Blake Lively will star along side Ryan Reynolds in Martin Campbell’s adaptation of DC Comics’ “Green Lantern,” revealed yesterday to be shooting in 10 weeks.
Lively will play Carol Ferris, the manager of her father’s aerospace company who hires Reynold’s hot-shot pilot Hal Jordan, subsequently setting him on the path to becoming the Green Lantern, a member of an intergalactic police force whose powers lie within a ring.
In casting Ferris, producers were seeking a slightly older actress — Keri Russell and Jennifer Garner were rumored to also be in the running — but 22-year old Lively reportedly won them over with her audition and work in Ben Affleck’s upcoming crime-romance “The Town” where she plays a criminal’s love interest, a role not dissimilar to the love interest of a superhero.
The film was also previously revealed to have an “Iron Man” like sense of humor, something that would probably suit Lively, a regular on TV dramedy “Gossip Girl,” more so than the likes of Russell and Garner. We’re not exactly familiar with the source material but marketing wise it looks like a smart choice to cast an it-girl to a B-grade superhero flick. Meanwhile, we’ll wait and see if she has real acting chops this September in Affleck’s aforementioned sophomore directing gig, but those that saw her in the TIFF film, “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” — such as our EIC — raved about her work (yeah, we were surprised too).
“Green Lantern” is tentatively scheduled for release June 17th, 2011.
