Peter Sarsgaard in Talks for 'Green Lantern' Villain

Good news on the Green Lantern front: It looks like the major players have all been cast. I don't know why it took six months from the time Ryan Reynolds was tapped as the intergalactic policeman to fill the rest of the key roles, because I thought the script had been done for quite a while. Regardless, we found out over the weekend that Blake Lively will play Lantern's love interest, Carol Ferris, and Heat Vision Blog says we're thismuch closer to a villain. Peter Sarsgaard is reportedly negotiating to play Dr. Hector Hammond, who begins his run in the comics as nothing special, but his luck changes when he finds meteor fragments in the woods. Even though it's kind of a long way to go to establish a villain, I would suspect the film wouldn't lump his broader story into one moment, where exposure to the radiation of the meteor gives Hammond a great big head and psionic abilities. The downside of doing that is, in the comic, at least, Hammond can no longer speak or walk after his transformation. Radiation's a funny thing. He wouldn't make for much of a villain with a giant prosthetic melon and no dialogue, so the trade off could be devoting more time to Hammond's early treachery when he isn't nearly as powerful, go through his little escape from prison and then, boom - third act he's a bobblehead that can control men's minds. A powerful villain once he gets going, Hammond certainly won't have that personality so many comic villains are known for. The other option is just bypassing the side effects of the radiation, and I'll leave it up to purists to debate all that. Then you have to wonder if this character shows up in more than one movie, and I'd wait to see what the reaction is once he's on screen before casting a vote. Filming is set to begin in just a few weeks in New Orleans, and Lantern opens in the summer of 2011.

Comments

[Josh]

Please oh please let a movie series treat the villians like they should, and don't have them tripping over each other by the 2nd or 3rd movie....

[El Doucheo Bago]

The meteorite is what was powering Abin Sur's ship when it crash lands on Earth and Hammond is the first one who gets to take a look at it, that results in him being able to read peoples thoughts and lots of other telekinetic things. In the comics he doesn't look the way he does in the pic shown here anymore. Now his forehead is just slightly larger and veiny, he looks to be comatose, and he can make his body fly(more like floating) with his mind.

[anybody]

I like the first installments of superhero films for this reason because I like origin stories and in the first you usually get the heros and the villains (and then only the villains in subsequent films). As far as this character goes I bet he starts normal and devious and then attains the powers somewhere in act two but still remains able to walk and talk(with a relatively normal sized and veiny head).

[Get The Big Picture]

Doucheo -

So are there instances of Hammond in the comic where he's mostly human? Or can he just float and not talk?

[El Doucheo Bago]

The guy is a total scum bag before the accident. I believe that he is in a wheel chair after his exposure to the meteorite. He doesn't need to talk, he says everything telepathically. That's how it is in the script, the first draft at least.

[El Doucheo Bago]

Here is Hector Hammond from Green Lantern: Secret Origins http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/135/l_9eaf8d7ed2294524b7130d2f5dcb025f.jpg

I think he eventually grows into the huge head guy but not in the origin.