Ohhhh, I'm so tempted to do a Nikki Finke.

I'll just say that I am happy to see Bradley Cooper still absolutely in the race for the part, and in my opinion, the best guy for the job.

Ryan Reynolds is a movie star waiting for the right part.  If they'll let him make the "Deadpool" movie he really wants to make, that could be his signature part.  He's put in the time to make that happen.  Fox wants it to happen.  It really should happen.  And that's a Fox/Marvel Universe character.  Reynolds shouldn't also be playing a character in the DC Universe.  And vice versa.  I don't really want to see Christian Bale in a "Fantastic Four" reboot.  He's Batman.  Stay on this side of the net, right?

Justin Timberlake is...

Let's be honest.  It doesn't matter how he tests.  What matters is can you sell him to the audience as a credible movie star in a superhero film called "Green Lantern" where he's flying around in outer space and hanging out with aliens and having cosmic-scale adventures?

Can you sell JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE to the audience doing that, without cracking a smile and winking at them about it?  Because that's what you have to do.

[more after the jump]

Can you imagine any audience watching the film and thinking, "The Green Lantern is cool!", or do you think they're going to watch thinking, "Justin Timberlake's flying in outer space!"

He's done very good work on film.  I believe that.  His performance in "Black Snake Moan" is absolutely the work of an actor, a guy with chops, a performer of substance in a scene.  He's got something that he absolutely brings to a moment.  I think he's more than proved himself on "Saturday Night Live."  I think people would expect Andy Samberg to come in and do the theme to "Flash Gordon" at some point in this film.  He's also quite good in "Alpha Dog."  I don't think it would be fair to compare Justin Timberlake on film to Elvis, because Elvis didn't have enough confidence in how good he could be on film, so he chose to make a lot of fairly easy rotten movies.  Timberlake knows he's good.  He makes interesting and smart commercial choices.  I think he's far more like Frank Sinatra on film.  Sinatra was a damn good actor.  When he was given someone to play against, something to say, something to play or do, Sinatra was as good as any of the '50s method guys.  He had a direct, masculine honesty that made him a credible movie star.  I think Timberlake could easily be a movie star.  And in every movie you ever see him in, you will think, "Hey, cool, it's Justin Timberlake, and he's a lawyer."  Or "He's an archeologist."  And no matter how good he is, his characters will always be Justin Timberlake first.  No matter how great Sinatra was or how great the films were, he was always SINATRA with a capital SINATRA.

Cooper's the choice.  He's already a Warner Bros. star.  "The Hangover" has long since passed the f-you money mark, they've set a release date for "The Hangover 2," which Todd Phillips assured me is "totally sick," and they're betting on him again already.  Sounds like they've got some faith in the work they've seen from him.  This is a guy who has played a lot of different character parts, from "Alias" to "Wedding Crashers" to "Midnight Meat Train" and of course "Hangover," showing up in showy roles in a lot of crazy left turns that add up to a pretty hefty resume.  He's got some serious hellraiser in him.  He has yet to get that role, where he harnesses that smirky cocky side and the genuine no-irony leading man side and the full-grown-man thing that I think is essential to buy a superhero as outsized as "Green Lantern."  Ryan Reynolds can pull that off, yes... but personally, professionally, as a comic book fan... I think it's Cooper the studio should lock down.

AICN broke the Timberlake story.

The Hollywood Reporter discussed the holding contracts that all three candidates were under, and how those contracts just ran out.  I assume that means they'll make an offer to the one they like, and fast.

Remember who brought you the Cooper exclusive first.

And answer the attached poll... who should play Green Lantern out of the threse three candidates?  No write in answers acceptable, and "Jo Mama" is not playing the part, I get it, ha.

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