The recent announcement that DC and Warner Bros. are moving forward on the Green Lantern Corps movie has made Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart a couple of the hottest roles in Hollywood. There's already a rumor as to who is on the shortlist to take one of the roles. However, speaking at Sundance, Armie Hammer says that if he's being considered for the role of Hal Jordan, it's news to him.
I saw the reporting, too. That's the first I've heard of it.
Armie Hammer's name was among several that have surfaced in recent days following the announcement that David S. Goyer and Justin Rhodes have been tapped to pen the script. The word is the studio already has a wishlist of possible Hal Jordans, including Hammer, Tom Cruise, and Joel McHale. The Lone Ranger actor, however, tells The Wrap that he doesn't know anything about the story.
While the news of the Green Lantern Corps. shortlist may be new, the fact is that is isn't even the first time that Armie Hammer's name has been attached to the film. Last month DC chief Geoff Johns started following the actor on Twitter, which led to rumors that the actor would be doing something with the company. Hammer even had some fun with the rumor, which means he had heard about it. Is the fact that the actor's playing dumb here indicative of anything? The fact that his name has been attached to DC before would seem to be a comment worth making, even if there's nothing to it. It hasn't been that long since the initial rumor started, though it's possible that it never even crossed his mind here.
It is true that being on a shortlist, even if it truly exists, certainly doesn't mean that everybody on the list is even aware of it. It could very well be that DC's list is just a bunch of ideas that they had in a meeting one day and that none of the actors on the list are aware they're being considered. One would expect they'd contact whoever is at the top of said list, and only move on if there's no interest.
It's also possible that DC and Warner Bros. haven't even considered who will be playing the major roles in Green Lantern Corps yet. The writers have only just begun work on the script, and while there's clearly already a structure in place, they're calling it "Lethal Weapon in space," the fact that the characters have yet to be written would make it difficult to figure out exactly which actors would be right. At this point, the reported shortlist seems to consist of whichever white guys with square jaws that they could think of.
We'll keep our eyes on this one to see which actor is eventually cast as Hal Jordan, though, since Green Lantern Corps doesn't have a release date yet, it could possibly be a long time before we know for sure.
