When someone calls you and asks you to visit the set of Green Lantern you don't tell them that you have no idea what a green lantern is. You simply produce an appropriate intake of breath when the name Ryan Reynolds is mentioned and politely ask what kind of travel visa you'll be requiring.

And so it was that I headed to the swampy humidity of New Orleans last year to visit the set of Warner Bros' latest blockbuster to see first-hand what goes into making a big budget comic book adaptation. But not before doing a little research into the project.

Green Lantern was originally to be shot in Australia, but then the Australian dollar started to improve and suddenly it wasn't financially viable to shoot the film down under. So production moved to New Orleans to capitalise on the excellent tax breaks offered by the state of Louisiana.

The film tells the origin story of Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds), a young man struggling with his own personal demons after witnessing his father die in a grisly plane crash when he was a boy.

In an odd career choice, the grown-up Hal has followed in his father's footsteps and has also trained as a test-pilot.

While working at Ferris Aviation with his best friend Carol Ferris (played by Gossip Girl star Blake Lively), he encounters a dying alien and is granted a mystical green ring that bestows him with otherworldly powers, as well as membership into an intergalactic squadron called "the Green Lantern Corp", which is tasked with keeping peace within the universe.

The Lanterns are fighting a new enemy called Parallax, which threatens to destroy the balance of power in the universe. If Hal can master his new powers and find the courage to overcome his fears, he may prove to be the key in defeating this new evil.

According to a number of sources, this film will test audiences who are used to comic films that are a one-man show. It's a far more involved premise than your Superman/Batman franchises. Warner Bros was aware it had to get this film right - or else incur the wrath of fanboys the world over - so it recruited DC Comics' Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns to make sure the film stayed true to the ethos of the original comic book series.

It's not only the precious fan base that is putting pressure on this film. It's important that the studio produces the goods as this is the first chance the newly formed DC Entertainment brand show-off a big budget film. And show-off they will. The effects-laden movie has utilised motion capture and 3D effects with stunning results. On top of all the whiz bang visual trickery, an enormous amount of attention has been paid to the production design as becomes immediately apparent when touring the onsite production workshop.

Tucked away on a non-descript back street of New Orleans we meet production designer Grant Major, a New Zealand expat who came to prominence in the film industry when Peter Jackson locked him away for three-and-a-half years to work on design for The Lord of the Rings. We find Major surrounded by hundreds of fantastical sketches: it's the stuff sci-fi fans dream about. Every inch of wall in the room is covered with intricate drawings of mist-covered planets, bulbous-headed aliens and supersonic airplanes and the painstaking designs for the hundreds of different intergalactic characters that make up the Green Lantern Corp (Major knows each of the characters by name and can talk you through their back story).

The production team faced some big challenges on this film, one of which was working with the costume team to design Hal Jordan's green suit. Lycra obviously doesn't cut it in this day and age so the costume designers teamed with the visual effects department to create a suit that created almost entirely in post-production.

Helping Major create this other-worldly outfit is head costume designer Ngila Dixon, who also cut her teeth in the New Zealand film industry. "Superheroes and men in tights has just never been my genre," explains Dixon, who won an Oscar for her costume design on The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King in 2004. "But then again, something I've never done before is always my genre."

"From the beginning we were very conscious of the fan base," Dixon says, casting her eye over the sketches adorning the walls. "On one hand you don't want to wander too far away from the fans' expectations (of what the suit should look like), but at the same time you absolutely want to push the boundaries."

Dixon took inspiration from some weird and wonderful sources when designing the styles of the suit. She spent days pouring over anatomical images as well as the design of various cars and planes.  She even used tuna as inspiration – the way that light shimmers on the suit was modeled on the way light shimmers across the scales of a fish.

After spending some time with the production crew, we're whisked away to the other side of the set to meet director Martin Campbell.

It's an enormous project to be at the helm of - so Warner Bros decided to bring in the big guns. Campbell was the director charged with injecting life back into the James Bond franchise (and he did so by controversially casting Daniel Craig in Casino Royale) and the studio is hoping he can deliver a repeat performance and bring the wow-factor to Green Lantern.

Campbell is thoughtful, although he also seems dog-tired. He seems aware that an enormous responsibility is resting on his shoulders, but at the same time, he appears to have utter faith that this film is going to blow audiences away.

While he spends much time praising the visual effects team and the cutting edge technology that he's allowed to employ, it seems that Campbell is currently most excited about the performance that he's getting from lead actor Ryan Reynolds.

"As far as I'm concerned, there's just no comparison when it comes to Ryan Reynolds," he says.

"He was always my first choice for Hal Jordan. He has the physicality, humour and personality for the role. And I love the fact that there's no 'star' about him. He just works very, very hard."

When we finally meet Reynolds, it's immediately clear that it's a mutual admiration club. Reynolds, who is charismatic and charming throughout the interview, recalls that when he originally found out about the film he had very little knowledge of the Hal Jordan character, but his interest was piqued when he discovered that Campbell was at the helm. It also helped when he heard DC Comics' creative director Geoff Johns describe Green Lantern as "the Star Wars of the DC Universe" in an interview.

It's the first action blockbuster that Reynolds has headlined, and he seems to be relishing the role.

"I'm just loving the fact that we now have the technology to bring these stories to life in a spectacular way on the big screen," he says. "It's so much fun to be a part of it."

He's also grown fond of his character, Hal Jordan, describing him as "one of those cocky characters that I've always loved ... he's the guy that can swing a punch, drink a beer and kiss the girl all at the same time".

It's obviously been a gruelling shoot for Reynolds. In fact, it's the longest film shoot he's ever been involved with. On top of undertaking daily gym sessions and a stunningly strict diet that rules out any form of sugar, his days are often spent strung up on wires where he gets "lots of bumps and bruises" in the scenes where he simulates flying.

"Martin Campbell likes his action up close – as he says, he wants it to look like a knife fight in a phone booth," explains Reynolds.

"While I'm sure it will look amazing when it appears on the big screen, it's resulted in a few trips to the doctor for me."

After the on-set interviews have concluded our group is invited to the catering tent for lunch. Once the novelty of celeb-spotting has subsided ("Oh look! Mark Strong eating a bagel!") I start to reflect on what a big, long and expensive process this movie making business is.

Strangely this comes to my attention when staring agog at the vast array of food that has been prepared for this one run-of-the-mill cast and crew lunch and the hive of human activity that surrounds it. There are a crew of eight or nine craft services people adding ice to the enormous energy drink bucket, refreshing the popcorn in the popcorn stand (!) and labouring over steaming trays of chicken in the humid Louisiana afternoon.

Countless people are running around with headsets, drivers are waiting to pick up their charges and security guards are roaming the periphery. There are acrobats on stilts who have been hired to stand in for 8ft computer generated characters on set so the actors can use the correct eye-line when shooting a scene and a crew of tired looking hair and make-up artists are picking at fruit in the corner of the tent.

There are stunt men, people to care for the young children on set, stand-ins and extras. They all have to be accommodated, fed and transported every day.

And this is just one day in a shoot that will exceed 100 days.

---

The week following the set visit in New Orleans I attended Comic-Con in San Diego. For the uninitiated, Comic-Con is a monstrous gathering of comic book and sci-fi nerds, and an ideal platform for big movie studios to flaunt their wares.

The producers and cast members from Green Lantern presented to a packed auditorium on the Saturday morning of the convention. DC Comics fans draped in Green Lantern windcheaters had been queuing outside the venue overnight to ensure they got a sneak peek at some footage and a glimpse of the glamorous Blake Lively. It was only then that I fully appreciated what a big deal this film was to a lot of people.

The became abundantly clear when a young boy took to the microphone halfway through the presentation and asked Ryan Reynolds to recite the Green Lantern oath. The look of awe on the lad's face gives you some idea of the excitement levels surrounding this film.

(Unfortunately the video is not terribly good quality and there's some hysterical American screaming towards the end, but it gives you some idea of the hype surrounding the film).




Green Lantern opens in Australian cinemas on August 4, 2011. Simone Mitchell travelled to New Orleans courtesy of Warner Bros.