Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) is currently shooting Warner Bros. Green Lantern in New Orleans, and co-writer and producer, Greg Berlanti spoke with MTV at last week’s ShoWest about the choice of Ryan Reynolds for the lead role of Hal Jordan/Green Lantern.

Berlanti said,

“I grew up reading the comic books, so to be a part of it in any way has been a real dream come true. It’s like being a kid in a candy store — seeing the ring, seeing the plan for what Oa is going to look like, and seeing someone like Ryan Reynolds bring it to life has been pretty amazing.”

When asked how much (if any) CGI will go into Green Lantern’s uniform – Berlanti said,

“We’re all on lockdown about that stuff, so as they dole it out to fans, everyone can enjoy it for the first time.”

As for Reynolds himself, Berlanti had no small amount of praise for the actor and why he was offered the role.

“He’s one of those actors who can really do everything, the part really requires someone to fit the role of a superhero, but also bring their own personality to it. … At the end of the day that’s as much what makes these films different, I think. What’s the personality of the star, and how does that mesh in with the way we know and love Hal Jordan?”

“Ryan had the whole package — he could do the comedy, he could do the drama,” he added.

According to On Location Vacations, One lucky New Orleans resident – Ava F Axen, got to watch some of the filming, and also managed to get a picture of herself with a “beaten up” Hal Jordan/Ryan Reynolds, who reportedly headed directly to the fans in between takes to sign autographs.

Ava said,

I was in New Orleans at Lucy’s Retired Surfer Bar on Tchoupitoulas and Girod, a couple of men were in there. One came over to ask us what to do on Saint Paddy’s Day and he had on a badge for The Green Lantern, he was an executive something another. I didn’t want to stare at his badge. LOL. They closed the bar down early because it was the bar manager’s birthday. So at about 1 AM we stumbled out of the bar and headed back down towards our hotel on Tchoupitoulas Street and we looked over to the right and there was the movie set. We stood outside with about five other people and in between re-setting the set for the action scene Ryan would come out and sign autographs and take pictures. It was definitely a great moment. He was super nice and laughed at a man who only had a 50.00 bill for him to sign. He laughed at that guy. We watched filming for about ten minutes before heading home because there was a light rain at the time.

This is fairly non-eventful but, Magic 101.9’s building is apparently right outside the set in Louisiana, and they got some video of the set, and claim that prior to grabbing their camera, the red car shown (seen mostly during the last 20 seconds of the video below) in the shot was driven and crashed by Reynolds during filming.

Set Video: Green Lantern

[Source] MTV | OnLocationVacations

Green Lantern is slated to hit theaters on June 17, 2011.