The heat is being turned up on the Green Lantern lately. After a long bout of silence followed the casting of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, we finally were informed recently that Blake Lively would be joining him in the female lead. This news is now being followed-up with reports that Peter Sarsgaard is in negotiations with Warner Brothers to join the cast as the evil villain Dr. Hector Hammond.

If all comes together, this is how the characters work: Lively plays Carol Ferris, who runs her father’s aerospace company and hires Reynolds’ Hal Jordan as a test pilot. Jordan is sent out to a crash site that turns out to be an alien who gives him the powerful ring that makes him the Lantern. And finally, if Saarsgaard is cast, his Hammond character is a pathologist with daddy issues who gains psychic abilities from a meteor.

Green Lantern is being directed by Martin Campbell. Campbell has directed a pair of Zorro movies in The Mask of Zorro and The Legend of Zorro, as well as a pair James Bond movies in Goldeneye and Casino Royale. His latest film is the Mel Gibson starring Edge of Darkness, which comes out on the 29th of January.

When it comes to the James Bond franchise, everything is pretty much fair game in terms of cast and crew. Approaching the 23rd film in the series, anyone can direct a chapter and there’s absolutely no issues with recasting the role of James Bond himself after an actor has contributed to a few of the flicks. Since Daniel Craig took over the famed title in 2006’s Casino Royale, Bond has reached a whole new level of quality and entertainment. Martin Campbell directed that chapter, which was followed up with Marc Forster’s Quantum of Solace, and now we know who will handle the duties for Bond 23: Sam Mendes.

Much like Forster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland), Mendes is not a director who plays in the realms of action movies very often. His best work to date is the Best Picture winning American Beauty, which he has followed up with many loved and respected films such as Road to Perdition, Jarhead, and Revolutionary Road.

For a good chunk of time, the three names rumored to be up for the coveted title role in the Green Lantern movie were Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, Wedding Crashers), Chris Pine (Star Trek, Smokin’ Aces), and Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson, The Notebook) (Read: ‘Green Lantern’ Gets Pushed Back Six; May Have Its Star). Just yesterday, word came around that a new list of three had been deduced, and that list still included Cooper, but added both Justin Timberlake (Alpha Dog) and Ryan Reynolds (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Proposal). Thankfully, instead of this turning into another The Dark Knight Joker casting rumor bonanza, the actor has been chosen, and it is indeed Ryan Reynolds.

As is common, the deal isn’t completely official yet, but Reynolds did two screen tests for the studio and they chose him, so right now they’re just trying to work on the monetary and contractual obligations. It’s safe to assume that they want this to be a massive franchise and not just one successful movie, so expect the actor to likely sing on for a few pictures.

While The Green Hornet works out all of their complications and figures out who’s going to direct, another Green project is moving right along — Green Lantern. It’s being reported that Martin Campbell is in negotiations with Warner Bros. to direct the film, which is based on the DC Comics title.

Campell seems to like returning to properties — he directed both The Mask of Zorro and GoldenEye in the 90s and then went on to direct The Legend of Zorro and Casino Royale recently, which is widely considered the best James Bond movie of all time. I guess this means he has a lot of loyalty to his work, which is always a big bonus to find.

This is yet another hero from way back, first appearing in 1940. Apparently back then everyone who made comics hated all colors except green.