Sometimes, I just can’t help myself when stuff like this comes down the pipe just before the weekend. Its like Hollywood intentionally plans on torturing us to deliberate and scream at each other over the weekend until they can finally make up our minds and our arguments. Oh wait, that is EXACTLY why they do such a thing. To create buzz. It doesn’t matter what we have to say, because quite honestly, we can’t help ourselves.
So, considering you have been warned, news has broke today that the leading contenders to play Hal Jordan, Earth based Space Cop of the Green Lantern Corps, are Bradley Cooper (of the hilarious The Hangover), Justin Timberlake (yes, you read that right) and Deadpool. I mean, Ryan Reynolds. So sayeth the Hollywood Reporter:
Along with director Martin Campbell [Casino Royale] and producers Donald De Line and Greg Berlanti [Eli Stone], Warners has spent the past five months searching for the actor to play Hal Jordan, the hot-shot Air Force pilot who is chosen by a dying alien to be his successor in an intergalactic police force known as the Green Lanterns.
This week, the race narrowed to Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Timberlake. The clock is ticking on the decision as the holding deal the studio had on the actors expired Monday, meaning the three are now free to accept other offers.
The studio ordered up two rounds of screen tests with Cooper, Reynolds and Timberlake. Other actors in the early mix included Michael Fassbender, Henry Cavill and Jared Leto.
They better be joking with the Jared Leto bit. I’m just going to take a second and chime in on my thoughts on this bit of news.
Cooper, who I’ve liked way back when he was Jennifer Garner’s reporter pal on Alias has been getting quite a bit of buzz and by far leads my preference on who should play Jordan. If you’ve seen The Hangover you know he has the womanizing charm that is characteristic in Jordan and the looks to go along with it.
Timberlake, though I continually contend that he should have a late night show over Jimmy Fallon, has been showing promise. He was literally the only bright spot in Alpha Dog but I don’t know, I feel like him being cast as Jordan would eclipse the entire movie as a whole. Green Lantern is an epic space opera, it should be covered on how cool a movie of this kind is being done; with Timberlake on, it would become about him, and how cool he is now that he’s in a comic movie.
Reynolds, though I really like him, and think he’s perfect for the role he already has (Deadpool) is better suited to another DC hero: The Flash. Which he was in hot contention for regarding the latter when David Goyer was writing/directing that vehicle. Which died out a couple of years ago. That said, I don’t think his name should come up in this discussion.
There is also the price to consider. This movie will more than likely cost at least $200 million dollars to make. Considering how big Timberlake and Reynolds are now (Cooper’s star is rising and thus probably his price tag) will cost the production a huge amount of money.
So, let the discussion begin, and hopefully we’ll have answers come Monday. Regardless, an early pick of mine was Nathan Fillion, and there was a cool fan-made movie made around him as Jordan.
