Mike Fleming

Days after Deadline revealed Ryan Reynolds was front runner for the Safe House role chased by every hot young actor in town, the actor is now negotiating to play the young CIA agent who must transport a dangerous criminal (Washington) to safety after both are attacked at a safe house. The Universal drama is directed by Daniel Espinosa and produced by Scott Stuber.

CAA is negotiating not only the deal, but how to fit the film into an array of plum projects that came to Reynolds after last summer’s breakout trifecta of The Proposal, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and landing the hotly contested title role of Green Lantern in the Martin Campbell-directed film.

Reynolds, who’ll next be seen in the Rodrigo Cortes-directed thriller Buried–he is in every frame of the movie, trapped underground in a coffin beneath the sand in Iraq–will start work in October in The Change-Up, the David Dobkin-directed Universal pic. If they can make a deal, Safe House follows early next year.

After that, Reynolds expects to make either Deadpool, the Fox spinoff featuring the wisecracking, indestructible character he played in X-Men: Wolverine, or the supernatural pic RIPD for Universal, which is zeroing in on a director. Reynolds wants to make both, so one film likely follows the other. In between, Reynolds will be the centerpiece of an extensive promotional tour to launch Green Lantern, which Warner Bros releases June 17, 2011. Then, there is a Green Lantern sequel that the studio has targeted for a 2012 start date and 2013 release. Reynolds’ Dark Trick Films, a producer on Buried, will also be a producer on Deadpool, a film that Robert Rodriguez is circling.