The basic concept actually came about through Justin Marks, a terrific young writer my wife Jessika (a producer) had previously worked with. They thought the idea of a prison-break story set in a jail designed exclusively for super-villains was a cool one. And I heartily agreed. After some discussion, we decided it would be fun to frame a super-hero and toss him into the meta-human mix.

From that point, it seemed like the next logical step was to set the film in either the Marvel or DC Universe. That way, we could populate the movie with all sorts of cool B and C-character Easter Eggs. We eventually landed at DC. Green Arrow, given his hard-hitting, moralistic tendencies, seemed like the most interesting hero to put through the institutional wringer.