FROM THE WATCHTOWER

According to Dark Horizons, Justice League will begin a three-to-four month shoot in Sydney, Australia starting in mid-February, with (as previously announced) George Miller serving as director. Additionally, with production based in Seattle, Washington for the time being, active auditions are taking place for what is described as "eight-to-nine" leads, among them one role for a black actor (almost a certainty that this is for John Stewart, a.k.a. Green Lantern).
   Additional details emerging over the weekend include infamous_emijayne's report that the film's budget will be in the area of $235 million, and Obsessed With Film's rumor that production designer Owen Paterson had been brought aboard. Paterson, for his part, has served as p.d. of such films as the Matrix trilogy, V For Vendetta and, most recently, Speed Racer.
   Although these comments have nothing to do with Justice League, in discussing his craft insofar as The Matrix is concerned, he noted to Daily Variety back in 2000, "I was lucky in that I had a very close relationship with [visual effects supervisor] John Gaeta. We tried to come up with a system where our visual effects and the design were integrated together very closely. And that was a challenge in itself because we had both the real world and we had the matrix." Considering the challenges of combining elements of the JLA (including the Watchtower), it would seem a similar need for synergy will be a requirement on this film. Also like the Matrix, JLA will be shot in Australia, which Paterson noted brought a challenge in itself: "We did shoot on location, but the majority of the stuff was built on a stage. We had a difficult situation that in Australia we don't have the same sort of roof structures that exist in, say, Chicago or perhaps New York. Consequently, shooting on real roofs in Sydney would have been impossible and probably dangerous. So we ened up building all that in a very large shed."
   In describing his job on a film, Paterson told TheMatrix.com, "I am the production designer for the art department, responsible for taking visual concepts the directors have and turning them in to real environments for the actors and directors to work with." More recently, he discussed V For Vendetta with Digital Cinematography magazine, explaining the challenges of working with the lead character's mask, which required him to somehow bring life to a static image that the mask represented. "I wanted the face, even though it's very distinct, to have a 'universality' to it," he explined. "I knew that if we achieved the right look for the mask, we would be able to tonally and atmospherically change the way it appears on camera through the lighting design and Hugo [Weaving's] performance."
   Reported Australia's Daily Telegraph, "With recent confirmation that superhero flick Justice League will be shot in Australia, it's no wonder local actors are flexing to score parts in the George Miller directed blockbuster. Top shelf stars -- including Leonardo DiCaprio and Jessica Alba have already been linked to the project, but that's not to say Aussies won't be going for the roles of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and The Flash. Sydney actress Victoria Hill is hoping to don some iconic tights after testing for Wonder Woman, reports website Moviehole. The starlet, currently seen in The December Boys, read for the part of the Amazonian princess recently and by all accounts was rather super, so to speak."