Variety sent me an announcement about an hour ago that Ryan Reynolds has landed the coveted role of Green
Lantern, getting the starring role in Warner Bros.’ live-action film based on the DC Comics hero.
Martin Campbell will direct. The studio is still working out the budget, but production is expected to begin in January.
Ryan Reynolds is one lucky guy.
This announcement caps off one successful, star-shaping year for Reynolds, who played Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a performance that prompted Fox to begin development of a spinoff film. Reynolds followed that by starring opposite Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy The Proposal, one of the top romantic comedies since 1999. The Proposal just passed the $100 million mark this week.
Reynolds vied for the superhero role along with The Hangover star Bradley Cooper and Jared Leto. The excitement erected for Reynolds in the last week when it was established that he was the only actor whose option was extended.
Picking Reynolds was a smart move because Reynolds carries a mean six-pack, just take a look at Entertainment Weekly’s cover issue for July.
From The Hollywood Reporter comes word that Warner Bros. has shortlisted three stars for the role of the titular superhero in Green Lantern: Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Timberlake.
The trio beat out Michael Fassbender, Henry Cavill and Jared Leto for the final list; all of them performed two rounds of screen tests. Apparently, the producer Donald De Line, director Martin Campbell and the studio each have a favorite among the final three, which is why a consensus hasn’t been reached yet.
Even more interestingly, the holding deal on all three actors expired on Monday, meaning they are now free to hook up to other projects, so making a casting decision is an urgent matter for the project.
The film will follow Hal Jordan, a hot-shot Air Force pilot who is inducted into an intergalactic police force called the Green Lanterns. It is scheduled to begin production by the end of the year for release in summer 2011.
Talking to Sci-fi Wire, Green Lantern screenwriter Marc Guggenheim said that the production is moving forward and that he recently submitted a draft of the script.
He confirmed that the script focuses n Hal Jordan, based on the silver age DC Comics incarnation of the superhero, telling the story of how he got to be in the Green Lantern Corps.
It is expected to be directed by Martin Campbell and is set to begin production this summer for release in 2011.
Many actors have been rumored for the role of Green Lantern but none so far have turned out to be correct. Yet another actor today turns up for the role: Alias star turned comedy supporting actor Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, Midnight Meat Train) is now a frontrunner to don the ring and save the galaxy.
This comes from HitFix who insists that the casting rumor comes from several reliable sources, though a deal is yet to be signed between Warner Bros. and Cooper.
Other actors rumored in the past have been Ryan Gosling, Anton Yelchin and Chris Pine. Shooting begins later this year under Martin Campbell’s helm.
Rumors have been swirling around the Internet, with different sites reporting variations of the same news: Chris Pine, who plays James T. Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek film, has been offered the role of Green Lantern in the upcoming superhero film.
The report is yet to be confirmed, though many sites are citing their sources that the rumors are false. However, it’s still out there, and it keeps on growing.
What is known, however, is that the producers have scouted Australia for suitable shooting locations. Filming is set to begin this September with Casino Royale director Martin Campbell in the director’s chair.
So much has been said about the upcoming Warner Bros. Animation Green Lantern: First Flight and apparently most DC comic fans are going to love this piece of leaked information on what is in store after the said film. Apparently there is already a film lined up and it is a combination of two DC comic heroes, Batman and Superman. Superman/Batman will be the sixth in the series of direct-to-DVD DC Universe Original Animated Movies that began in 2007 with Superman: Doomsday. Bruce Timm reportedly is executive producer.
The official synopsis appears to follow the source material — the initial arc of the Superman/Batman comic series — pretty closely: “United States President Lex Luthor uses the oncoming trajectory of a kryptonite asteroid to frame Superman and declare a $1 billion bounty on the heads of the Man of Steel and his ‘partner in crime’ Batman. Super heroes and super villains alike launch a relentless pursuit of Superman and Batman, who must unite — and recruit super help — to stave off the action-packed onslaught, stop the asteroid, and uncover Luthor’s devious plot to take command of far more than North America.”
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is expected to be released this fall.
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Talking to Coming Soon, producer Donald de Line spilled some details on Green Lantern, which he hopes will be more Iron Man than Dark Knight.
"It’s going to be a series of big stakes and big action, but it absolutely has a sense of humor,” he said. “I think people accept real life, even with really serious situations, with humor as part of that situation, as we experience in life, you have to have that… That’s how people cope, so they’ve done it so well in these other movies.”
He confirmed that the storyline will explore the origin of Hal Jordan, the wielder of the ring. De Line added that they won’t be ‘casting younger’ than originally planned, noting that it will most probably be “late ‘20s, early ‘30s.”
The movie is due out December 2010.
Martin Campbell is known for reinvigorating the James Bond franchise twice – first with GoldenEye and then Casino Royale a few years earlier. And now he is being sought to direct Green Lantern, the live-action film based on the popular DC Comics superhero.
The attachment of Campbell with the project will put the film at Warner Bros. frontline. They are currently expecting Chris Nolan to follow up The Dark Knight with another hit sequel. However, other DC projects such as Superman, Flash and Wonder Woman have stalled.
The film’s script has been written by Greg Berlanti with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green.
DC Comics head honcho Paul Levitz talked to Latino Review about upcoming film projects at the company, noting that it all depends on the third Batman movie.
"Everyone is waiting for Nolan to sign on for another Batman, once that happens, the release date for Superman and all other future projects will follow,” he said. The first two movies have done extremely well, with the second movie going on to break box office records.
Levitz also revealed that Brandon Routh may be attached to play the Kryptonian in the Superman Returns sequel. "Last week Brandon Routh has come around the offices in New York and Los Angeles as of late to talk about Superman and what we want to do,” he stated.
He also talked about the Green Lantern and Green Arrow movies, stating that the Lantern movie is moving forward pretty fast.
Keeping tabs on the Green Lantern project, Latino Review reports that Warner Bros. is keen on having Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling to portray the titular hero.
Their reliable studio source notes that Gosling is indeed the one being sought, following rumors that the likes of Seth Green, Justin Long and David Boreanaz had been in the running for the role of Hal Jordan.
The film is being helmed by Greg Berlanti and is expected to be out in 2010.