It is being reported that Ryan Reynolds has won the casting battle to play the part of Hal Jordan/Green Lantern in the planned big screen movie adaptation of the comic book hero. It was rumored that both Justin Timberlake and Bradley Cooper were up against Ryan for the role but it looks like Ryan won the role. This makes Reynolds the first actor to play a character from both Marvel Comics (he featured in the Blade series of films and played Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and DC Comics (Green Lantern is one DC‘s big superheroes):

Warner Bros. Pictures has hired X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Proposal star Ryan Reynolds to play the title role in the anticipated Green Lantern, scheduled for a June 17, 2011 release. Based on the DC Comics hero, the action-adventure will be directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, GoldenEye) and produced by Donald De Line and Greg Berlanti. Berlanti wrote the script with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. The Hollywood trades say that Reynolds and his camp entered negotiations for the part Friday, after the studio held two rounds of screen tests, along with actors Bradley Cooper and Jared Leto. Justin Timberlake also did a screen test. The studio had holding options on the actors, but, except for Reynolds, those expired Monday. Reynolds’ option would have expired end of day Friday. Production is expected to begin in January. The “Green Lantern” was created in 1940 by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell. Introduced in 1959, Hal Jordan is a second-generation test pilot, an ordinary man who was given the power ring and battery (lantern) by a dying alien named Abin Sur. When Abin Sur’s spaceship crashed on Earth, the alien used his ring to seek out an individual to take his place as Green Lantern: someone who was “utterly honest and born without fear.” Reynolds recently starred in Fox’s “Wolverine,” in which he played Wade Wilson/Deadpool. The character is now being developed for a spin-off to which Reynolds is attached. He also played Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity.

As much as I LOVE Ryan Reynolds, I was really pullin’ for Bradley Cooper to get the part. I can totally see Hal Jordan in Cooper … and I was really lookin’ forward to seeing Coop in those tight superhero spandex. Ah well, I guess I’ll just have to settle for Ryan Reynolds squeezin’ his goodies in those superhero spanx. Wait … why was I all upset for again?? On second thought, WOOT!! What do y’all think … is this good news or bad news?

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