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Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern movie is due to start shooting in Australia before the end of the year… and they have yet to find an actor to take on the title role.  Rumors have been rampant of late focusing most notably on Bradley Cooper.  Well rumors no more, THR has listed the three names currently in contention for the role… and one of them is pretty damn disturbing.

THR is confirming a rumor first posted by AICN that Warner Bros. has narrowed the potential actors down to just three… Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds, and Justin Timberlake.  I’ll let you soak that in for a minute… Cooper, Reynolds, and Timberlake.

Apparently the studio requested two rounds of screen tests for all three actors in the hopes of agreeing on which should take on the role of Hal Jordan, aka Green Lantern.  A Monday holding deadline came and went without a consensus between director Campbell, producer Donald De Line, and the studio, and now all three actors are free to accept offers elsewhere.

There’s quite a bit at stake here so you can’t fault the filmmakers for treading carefully, but they may be moving a bit too slow.  Aside from being scheduled to start production this year, Green Lantern has already seen it’s announced release date move from December 2010 to June 2011.  Large-scale effects movies like this need all the turn around time they can get for CGI and other post-production work, so the longer they delay the more danger they’re in of being bumped even further.

Most people seem to agree that Cooper is a good fit for the role.  His biggest drawback would have been a lack of recognition among movie-goers, but thanks to the success of The Hangover he’s now become a much more recognizable face.  He’s a solid actor capable of both comedic and dramatic turns and should be comfortable with the physical requirements as well.  But isn’t he already booked for The A-Team movie?

Like Cooper, Reynolds would be able to slip into the ring quite effortlessly.  He’s shown repeatedly that he’s a surprisingly good actor with the right material, and he’s also done extensive physical roles from Blade: Trinity to the recent Wolverine movie.  It’s that last one that may pose the problem though… he’s scheduled to return to the Deadpool role for his own stand-alone movie.  Will he be allowed to take on both Marvel and DC characters by the respective parent companies?

And then there’s Timberlake.

So what do you think?  Any defenders of that last option?  Anyone want to give a shot at convincing the rest of us that Timberlake would be the right choice here?  Russ Fischer over at /Film thinks it’s a good idea and does a valiant (albeit brief) job putting across his argument.  He’s wrong of course, but gets an A for effort.

Thoughts? Complaints? Recipes?