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It isn’t exactly news about the destruction of a major comic book franchise, but this little tidbit will do for a rather boring afternoon. Heat Vision is reporting that Peter Sarsgaard is in talks to join the production of Green Lantern for director Martin Campbell and Warner Bros.

According to the report, he’s slated to play Dr. Hector Hammond, a super-villain born out of the combination of a petty criminal and a meteor fragment. Or at least, that’s who he was in the comic books. Heat Vision’s Borys Kit describes him as “the pathologist son of a senator who is seen as a disappointment in his father’s eyes. He becomes infused with psychic powers when he discovers a meteor.” Close, I suppose.

The real news here is the continued casting of Green Lantern. Sarsgaard is, as you know, an actor who has shown himself to be incredibly good, if not great, despite taking roles that seem molded for him. Dr. Hector Hammond is certainly outside his normal staple of roles. And at this point, with Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively in tow, this cast is a little all over the place. But I’ll be damned if I don’t see this cast as a well-collected group of actors, all waiting for that next breakout. If I were a betting man, I’d be betting with Warner Bros. on a comic book movie. Yes, those words taste funny as I type them. And no, I see no reason to take them back.

Green Lantern is scheduled to start production in March, with a release date set for June 17, 2011. More as the story develops.