Tarantino: 'I turned down Green Lantern'

Quentin Tarantino has revealed that he turned down the opportunity to direct comic book adaptation Green Lantern.

Speaking to MTV, the Inglourious Basterds helmer said that he declined the offer to bring the DC superhero to the big screen because he has "outgrown" such projects.

"I was offered the Green Lantern," he said. "Not since it's been a script, but just like, 'Hey we own the Green Lantern, would you like it?'

"So there's a little part of me that's like, 'Wow, if I was in my 20s, this would be the genre I'd want to specialise in'," he continued. "But they weren't making them then, or at least not the right ones. But there also is an aspect where I've kind of outgrown that a little bit."

Tarantino added that he is still open to the idea of directing a superhero movie, but would prefer to create an original character rather than adapt an established comic property. "It wouldn't be an existing comic book character," he said.

"I'm a writer. I'd want to use my imagination and not have to fight with geeks' memories of how this character should be and, 'Oh, I cast an actor as opposed to a bodybuilder', or, 'It's not as good as the way [DC Comics artist] Neal Adams drew him'. If I were to do something like that, I would want the fun of coming up with the superhero myself."

Green Lantern, directed by Martin Campbell, will arrive in cinemas on June 17, 2011.