People have been talking a lot about a possible “Justice League” movie. For those of you who never had a childhood, the Justice League is the team of all the main DC comics superheroes that get together to sip cappuccinos and fight crime. The team had all the big guns: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, ect. ect. ect.
I’ve said from the start that I don’t really think a movie like this will actually happen. But according to some reports, Warner Bros. may actually be looking at really doing a LIVE ACTION Justice League film BEFORE the next Superman movie… and on top of that, they may have found their director for it. According to the good folks over at Coming Soon:
Happy Feet director George Miller is the frontrunner to direct Warner Bros. Pictures’ Justice League of America. The latter site adds: The next thing I’ve heard is which Superheroes might be in the running for the first big budget team-up movie. They would be Superman, Batman, The Flash, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern. I’ve also heard from sources that the “Justice League” film is more of a priority for WB than the sequel to “Superman,” so don’t be surprised if you see Brandon Routh in “Justice League” before any new “Superman” film.
Now that is HUGE if it’s true. But I still highly doubt something like this will happen for a few reasons:
1) Too many MAIN characters. It’s fine for Batman Begins to have bunch of characters that have little to no screen time or development. But what do you do with The Justice League? 5 major lead hero characters, not to mention the villains. Seems like a tall order.
2) Budget. I don’t even want to think about how much this would cost.
3) Bale and Routh. You can’t have 2 different batmen and supermen running around in screen franchises at the same time. I’m totally ok with switching actors for a role… but not at the same time. You can’t have a Batman franchise running with Christian Bale as the Dark Knight, AND have another guys playing Batman at the same time in a Justice League franchise. That would just be stupid. And if you DO get Routh and Bale on board… which of the characters gets the most screen time? Who does the story focus on? I’m not saying this problem isn’t overcomable… just that it’s a problem.
4) Reeks of desperation. Let’s face it, when it comes to over all strength, Marvel has a much better suited roster for movie adaptations than DC properties do. After Superman and Batman, what other viable superhero movies do you really have? None. (To all you DC fans… please note I didn’t say there are no other DC stories worth telling… just that they’re not VIABLE in the sense that they just wouldn’t have a large enough movie going audience).
In regards to point #4, IF Warner Bros. do indeed move forward and make this film, one of the main reasons will be to promote the non Superman/Batman characters to hopfully launch their own film franchises. It’ll be like Blade Trinity all over again… the movie is called “Blade”, but really it was just an attempt at a launching pad for a new franchise around Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel. Any Justice League movie at this point will probably just be an attempt by Warner to increase the popularity of Wonder Woman or Green Lantern or The Flash enough to get their individual projects off the ground.
Not to mention… I didn’t even like “Happy Feet” all that much. The only thing he’s done in the last 20 years really is Happy Feet and “Babe: Pig in the City”. Is this REALLY the right guy to take on a live action Justice League movie? I don’t think so. But who knows?
