Any new word on those DC Animated DTV movies?

[GNR]

So nothing new came out of NYCC.

 

[Octoberist]

As disappointed as I was that JLU was cancelled, these three DTV projects are so much more exciting than more JLU episodes. Can't wait.

There were so many restrictions due on WB Animation to WB's film divsion. They didn't want JLU to use characters like The Joker or other well known villains; so they opted to use more obscure characters instead, which was still cool nevertheless.

Eventually, they ran out of story ideas and new characters to use...and ended the show. Also, to my knowledge, Bruce Timm was leaving anyway although NOW he's working 'The New Frontier'.

 

[dnno1]

Did anyone know why JLU was cancelled???

I don't know the real reason why, but the ratings were always pretty low (in the US) towards the end of the series.

 

[Artistsean]

I heard that after all these years working on the DC cartoon shows Bruce Timm finally got sick and tired of DC, or whoever, restricting which characters he could use and probably how he could use them.
For example he was not allowed to use Blue Beetle, he wanted him in the Booster Gold episode but instead had to use Elongated Man. He also wanted to use the Specter, but was not allowed. He drew him for me at the comic con last year.
He also wasn't allowed to use the JSA, but he says that was good because they were able to do more in that JSA like episode because they weren't the real JSA.
Plus I think with certain characters he had to do them in a certain way, like when he did the Aquaman episode I think he had to use the version where Aquaman had a hooke hand, long hair, and a beard.
So it was propbably character restrictions, and ratings too probably.

I could see being sick of all that garbage, different studios owning the rights to the characters that they may or may not one day make a movie out of. Personally I think if they had put Blue Beetle in the cartoon show the public would have wanted to see a Blue Beetle movie.



Also, don't know if this had been posted already. Maybe it has. But David Borianis (I know I spelled it wrong), the guy who played Angel on Buffy, he is going to be doing the voice for the Green Lantern in Darwyn Cook's JLA: New Frontier.
other than that I haven't heard anything.

 

[Lestat74]

I heard that after all these years working on the DC cartoon shows Bruce Timm finally got sick and tired of DC, or whoever, restricting which characters he could use and probably how he could use them.
For example he was not allowed to use Blue Beetle, he wanted him in the Booster Gold episode but instead had to use Elongated Man. He also wanted to use the Specter, but was not allowed. He drew him for me at the comic con last year.
He also wasn't allowed to use the JSA, but he says that was good because they were able to do more in that JSA like episode because they weren't the real JSA.
Plus I think with certain characters he had to do them in a certain way, like when he did the Aquaman episode I think he had to use the version where Aquaman had a hooke hand, long hair, and a beard.
So it was propbably character restrictions, and ratings too probably.

I could see being sick of all that garbage, different studios owning the rights to the characters that they may or may not one day make a movie out of. Personally I think if they had put Blue Beetle in the cartoon show the public would have wanted to see a Blue Beetle movie.



Also, don't know if this had been posted already. Maybe it has. But David Borianis (I know I spelled it wrong), the guy who played Angel on Buffy, he is going to be doing the voice for the Green Lantern in Darwyn Cook's JLA: New Frontier.
other than that I haven't heard anything.

Actually, while I was personally upset that Bruce Timm couldn't use DCU mainstays like Blue Beetle, The Spectre, Plastic Man and Adam Strange for whatever reasons, Bruce Timm has stated many times over at the ToonZone.net boards ( where he posts on occasion ) that he never had any problem with any character embargo that DC put on them..in fact, he said they pretty much let them use any character most of the time on JLU that they wanted. Also, he said that the "Bat Embargo" ended up being good for the show. For example, the episode "Double Date" that introduced the Huntress/Question relationship would have been a Nightwing/Batgirl episode otherise, and this forced them to be more creative and develop new characters.

Still, If there ever is a JLU DTV movie, I hope we get to see some characters they couldn't use before.

 

[dnno1]

Actually, while I was personally upset that Bruce Timm couldn't use DCU mainstays like Blue Beetle, The Spectre, Plastic Man and Adam Strange for whatever reasons, Bruce Timm has stated many times over at the ToonZone.net boards ( where he posts on occasion ) that he never had any problem with any character embargo that DC put on them..in fact, he said they pretty much let them use any character most of the time on JLU that they wanted. Also, he said that the "Bat Embargo" ended up being good for the show. For example, the episode "Double Date" that introduced the Huntress/Question relationship would have been a Nightwing/Batgirl episode otherise, and this forced them to be more creative and develop new characters.

Still, If there ever is a JLU DTV movie, I hope we get to see some characters they couldn't use before.

I think there were creative/broadcasting rights issues with those characters. According to Wikipedia.org, Blue Beetle had his broadcasting rights tied up in an old radio show that featured him back in 1940. Those rights expired last year (after JLU had been canceled). It could be possible that Plastic Man's broadcast rights may still belong to Ruby-Spears Productions (as a result of "The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show" back in the late 1970's early 1980's), but I am not certain about that. The Spectre is a character that was originally co-created by none other than Jerry Siegel (of Superman fame) and you know the troubles that they have been having with Superman and Superboy as of late.

 

[Artistsean]

But there were restrictions put on certain characters, like Bat villians and the Specter and Blue Beetle and Plastic Man.
I just heard that he was upset by that, so the show ended because of ratings?

 

[dnno1]

According to this Turnner press release back in 2005, the show was getting roughly under 2 million viewers each night by kids aged 2-14. I think I saw some stat that said the adult viewership was considerably less (more than half) that.

 

[lixdexia]

idk if anyone has posted it yet, but the action figures for death of superman are in the new issue of previews. sorry if this is old news

 

[Zonian1]

Hey guys and gals,

Here is some info I got from WonderCon today.
Adam Baldwin is Superman
Anne Heche is Lois
they mentioned who was Lex, but for the life of me I cannot remember.
9/18 is release day

All the DTV's are closer to comic and not in continutity to TT or JLU.Bruce Timm is also working on 6 (other?) projects.

It will run about 72minutes long (New Frontiers, Judas Contract ~70-75m), while they were making Doomsday, they mentioned that it was nice having looser reigns as some scenes should be "more adult" vs JLU where scenes were to adult and had to be toned down.

I was going to tape the panel, but grabbed the uncharged camera battery not the charged one...

I was in Dwayne McDuffie's panel earlier that day, someone asked him about JLU being cancelled. He replied that because JLU was not owned by CN completely, they (CN) could only make money off of advertisement instead of things like shirts, shoes, toys, etc.

 

[Ceb-Man]

James (Buffy) Marsters will do the voice of Lex luthor in Superman Doomsday.

 

[Artistsean]

I will miss Clancy Brown's Lex Luther. But I look forward to the new DVDs. I think they will be better than Marvel's direct to DVDs.