Spider-Man may be headed for an early grave but luckily, most of the world’s other superhero properties are safe and prospering. For instance it’s nothing but good news on Green Lantern where they’ve just cast the movie’s villain. THR says the ultra-talented Peter Sarsgaard is in negotiations to face off against Ryan Reynolds’s Hal Jordan as bad guy Dr. Hector Hammond.

In comic lore, Hammond is a petty crook who discovers a meteor with the power to make people super-intelligent. Eventually he exposes himself to it, gets psionic powers (and a really large head) which he uses to control the minds of others. In the process he becomes a cripple. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see Peter Sarsgaard rolling around in a wheelchair with helium-head. They’ve changed the character considerably for the film. In this incarnation though he still gets psychic powers from a meteor, he’s described as a pathologist and son of a senator, not a petty crook.

This isn’t Sarsgaard’s first dance as a villain. In Flightplan he toyed with Jodi Foster and if you’ve seen An Education, while he’s not exactly an evildoer, he’s kind of a dick. Sarsgaard should have no problem using his mind for nefarious purposes.

Already cast in the film is Blake Lively, hired last week to play Hal Jordan’s obligatory girlfriend.

The original Dr. Hammond. I guess psychic powers don't work on drool.