Peter Sarsgaard to Play Green Lantern Villain

Here’s the latest news on the Green Lantern front. They’ve cast the villain. The very talented Peter Sarsgaard is in negotiations to play bad guy Dr. Hector Hammond.

Hammond is a pathologist and son of a senator who is seen as a disappointment in his father’s eyes. He discovers a meteor, and in the comic, exposes himself to it, gets psionic powers (and a really large head) which he uses to control the minds of others. In the process he becomes a crippled. That doesn’t necessarily mean Peter Sarsgaard will be in a wheelchair with helium-head. They’ve changed the character considerably for the film.

Sarsgaard is joining Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively in the Warner Bros. comic book adaptation, opening in theaters on June 17, 2011.

Filming is scheduled to start in March in New Orleans.