Warner Bros greenlights Justice League of America

[GNR]

Justice prevails for Warner Bros.
Studio eyeing DC superhero team feature
By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK
DC Comics super-team Justice League is heading for the bigscreen.


Michele and Kieran Mulroney

Batman may meet up with Superman on the bigscreen after all -- along with Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash and all the rest of DC Comics' biggest names.
Warner Bros., with its major appetite for fresh franchises, is looking to make a feature based on super team the Justice League of America, hiring writing duo Kiernan and Michele Mulroney to pen the script.

It's the first major action the studio has taken on the project.

Feature film is bound to include some combination of DC's most iconic superheroes, although the studio wouldn't confirm which ones they might be. It's unlikely that the studio and DC Comics, a division of Warner, would opt to feature second-tier characters.

Since its inception in 1960, JLA has featured almost every major hero in the DC Comics universe, although the core team has largely remained the same: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter.

The heroes typically band together to fight alien menaces or groups of supervillains.

"The Justice League of America has been a perennial favorite for generations of fans, and we believe their appeal to film audiences will be as strong and diverse as the characters themselves," Warner prexy of production Jeff Robinov said in announcing the hiring of the Mulroneys.

In taking on the ambitious project, Warner faces several conundrums.

Now that the Batman and Superman film franchises have been revived, does the studio go after Christian Bale ("Batman Begins") and Brandon Routh ("Superman Returns") to star in a Justice League pic? Studio is also trying hard to bring Wonder Woman to the bigscreen.

To a large degree, casting will depend upon the story arc for the JLA feature and at what point in the superheroes' lives the plot takes place.

Warner also must deal with myriad producers working on the Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman franchises.

Studio dropped its efforts to make "Batman vs. Superman" in order to focus on relaunching "Batman" and "Superman" as individual properties, which it has done.

Filmmakers Chris Nolan ("Batman Begins") and Bryan Singer ("Superman Returns") are each on board to helm the next installments in the two respective franchises. Nolan's "The Dark Knight" is eyeing a 2008 release and the next "Superman," 2009.

The potential payoff of bringing JLA to theaters can't be ignored by Warner, which turns out more tentpoles than any other studio.

Comicbook fans have long clamored for a movie version of JLA, and word of the Warner project is certain to be a hot topic at New York Comic Con, which unspools today in Gotham.

JLA has spawned several cartoon TV series, including 1960s and '70s show "Super Friends" and current Cartoon Network skein "Justice League Unlimited" from Warner Bros. Animation.

The Mulroneys -- Kieran is the brother of thesp Dermot Mulroney -- caught the attention of studios around town with their rewrite of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" for Fox.

Other screenplay projects include "On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction," "Paper Man" and "Worst Case."

Kieran and Michele Mulroney are repped by Creative Artists Agency and Management 360

 

[The Watchman]

It'll likely never see the light of day, but interesting news none the less...

 

[Mister J]

I don't see it happening. Desperately want to, but I can't really see this escaping Development Hell.

 

[blind_fury]

It's too early for this. The target date should be 2013 after WW, Flash and Green Lantern have all had their own movies.

This movie would cost 300 million but if it's done correctly it could make 3 times that.

 

[Dude_Love]

I amy well pass out. I have my own JLA ideas, but so long as it happens, I'm happy. Probably won't tho

 

[Octoberist]

this is freaking insane! I'm shocked!

 

[Kebab gud]

and where did this come from .. and if its real .. they better not DEAR have anyone other then Darkseid as the villian..

 

[Octoberist]

check out chud.com, iesb.com, and a few more. it's real

Darkseid should be the top dog.

 

[Yellow Cyclone]

it should def be darkseid

and for the director, somebody EPIC; big, A+ name, but has never done a comic book movie

the only ones that i think would work, would be:

spielberg
cameron
peter jackson
or ridley scott


any other would be unsatisfactory imo

 

[RedIsNotBlue]

This has studio politics disaster written all over it. I seriously doubt this movie will ever happen.

 

[PenanceStare]

If they don't get Bale and Routh for this it will be way to confusing, and may have drastic effects on their franchises if they have their films going on, and all of a sudden there is a second Batman and Superman. I'd love to see a JLA flick, but right now I can't see it being a successful venture.

 

[RKromwell]

I can't see this getting done. It would just be too much money to do right with a live action cast. The other thing that would scare the hell out of me is if they tried to mold it after X-Men...shudder...


Don't get me wrong I loved the first two X movies but just thinking about it makes my head hurt. I think I would rather see them do a full on "Incredibles" type annimated feature. Give it enough edge to set it above the JLU annimated stuff art wise. Not like they would have a hard time tracking down folks to do the voice work.

 

[Kid_Kaos]

Looks like WB want to cut off the steam for the Avengers!?

The idea is great, just not at the right time. They just had Batman revived, Superman not really, and the rest was never introduced properly. I don't see that movie coming for another 10 years. Not before Flash, WW and GL had their own movie(s).

 

[Lestat74]

Well, I gotta say I was pretty shocked when I saw this announcment this morning. I'm not even sure what to think of this really. I really believe it's in Warner's best interest to have decent solo movies for Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Lantern before you make a JLA movie. For a JLA movie to really be a JLA movie, you need to have those three characters along with Superman and Batman. And all three of them have very complicated backstories and mythologies of their own to introduce all in one film. We will probably get the "Cliff Notes" versions of their origins. There are so many ways this movie can really go wrong without doing solo films first, but I guess Warners is nervous that WW, GL and Flash aren't big enough to make solo films for ( despite the fact that Marvel just opened Ghost Rider, a total C-List Hero to Joe Public, to $50 million ) which is totally wrong IMO. Alongside Superman and Batman, those three characters have been the cornerstone of DC Comics for almost 65 years straight, at least in one form or another.

Assuming this does happen, I think we will still see at least one more Singer helmed Superman movie before this. While I think Batman will be in it, I think Nolan's Batman series will be seperate, and I highly doubt Christian Bale will be Batman in a JLA flick ( I'm actually ok with that, as a JLA Batman will not focus on Bruce Wayne, and any good actor can play Batman under the mask ) Routh will likely stick around as Superman I imagine.

The more I think about it, the more this announcment makes sense in light of recent develpments regarding Goyer's Flash and Whedon's Wonder Woman movies; The studio is putting all their eggs in one basket, and if JLA takes off, then they will make spin off films I guess.

Of course this could very easily never, ever happen.

 

[Steelsheen]

wow, what's with all this negativity for such a fantastically great news?

ah yes, the typical fanboy knee jerk reaction of protecting their own franchises uhuh


i for one am ecstatic. i really really hope this would get done. if this is the way to get Wonder Woman, The Flash and/or Green Lantern to the big screen then so be it.

i've been saying so many times here and elsewhere, Marvel is dead serious about The Avengers project and hell would freeze over before WB would just rollover and let them suck all the profits. WB needs to counter that juggernaut, and what better way to stand up to that than a movie about their top franchises all rolled together?

right now i'm just hoping that TPTB at WB wont wound up killing the project by miring it in development hell.

 

[Justice Bringer]

This is great news!

I could see this working and being very marketable (especially with the success of group hero films like X-men).

My idea timeline would be:

Batman Begins (2005)

Superman Returns (2006)

The Dark Knight (2008)

Superman: The Man of Steel (2009)

The Justice League of America (2011)


Is it necessary to introduce Flash, GL, WW, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter in seperate movies first? Nope!

JL (the animated series) did a great job of introducing Wonder Woman in the pilot for the series itself (Secret Origins) and bringing her straight into the action.

I think this way all the failed individual projects (WW, Flash, GL) would finally get the steam to work in this cooperative group form.


So with Brandon Routh and Christian Bale as Superman and Batman, who should play the other 5?

I have a strong feel that since theres no individual GL movie and hes being introduced with the JL, the GL here will be John Stewart! (for obvious diversity and his familiarity with kids today).


I want the villians to be the White Martians invading and infiltrating North America. Thats the best storyline to bring in Martian Manhunter!

 

[Eros]

This is a pipe dream.

 

[GL's Light]

Oh... my... God!

A JLA film would be the Holy Grail of comic book films. Now Warners please see to it that it 1) actually gets made, 2) actually gets made in my lifetime, and 3) doesn't suck. See, I don't ask for much, now do I?

:gl:

PS: To whoever handles such matters, we need a Flash lightning bolt icon.

 

[Ultimate_Superman]

My question is will this movie here replace Superman vs Batman because I was looking forward to that movie more then a Justice League movie. My only other problem with this movie also is where would Routh and Bale find the time to shoot JLA when they are doing MOS and TDK as well there is suppose to be a sequel to both of those movies as well.

 

[ultimatefan]

I think they should first see if the individual movies for WW, Flash and GL take off. I think at this point the Batman Vs. Superman movie would be a good idea.

 

[Justice Bringer]

If they do JLA, they obviously wont do the third Batman and Superman movies until maybe after JLA.

I could see Routh being onboard 100% with this and Singer definately agreeing to let the studio produce this while forfieting the third \S/ film....

But Nolan could be a BIG problem. I think he's against any other superheroes existing in his uber realistic Batman Begins universe. Bale could be a problem too.

This movie NEEDS Batman but its hard to imagine anyone replacing Bale.

 

[Eros]

My question is will this movie here replace Superman vs Batman because I was looking forward to that movie more then a Justice League movie. My only other problem with this movie also is where would Routh and Bale find the time to shoot JLA when they are doing MOS and TDK as well there is suppose to be a sequel to both of those movies as well.

Do you understand anything about this LOL?

 

[Justice Bringer]

I think they should first see if the individual movies for WW, Flash and GL take off. I think at this point the Batman Vs. Superman movie would be a good idea.

lol I think the motivation here for a JL film is the fact they can't get WW, Flash and GL to take off individually.


I definately think this is better than nothing at all for those characters.

 

[AssMan]

I am not surprised about this. The WB needs & wants a hit. If they take their time on this it & be careful with what they decide to do this can be a hit.

 

[Ultimate_Superman]

Do you understand anything about this LOL?

Yes Dark Knight is suppose to be the Jokers movie and is suppose to tie in to the follow up movie where the Joker turns Harvey Dent into Two Face. Which means where will Bale find the time to be in this movie when Batman's story isn't even complete and I think Nolan would want to complete his series before letting Batman go as well as Singer has plans for MOS which is suppose to tie into its follow up movie.