Bradley Cooper does a Michael Keaton and is cast as GREEN LANTERN?

It worked in the late 80's. Ambitious young director Tim Burton rejected studio advice about who he should cast as Bruce Wayne/Batman and went straight for his actor on Beetlejuice, the family friendly comedy actor Michael Keaton, who clearly wasn't 6"2 and hadn't spent his whole adult life training for his body to be in the ultimate physical condition to avenge the death of his parents. Fanboy outrage ensued, but it would be the intensity of Keaton's performance, the ability to forge out a character and the darkness in Keaton's eyes that made him an inspired choice for the Caped Crusader and many still prefer his screen Batman to any other. Warner Bros. we almost know for sure have been clamouring for Ryan Gosling and Chris Pine for the lead role of Hal Jordan in Green Lantern, the next roll of the dice from the studio hoping to match Marvel's success with bringing Iron Man to the big screen, in a big way. But when both men turned down the roles (at least that's what I'm led to believe, the former I'm 100% sure has turned it down at least five times), director Martin Campbell is now hoping they are willing to take the same kind of risk in 2009 as they did with Batman two decades ago. 34 year old Philadelphia born actor Bradley Cooper is not an inexperienced actor. He started acting ten years ago and has been in a lot of stuff since then, coming onto the scene in Alias but then forging a career in the last few years in the comedy genre, usually as the alpha-male asshole in stuff like He's Just Not That Into You and The Wedding Crashes. He played Jim Carrey's best mate in Yes Man, was the lead in The Midnight Meat Train and is one of the leads in the upcoming comedy The Hangover which by the quality of the trailers, the fact a sequel has already been greenlit and the anticipation buzz it's recieved so far, it should give Cooper his biggest exposure to date. He is about to be introduced to the big stage. But being the star of The Hangover won't be anything like the exposure he will get when he puts on the power ring of the Green Lantern. Drew McWeeney at Hitfix is convinced that Cooper has won the part...

Let's be clear: they have not hired him yet. But the process is far enough along that this is more than just a meeting or some spot on a wish list. Keep in mind that Campbell likes to see a lot of people when he's casting... and even when he's screen-testing, he seems willing to explore as many options as possible... but with the film set to shoot later this summer, they've got to start making their choices, and now's the time to put people in front of the camera and see who really works in the suit. I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I would bet that Cooper's going to be the guy.

I've liked Cooper quite a bit in what I've seen him in and man, the guy is in shape too, so there's no worries on that front. And I would say that even though he mostly plays a great asshole (which usually means he is one in real life), he has managed to keep his characters interesting and at least somewhat likeable. Not an obvious choice, he wouldn't have been in my top five, but he has got physical presence which Pine and Anton Yelchin might have lacked here. Warner Bros. begin shooting the movie late summer on a $150 million budget down in Australia, so they have to make a decision on who it's going to be soon. The movie comes out December 2011.