The new issue of Entertainment Weekly has the most substantial story on the Justice League film to date. Part of their coverage includes the following: "Sources say that Warner Bros. was prompted to move quickly on Justice League by three factors: a screenplay that 'they flipped out over;' an open spot in their summer 2009 calendar; and the increasing probability of an industry-wide strike that would shut down all productions by next July. EW has obtained an early version of the script which was written by Kieran and Michele Mulroney and what we've seen remains faithful to the comic book that first appeared in 1960. (Stop reading if you're spoiler-phobic.) All seven original members of the Justice League, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter, are featured in an origins story about the superhero conglomerate. The plot revolves around villainous businessman Maxwell Lord and involves cyborgs called OMACs (One-Man Army Corps), who can take over humans and turn them into killing machines. There are epic battle scenes between Superman and Batman, as well as Superman and Wonder Woman, and League could spawn a slew of additional franchises if it's successful."
The article mentions the fact it isn't likely that either Christian Bale or Brandon Routh would reprise their roles of, respectively, Batman and Superman; notes director Christopher Nolan's unhappiness over this film happening while he's involved with the Batman franchise; points out that Man of Steel is still in development and emphasizes the studio's belief that Justice League can represent something of a "parallel universe" to the individual superhero franchises they're in the midst of or developing. Former Justice League writer Brad Meltzer tells the mag, ""Except for The Watchmen and Dark Knight, nothing is causing more nerd excitement than Justice League."
Adds the Sydney Morning Herald, "The phones have been ringing hot around the the palatial Camp Cove home of the producer/director George Miller this week as more details leak of his mega-budget Justice League of America film to be shot in Sydney. Filming on the Warner Bros all-star superhero blockbuster is scheduled to begin in February, with much of the action happening at Fox Studios... Insiders say the shoot will run for about three to four months in Sydney. Comic book fan websites have been buzzing with rumours about JLA, some claiming to have leaked details of the film's script with rumours that Wonder Woman - an Amazonian princess and a founding member of the Justice League in comic lore - could turn to the dark side in the film. No doubt her golden Lasso of Truth will come in handy if she hits the Sydney cocktail circuit."
September 2007
September 29, 2007
September 28, 2007
THE WELLING REPORT
Tom Welling as Superman is the Justice League rumor that refuses to die. The latest is that the problem is that Smallville's production schedule will overlap with that of Justice League's. Rumors say that negotiations continue and have reached a point where Smallville executive producers Al Gough and Miles Millar have expressed a desire to work things out if they are made executive producers on Justice League as well as spin-off Superman films and a potential reboot of Supergirl, provided the character is a success on Smallville. Commenting exclusively to Justice League On Film, Al Gough laughs, "That would be great... if any of it were actually true."
FROM THE WATCHTOWER: Elsewhere in the world of Justice League, Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Jessica Biel has had second thoughts about pursuing the role of Wonder Woman. Additionally, according to Back Row Chatter, the latest actor to audition for the role of John Stewart (a.k.a. Green Lantern) is Transformers' Tyrese Gibson.
September 27, 2007
FROM THE WATCHTOWER
New morning, new tales of Justice League. According to iesb.net 30 Days of Night director David Slade spent several weeks working on the project. "Here is the skinny," offers the site. "David was indeed hired to direct Justice League and was officially on board for three weeks office and everything. But in traditional Hollywood fashion, after the budget ballooned to what we have been told north of $160 milion, the studio execs wanted to go with a 'safe' director and decided on George Miller. Slade says there are no hard feelings."
The same article also makes mention of the fact that rapper Clifford Joseph Harris
Jr. had read for the role of the film's Green Lantern, John Stewart. Whether this means that yesterday's item that the G.L. in the film will start off as Hal Jordan and become Stewart part-way through is anyone's guess at this point.
Over at the Countingdown.com JL forum, infamous_emijayne offers some words of warning: "What some need to understand is the studio has actually provided false rumors as well as stretched truths to gauge reaction from fans. It's putting a strain on many people who provide scoops and inside information and created a confusion among fans. "
September 26, 2007
FROM THE WATCHTOWER
It seems like every day is met with a new series of rumors about Justice League. While much of today's "news" is centered around the film's supposed storyline, which grafts together elements from different comics, there has been more talk of characters and casting. For instance, one aintitcool poster explains that an actor named Eddie Cibrian was being seriously considered for the role of Superman, but that at this point the "only two guys in the running are in fact [Brandon] Routh or, yep, him again, Tom Welling."
From a box office point of view and as far as the fans are concerned, having Welling segue from Smallville to Justice League would be something of a dream come true. But would Welling, who has been so determined not to wear the Superman uniform and who reportedly did not appear in the Bryan Singer-produced documentary on the history of the character for fear of being too closely identified with it, suddenly be willing to play the role in what would likely be a three-picture deal? And if Welling is not chosen to play the Man of Steel, it would be interesting to see Routh play the character in a situation where he's required to do more than lift big rocks, get stabbed, have his ass kicked and not deal out an iota of comeuppance.
Elsewhere, Patrick Sauriol's "Back Room Chatter" announced that despite previous claims to the contrary, Aquaman would be a part of the film. This, in turn, supports Comingsoon.net poster infamous_emijayne's statement that part of the film would be motion capture to keep costs down, those sequences being the underwater realm of Atlantis. To have Atlantis without Aquaman would seem kind of pointless. Earlier, infamous posted that initially the film's Green Lantern will be Hal Jordan, but during the course of the film Jordan dies, only to have the role assumed by John Stewart
As far as Routh vs. Welling, infamous noted, "I was told two or three days ago that there are at least 1/2 dozen people being looked at [for Superman] if Welling absolutely can not take the role, and Routh is not one of them.
The saga continues.
A HYBRID PLOTLINE
If rumors making the rounds yesterday are true, the Justice League movie's plotline will be a hybrid of elements from the JLA comic book story arc known as The Tower of Babel, written by Mark Waid; Greg Rucka's OMAC Project mini-series and the Superman: Sacrifice four-part storyline written by Mark Verheiden, Gail Simone and Greg Rucka. As such, it would deal with Maxwell Lord (who rumor has it director George Miller wants played by Mel Gibson) gaining control of a satellite placed into orbit by Batman as a means of keeping track of his fellow Leaguers after a perceived betrayal. Using this information, Lord learns all that is knowable about each member, and uses that information against them. As things progress, Lord -- who can manipulate the minds of others -- gets control of Superman and sends him off on a mission to kill Batman. Wonder Woman is determined to stop the Man of Steel no matter what it takes -- even if she has to murder Lord as a last resort. If this does indeed turn out to be the inspiration for the film, one would imagine that the last third of the scenario would be adjusted so that it would be the rest of the Justice League who have to somehow stop Superman from achieving his goal. In a sense, then, does Superman become one of the villains of the piece?
September 25, 2007
JESSICA BIEL AUDITIONS FOR WONDER WOMAN
Jessica Biel has auditioned for the part of Wonder Woman in Justice League, and gut instinct says that she is exactly the kind of actress the producers would go for – though as a complete sidenote, that possibility raises into question director George Miller’s desire for an older cast. Which, in turn, bring up that whole Tom Welling question again [see previous posts].
“I think the challenge is to get beyond the idea of ‘action movie’ and create a character in a movie that’s a real person, not just an action person who’s tough,” Biel said in reference to her role in the third Blade film, though on some level she could have been talking about Wonder Woman. “I want to go past the genre. It’s what I felt about Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I wanted to do something that people will look at and not just go, ‘Oh, it’s a horror movie, it’s nothing.’ It was the most difficult creative challenge of my life, and it was a horror movie. And nobody really gives the credit to a horror movie It’s so difficult.” Warner Bros. will not comment on whether or not Biel auditioned until it's ready to announce the film's entire cast.
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September 24, 2007
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."
September 22, 2007
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: DWAYNE MCDUFFIE ON JLA
By Edward Gross
The impression one would get is that the Justice League has become a way of life for Dwayne McDuffie, bearing in mind the fact that he was a producer on the animated version of the team, wrote the video game Justice League Heroes and is taking over the monthly comic from the departing Brad Meltzer. Interestingly, though, that’s not entirely the case, as there is much more to his background and current projects than the League (see links at the end of this interview). For the moment, though, the subject is the Justice League and this is an exclusive opportunity to get McDuffie’s views on the team and his vision for the comic.
JUSTICE LEAGUE ON FILM: Given your involvement with the animated Justice League, writing the video game and now taking on the comic, is there something about the group that appeals to you?
DWAYNE MCDUFFIE: I like it fine, but I think it’s more happenstance. It’s the show I got a job on and I really enjoyed working on it, but I was never a Justice League reader before that. I think since I got the job I’ve read almost everything, but it’s all catch-up. I’m a giant fan now, but I was offered the game because I did the show and I got offered the comic because I did the show. I’ve been writing comics for almost 20 years before I’d ever been offered it.
JUSTICE LEAGUE ON FILM: Is your experience on the show influencing the comic at all?
DWAYNE MCDUFFIE: The characters between the two are not similar beyond powers. It’s a different world. On the TV show, we pretty much controlled the universe; what we said happened, happened. In the comic, I may want to use a character, but he’s on the moon in another book or something, so it’s constantly adjusting to the flow. You’re part of a much bigger tapestry. The thing about the Justice League comic is that in a way you’re at the center of that tapestry, because it’s where everybody meets. In many ways that makes it more difficult.
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