> The Green Lantern show that was in development hell was being produced by JJ Abrams.

It was being produced by Greg Berlanti, and the original pitch was a 'multigenerational story' that Gunn described as a space opera with Alan Scott Green Lantern in the 40's, Guy Gardner in the 80's, and Simon Baz/Jessica Cruz in modern day. Which hey, seeing some of those characters in live action would be cool but doing every Earth Lantern except the two most popular and the two that make for a really obvious buddy cop paring seemed like a bizarre choice. Eventually it was reworked to be a John Stewart show but Gunn has said that version of the show is 100% cancelled and Lanterns is a totally new project.