Now that Green Lantern has been given an official date for production to begin, with an aimed at release date of December 17, 2010, it makes sense that finding someone to wear the superhero's power ring would be a high priority. And according to our friends at IESB.net, Chris Pine is at the top of the short list to play Hal Jordan, Green Lantern's alter-ego.

Green Lantern will be an origin story, with Hal Jordan being a test pilot who finds the ring and its lantern-shaped power battery after the previous owner dies in a crash landing on Earth. Jordan is selected to become the alien's replacement as the next Green Lantern for this sector of space.

Other Hollywood names have been thrown around for the role, including Jon Hamm and Nathan Fillion, however the word is that Warner Brothers is looking for someone under the age of 30.

When Pine's agent, Steven Jang, was approached to find out about the truth of this rumor, he referred questions to his publicist. However the publicist's assistant gave a "no comment" answer, because the publicist herself was on vacation.

Green Lantern is scheduled to hit theaters December 17, 2010 from Warner Brothers Pictures. Martin Campbell is set to direct the film from a script written by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green.