Hey...how about a JL TV show?

[JeetKuneDo]

While reading this article... http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/15/what-the-jla-movie-could-learn-from-avengers

...I found this bit really interesting:

Better to focus on the characters with the deepest connection to the conflict than struggle to find equal screen time for all. Otherwise, why not just make a TV show?

Why not make a TV show? That gives you plenty of time to develop each character....better than any movie could possibly do. You could even start the series with just Superman and Batman and build the team one member at a time each week or so. There would be no need to sacrifice lesser members like Hawkman, Green Arrow, and Aquaman.

And best of all? It won't look like you are "copying Marvel". DC would actually be doing something original. It's so original that most people reading this will probably think "It'll never work", right?

Anyway...

The article is interesting on the whole. I like most of the ideas...especially about getting some humor into it and not being afraid to be a comic book movie.

edit: That Superman costume is scaring me. I hope it doesn't look that bad in the movie.

 

[ЯɘvlveR]

unless its an animated show, it would be 8 kinds of terrible. i prefer made for tv movie for the likes of aquaman and such.

 

[JeetKuneDo]

unless its an animated show, it would be 8 kinds of terrible. i prefer made for tv movie for the likes of aquaman and such.

I know it sounds "out there"...but maybe DC needs to think outside the box?

Another idea....a mini-series!

 

[Rockstar]

They can't do Superman and Batman on the small screen while the characters are inolved in the film division.


As far as Wonder Woman on the small screen, we saw how that turned out.


And GL? They couldn't even do him on the bigscreen...

 

[Thundercrack85]

I can't see it happening.

In fairness, the Wonder Woman TV show was utter crap. It's certainly possible to do a better show than that. Of that I have no doubt.

But it's a daunting task to make any of these characters work on a TV show budget period, much less work together. Assuming you want it to not look hilariously bad. And some of them have yet to work in live action period, even with a 100 million dollar + budget.

Your best hope is a Smallville type show, with some cameos.

 

[Rockstar]

I'd rather have nothing than see these characters get 'Smallville-ized'


It's the lowest of lows.

 

[Rodrigo90]

at this thread!

 

[JeetKuneDo]

I'm not a big fan of the word "can't". It seems the people who accomplish things are the types who won't accept "it can't be done". I also remember a time in the not-so-distant past when it was said that "the Avengers can't work in a movie".

 

[Rodrigo90]

Going by how things work nowadays, I don't see it happening. But who knows what the future will bring?

 

[Thundercrack85]

I'm not a big fan of the word "can't". It seems the people who accomplish things are the types who won't accept "it can't be done". I also remember a time in the not-so-distant past when it was said that "the Avengers can't work in a movie".

It just took years of planning, and multiple commercially successful films. And more than a billion dollars.

 

[Lone]

[YT]nz97bXR6H_0[/YT]

...

 

[metaphysician]

[YT]nz97bXR6H_0[/YT]

...

Yeah, that is about what you'd get.

The budget just isn't there. You couldn't do this even on an HBO original series budget.

 

[Thundercrack85]

The most I could see is (and this is really reaching) is a show using both Batman and Superman, in a World's Finest fashion. That may be possible.

 

[Airwings]

It won't ever work? Do you really understand how big budget this would require?

 

[Tobias]

Interesting article. Thanks for posting.

I agree with some points and not others.

Thanos indeed precludes Darkseid from being the first JL villain.

However, at this point, I think Marvel characters are generally in ascendancy.

Superman is a fading franchise and on the way out.

WW is not Thor and sexism, being female, will hurt relative to Thor IMO.

GL has great potential of the 3 but it will take a "perfect storm" to make that film.

Flash and Aquaman? I just think right now Cap and Ironman are cooler characters. That can change maybe when these two get on the big screen but it's what I am sensing right now.

TA is on the way to 1.5 billion WW. Maybe more. Speaking of perfect storms, TA benefited from that. First super-hero team film, film built out of many very successful solo franchises.

As good as JL could be I don't think it will come close to matching TA's numbers. WB would probably be happy if it did a billion.

Finally, with TA2 set for 2015 and TA3 set for 2017/2018 I don't think WB will even to try to launch JL before the TA trilogy is done. I'd bet JL will come out in 2020 or so.

And of course it's looking like TA will not be just a trilogy but an ongoing film franchise like Batman and Bond which will still be churning out films 20 years from now. Just with a different cast of actors, producers and such.

TA is set to become the most lucrative comic-book franchise in history.

 

[Breogan]

Time to reboot the Legends of the Superheroes...

And the Superhero Roast!

 

[david icke]

While reading this article... http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/15/what-the-jla-movie-could-learn-from-avengers

...I found this bit really interesting:

Why not make a TV show? That gives you plenty of time to develop each character....better than any movie could possibly do. You could even start the series with just Superman and Batman and build the team one member at a time each week or so. There would be no need to sacrifice lesser members like Hawkman, Green Arrow, and Aquaman.

And best of all? It won't look like you are "copying Marvel". DC would actually be doing something original. It's so original that most people reading this will probably think "It'll never work", right?

The funny thing is that Smallville did this already, they introduced The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg and Green Arrow in seperate episodes, before bringing them all together in a Justice League episode.

 

[The Question]

A show could still be good even with ass special effects.

And anyway, if they were banking on it being a big thing to cash into The Avengers, WB might pump some real money into it.

I'd be all for a JLA TV show, or separate live action JLA member TV shows that tie into each other, as long as they had a good show runner. Someone who cares about making quality entertainment, who both loves shlock and taking shlocky things very seriously and treating them with respect, and knows comics.

Which basically describes Joss Whedon, but you get my point.

If you had, like, Marti Noxon, maybe paired with someone like Ronald D. Moore, as show runner, I'd probably watch it.

 

[hopefuldreamer]

The funny thing is that Smallville did this already, they introduced The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg and Green Arrow in seperate episodes, before bringing them all together in a Justice League episode.

Smallville did more than just that.

They had The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Zatanna, Martian Manhunter and Superboy and Supergirl, as well as teaming up with Dr Emil Hamilton, the Legion of Superheroes (Rokk, Imra and Garth) the Justice Society (Hawkman, Star Spangled Kid, Dr Fate, Sandman, Stargirl), The Wonder Twins, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, and the Suicide Squad (Rick Flagg, Deadshot), as well as fighting against Checkmate (with cameo from Amanda Waller), and the Injustice League (Plastique, Parasite, Livewire etc) Colonel Slade Wilson and Darkseid (including Dessad and Granny Goodness).

Overall throughout the series a total of 41 DC comics characters where introduced.

As far as introducing the DC comics world in a television series... it's been done.

They just couldn't use Batman, Wonder Woman or Green Lantern.

 

[The Question]

Well, here's the thing though, they could. It's not like Marvel Studios. Every DC character is under the same production company. Yeah, we had the Bat-embargo and Aquaman-embargo back during JLU, but you have to remember that it was a self imposed policy. There was no legal reason they couldn't do it, they just wanted to avoid people not watching The Batman or that Aquaman TV show and watching JLU instead.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's no legal reason I'm aware of that they couldn't have Superman and Batman on TV and in movies at the same time. Because in the end it's still Warner Brothers Pictures making it.

And they might decide that it would be worth ignoring their earlier policies and taking that risk in order to cash in on the Avengers buzz without being a complete rip off.

Especially because there's no actual risk and the embargo's stupid and works against how merchandizing works and only helps when you know your other product is inferior and that's another rant.

 

[david icke]

Smallville did more than just that.

They had The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Zatanna, Martian Manhunter and Superboy and Supergirl, as well as teaming up with Dr Emil Hamilton, the Legion of Superheroes (Rokk, Imra and Garth) the Justice Society (Hawkman, Star Spangled Kid, Dr Fate, Sandman, Stargirl), The Wonder Twins, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, and the Suicide Squad, as well as fighting against Checkmate (with cameo from Amanda Waller), and the Injustice League (Plastique, Parasite, Livewire etc) Colonel Slade Wilson and Darkseid (including Dessad and Granny Goodness).

Overall throughout the series a total of 41 DC comics characters where introduced.

As far as introducing the DC comics world in a television series... it's been done.

They just couldn't use Batman, Wonder Woman or Green Lantern.

Yeah, I know, but I was only talking about them doing something similar to Marvel studios, and what the OP was suggesting, introducing JL members one by one, and building up to a Justice League, which is what they did with the 'Justice' episode.

Oh, and I bet you/they missed out Krypto the superdog, so that would be 42 DC characters.

 

[hopefuldreamer]

The 41 wasn't my count, I just got that number off of Smallville Wiki, and I have no idea whether they counted Krypto

 

[The Question]

If there was going to be a JLA TV series, how would you guys want it to pan out in terms of story and tone, and who would be your ideal writer's room?

 

[Tobias]

Smallville did more than just that.

They had The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Zatanna, Martian Manhunter and Superboy and Supergirl, as well as teaming up with Dr Emil Hamilton, the Legion of Superheroes (Rokk, Imra and Garth) the Justice Society (Hawkman, Star Spangled Kid, Dr Fate, Sandman, Stargirl), The Wonder Twins, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, and the Suicide Squad (Rick Flagg, Deadshot), as well as fighting against Checkmate (with cameo from Amanda Waller), and the Injustice League (Plastique, Parasite, Livewire etc) Colonel Slade Wilson and Darkseid (including Dessad and Granny Goodness).

Overall throughout the series a total of 41 DC comics characters where introduced.

As far as introducing the DC comics world in a television series... it's been done.

They just couldn't use Batman, Wonder Woman or Green Lantern.

Smallville gets a ton of grief. I wasn't a fan after the first 2 years.

Yet, it is by far the most successful Superman incarnation - whether TV or film.

It has made hundreds of millions for WB.

What did SR and L&C make?

Little better than break even.

It has been more profitable than the Reeve films.

If you are interested in Superman fanfiction there is virtually none out there - aside from Smallville which has a ton. Probably 80% of the Supes fanfiction on the net.

Don't believe me? Check out the counts at fandiction.net.

Superman comic/TV fics combined are barely over 1000.

Smallville fic alone is pushing 14,000.

So Smallville did something right. It captuered young audiences which has been slipping away from Superman for a long time.

It's too bad a Smallville film could not have been made instead of SR. Or MOS.

But DC/WB knows there is a there, there with Smallville.

Hence the digital comic. I would not be surprised to see an animated Smallville film with voice-overs by some of the original stars.

Smallville got Lex/Clark. Delved into that realtionship as it should be in the franchise. Brothers indeed who fall out and hate each other. That is the mytholigical element missing from Superman today and for a long time now. Spaecy's Lex in SR was a joke. One-dimesional. Over-the-top. Even Hackman's Lex pales io comparison to Rosenbaum's.

The nuanced relationsip of Lex/Clark in Smallville, despite how strong or not particular actors may have been, that is what is intriguing and what draws interest. Even from the "young".

 

[Rockstar]

Smallville was garbage.

It was all buildup and no payoff. Basically one giant empty tease.

It barely kept Superman alive to the public mainly because it didn't actually have Superman in it.

Man of Steel is really on it's own with reintroducing Superman. The public couldn't care less about the character today.


And if anything, Smallville proves that an accurate JL can't be done on TV in live action...unless you want halloween costumes like these:

Haha, the cheesy effect of Hawkman flying around the city still cracks me up.


DC's superpowered characters can only be done with respect on film.