Robert Smigel Understands Why You Didn't Like His Comedic Take on Green Lantern

With Green Lantern out in theaters, interest in Robert Smigel's lost script for a comedic take on the ring-wearing superhero has begun anew. The former Saturday Night Live writer and hand behind Triumph, The Insult Comic Dog wrote the film with Jack Black in mind back in 2004, but Warner Bros. scuttled the planned adaptation -- perhaps, in part, because of fan outrage on the Internet toward a less-than-faithful take. Not that Smigel has any hard feelings.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Smigel said he understood the years-old outrage: "I'm a huge Peanuts fan, so if I heard they were doing a new Peanuts with Jack Black as Charlie Brown, I'd be mad, too. And I'd be twice as mad if I heard I was writing it." Later, he elaborated on that point even further:

[I]f I were a diehard Green Lantern fan, I would have waited many years watching all of these other superhero movies like Daredevil get their turn and I would be very frustrated to hear that it's finally going to be done as a comedy. I wouldn't just feel screwed, I would also see it as a personal affront that the superhero that I've been worshiping is looked at as a joke. So I could see people being angry and I expected it. Whether or not it affected Warner Bros., I can't answer that question. I assume they would have expected that people on the Web who care enough about the Green Lantern to write about it on message boards would object to the idea of turning it into a joke.

Not that those fans were any more pleased with the version that wound up in theaters, but, hey. Robert Smigel, everyone: the almost-screenwriter for Green Lantern.

· Exclusive: Robert Smigel on His Unmade Script for a Green Lantern Comedy Starring Jack Black [VF]