Report: Ryan Reynolds is Green Lantern

Ryan Reynolds

Credit: Gus Ruelas/AP

After a long and high profile search, the title role in Martin Campbell's "Green Lantern" film has reportedly been handed to Ryan Reynolds.

Just one day after The Hollywood Reporter broke that the Green Lantern quest was down to Reynolds, Justin Timberlake and Bradley Cooper (whose potential involvement was first revealed at HitFix), Variety is saying that  the role belongs to Reynolds.

The Warner Brothers adaptation of the DC Comic franchise is expected to begin production in January, working from a script by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green.

DC Comics first introduced the ring-powered Green Lantern as the alter ego for engineer Alan Scott in 1940 and the character has gone through many subsequent incarnations including test pilot Hal Jordan, the focus of the Berlanti/Guggenheim/Green script.

It's been a pretty good summer for Reynolds, who has seemingly been on the cusp of high-level stardom for a number of years. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" has taken in more than $360 million worldwide and launched development on a stand-alone "Deadpool" feature based on Reynolds' character. Relative to its budget, the romantic-comedy "The Proposal" has been an even bigger hit, passing $100-million domestic.

Reynolds is expected to work on the indie "Buried" next. 

As for the other "Green Lantern" candidates? Well, don't cry for Cooper, who has his own potential comedy franchise in "The Hangover," which has already made more than $210 million domestic. And Justin Timberlake? Well, he's Justin Timberlake. We think he'll be fine.