Just days after The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the Green Lantern movie will not be filming in Australia, we have new rumors about who Martin Campbell may be casting as Sinestro. While it is all rumor, it could be a very interesting casting choice.

According to Ain’t it Cool News, actor Jackie Earle Haley is up for the role of Sinestro. Haley is very familiar to comic fans having recently played Rorschach in the Watchmen film and he will be starring in the new Nightmare on Elm Street reboot and playing a role in the upcoming Human Target television show. What this means is unclear at this point, and again it’s a rumor without any information behind it besides it supposedly coming from someone working on the film. It could mean anything from Haley being on Campbell’s short list of people he’s considering approaching for the film, or it could mean that he’s tested for the role and is in negotiations to sign for the movie.

Collider spoke with Haley at the Spike TV awards that were filmed last night (10/17/2009) and asked him about the rumor, which he of course denied and said that he had just heard the rumor moments earlier as he made his way down the red carpet. His denial doesn’t really mean anything as actors frequently don’t comment on those kinds of rumors and he in fact denied being the next Freddy Krueger just three weeks before it was announced that he had the role. Collider has a video of the interview available here.

I have mixed feelings on the rumor. I don’t deny that Haley is a good actor and I don’t think he would do a bad job with the role at all in the first film. But when I look at how the character will transition from a mid-level character in the first film to probably the main villain in any hopeful sequel I’m not sure he could carry the role that far. I could be very wrong, look at the initial fan reaction Heath Ledger got during the filming of Dark Knight. And he will be doing similar duty as Freddy Krueger.

Martin Campbell has apparently had a lot of changes made to the script so he undoubtedly has a vision for what he hopes to accomplish here. Haley would be far less stunt casting that say, Jason Isaacs, who film-goers already see as a bad guy. So maybe Haley would be a good choice because he doesn’t have that pre-conceived notion about him. At any rate Campbell could make far, far worse choices and I am cautiously optimistic at this point.

For a glimpse at what Haley might look like in the role, fans have already begun working on photo manipulations of him as Sinestro. The best one I’ve seen out there comes from poster “guymandude” over on the Superhero Hype forums.

The bigger concern is the change in location and the impact it could have on the film. If the Australian dollar was officially valued at $.62 when the process began, then Warners would essentially be getting almost twice as much value for the money they would have spent there. With the move to the rumored Mexico, New Orleans, or Canada location Warners is not going to get as much for the dollars they spend. Warners is probably not going to increase the film budget by that much, so where does the budget get trimmed? If they cut salary will be we get actors who can bring the roles to life as well? If they trim the special effects will it look like garbage? Again, I’m placing my trust in Warner Brothers because they are relying on this picture to do well and it will be the first tentpole film in their DC Entertainment shared universe and there are high hopes that this film with do very well. So I think they are going to work very hard to make sure that this film has the same level of success as Iron Man did.

The other rumor that continues to gain some steam is that Superman will indeed have a cameo in the Green Lantern film. It’s a strange rumor to me because Warner Brothers has been saying that there’s no movement in a new Superman film but there have been other rumors out there contrary to that information. But if there were going to be a cameo in the film I would think you’d need the role cast. I think we definitely need to see some kind of shared-universe approach and I really want to see that happen, but if they are going to do it they need to make sure that they aren’t putting someone out there that isn’t going to be playing the same character later on.

I’m sure as we get closer and closer to the start of filming in April we are going to see more and more rumors surface about casting. For now it’s fun to speculate on who we’d all like to see in the film, but I’m just happy that we are finally going to get to see Hal Jordan on the big screen.