Having been to the set of Warner Bros. summer tent pole Green Lantern, I was aware of how producer Donald De Line and director Martin Campbell were aiming for the highest-caliber voice talent to bring linguistic life to a slew of the films CG-rendered characters, but I wouldn't have guessed that Geoffrey Rush would eventually sign up to lend his theatrical talents to the fan favorite Lantern Tomar-Re. Nevertheless, that's what The Hollywood Reporter is claiming today as the film nears completion and its June 17th release date.
It'll make for a busy summer for the Oscar-winning actor and producer (who just took home a statue for shepherding The King's Speech), who reprises his beloved role as Captain Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides a month before Green Lantern hits theaters. Though it seems a tad late in the game to be doing casting of any kind on a big-budget film like this, the source notes that bringing on vocal talent at the eleventh hour is commonplace in huge Hollywood productions like this $150 million superhero spectacle.
For those not geeky enough to know about the DC Comics mythology, Tomar-Re was an extraterrestrial scientist before becoming a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. After joining, one of his major responsibilities on the Corps' home planet Oa was to train new recruits, a job he'll perform in the film on Ryan Reynolds' Hal Jordan. With awkward avian features and a cool attitude, he's been one of the most well received secondary characters in Green Lantern's long history, so it's not only a joy to have him included in the film but a major coup to have an actor as great as Rush portraying him.
Green Lantern also stars Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, Angela Bassett and many more.
Source: THR