraz,’ and he has to team up with, in some cases, some of the very same villains he is responsible for incarcerating in order to get out and clear his name. Of course, tons of people try to kill him while he’s in there. We’ve populated the prison with all sorts of B and C villains from the DC Universe. For the fans, there will be all sorts of characters the hardcore comic book junkies will know, but they’re all going to be there under their human names and no one is wearing a costume, but there will be a lot of characters with powers and things like that.”

So there you have it. No name villains, no costumes, no super-names, no Green Arrow costume. This is clearly unconventional and I can’t say I’m amazingly interested in this approach. The saving grace, I think, is that Green Arrow isn’t really that popular so there won’t be that much invested in his comic book antics. We might just get a cool look at the interior workings of the Superhero world. Early reports also indicate appearances from The Joker, Lex Luthor, and The Riddler as inmates. Interesting indeed.

All in all, I’m interested but not excited at the moment. If the right team is set up with this, it could probably rock a whole lot of awesome ass. It would be a cool way of taking a shot at the character, though again, a bit risky for a first film in a series. Either way, I’ll be keeping an eye on it.

Other rogue villains include: Shock Trauma, Gemini, Icicle, Split, Floronic Man, Count Vertigo, Calculator, Iron Cross, Heat Monger, Backlash, Pied Piper, Merlyn, Djinn, Tattooed Man, Multiplex, Cascade, and the films main penitentiary baddy:

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Film School Rejects