On the heels of Marvel's The
Avengers smashing through box office landmarks last summer, Warner
Brothers announced their own superhero team up movie D.C.'s Justice
League of America. This move claimed by many (including myself) as
cashing in on the success of The Avengers, jumping on the team up
band wagon, and pencilling a release date for 2015 was a typical
Hollywood move of striking while the iron was smoking hot. Since that
announcement, news has been relatively thin...until recently. Comic
Book writer and Coordinator Mark Millar discussed the potential
problems of a JL movie, these included dated characters and
portraying difficult superpowers, Warner's ditched screenwriter Will
Beal's (Gangster Squad) script, and it seems that the company are
returning to the drawing board.
This isn't the first time a
JLA movie has stalled in reaching the big screen. Back in 2008
director George Miller was set to begin shooting his Justice League
flick; it would of had among others Adam Brody (The O.C.) as The
Flash, Armie Hammer (The Social Network) as Batman, and rapper Common
as The Green Hornet. A full cast and crew were assembled and shooting
was to take place in Australia, but at the last minute the project
was shut down due to a number of factors; including an ambitious
budget and a looming writers strike. One can imagine what Miller's
JLA would of looked like. Appealing to a teen audience, and with a
young cast of actors portraying beloved heroes, audiences would of
glimpsed hipper and sexier versions of characters not previously seen
in a young light.
Recently, more rumours have
reached the blogosphere. This time with Chris Nolan and Zach Synder
attached to produce and direct this behemoth Blockbuster, with
Christian Bale rumoured to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne. While it
would be great to see another Batman chapter seen through Nolan's
lens, it would be difficult to incorporate Bruce Wayne into this
Universe, assuming JL will take place after the events of TDKR, what
reason does Bales Bruce Wayne have to don the cowl again? The
conclusion of TDKR was a fitting closure for this portrait of Bruce
Wayne.
While it would be a geeks wet dream to see Nolan and Synder combine their talents on an epic
team up movie, it would be a difficult beast to tame. There are
potential problems with a JL movie, that even two of the most in
demand filmmakers could be left scratching their heads.
The problem with attempting
to make a Justice League film is that most of the characters (with
the exception of Batman) are Godlike, when would Supes ever need help
from Batman? In order for this team up to work, the threat would need
to be big enough to call these heroes into action, not just the tried
and tested earth under attack storyline. With lesser known D.C. characters Aquaman and Martian Manhunter each member of the team
deserves their own stand alone picture, to introduce these characters
to the uninitiated. The only DC character to date that a stand alone film (excluding Batman and Superman) is The Green Lantern, and it
flopped on release. If mishandled JL has the potential to become the
Heavens Gate of Comic Book Cinema; overblown with too many cooks the
filmmakers could have a John Carter size flop on their hands. With
Warner's hinging on the success of this summers Man of Steel, the
pressure is on to try to make this unfilmable series work. D.C. could
follow Marvel's formula, releasing a stand alone film every few
years, culminating in Justice League. If this is not the case,
each character would deliver a large quantity of exposition,
explaining where each character came from it would be a mess. There
have been attempts to make individual movies, years ago Joss Whedon
attempted to make Wonder Woman fly, while a Flash film is still stuck
in development hell. It makes sense to postpone the film, iron out
the creases and figure out how to make the characters work. If the film is released in summer 2015, it'll be crowded market with Star Wars Episode VII, and The Avengers 2 fighting for our hard earned cash, add another team-up flick and audiences could get confused. Its an interesting
conundrum and one that will unfold over the coming months.
