Ryan Reynolds is the Green Lantern

Ryan Reynolds has been chosen to play Hal Jordan in “The Green Lantern”, a live-action film based on the DC Comics hero. The film is scheduled to come out in 2011.

Reynolds was selected over over two other finalists, Bradley Cooper and Justin Timberlake. Reynolds has previously starred in another comic book based movie; he played Deadpool in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, GoldenEye, The Legend of Zorro), producer Donald De Line and the studio each had a different favorite among the finalists so the final decsion took several months to make. Writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell created the “Green Lantern” in 1940. After World War 2, interest in the comic declined, however it was revived in the 1950s when Hal Jordan who was a second-generation test pilot was given the power ring and battery (lantern) by a dying alien named Abin Sur. Abin Sur’s spaceship crashed on Earth and 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.” “The Green Lantern” is scheduled to be released on June 17, 2011.