UPDATE @ 10:42 EST: Dark Horizons has announced that a representative for George Miller has stated that the director is STILL on-board for the Justice League project. Dark Horizons has stated that their “original scooper, a usually reliable source, also seems to have vanished into the electronic ether.”
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According to Dark Horizons, director George Miller is off the slated Justice League film. The Australian director revealed the news today on the talk show “Sunrise.”
Miller also speculated that much of the prospective cast would be changed in his wake, following the blockbuster successes of franchises such as The Dark Knight and Spider-Man: “The studios seem to want bigger stars in their superhero movies now.” The initial casting included Adam Brody as the Flash, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Common as Green Lantern John Stewart, and Armie Hammer as Batman.
But don’t take this news as necessarily a sign that Warner Bros. will be taking a page from the Avengers movie playbook: Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan has already told the Los Angeles Times that “I don’t think our Batman, our Gotham, lends itself to that kind of cross-fertilization… we did take the position philosophically — that superheroes simply don’t exist. If they did, if Bruce knew of Superman or even of comic books, then that’s a completely different decision that he’s making when he puts on a costume in an attempt to become a symbol.”
December 1st, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Hopefully with the new director will find more appropriate actors for JLA characters rather than the “young, up and coming hipsters” Miller was planning on ramming down our throats.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I think it was probably the producers that wanted the youngins to be the heroes.
Then again, I never thought this project was real to begin with.
December 1st, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Wait… This is NEWS?
Wasn’t this product sh*tcanned months ago? WB had this summit with some DC people in the wake of TDK’s (mammoth) success, the GL movie was a “go,” Superman is (thankfully) being rebooted, and the ill-advised JLA 90210 was DOA. Right? What am I missing here?
At any rate, Miller sounds bitter about the whole thing. “Bigger stars”? I don’t know if that’s so much the issue as it is having actors who look like adults and can bring some gravitas to the roles they’re playing.
It remains to be seen who they’re gonna cast as GL (Nathan Fillon works for me). Having experienced actors with a proven track record — Christian Bale and Robert Downey, Jr being prime examples — certainly helps. I think it’s a big reason why the Nolan Bat-films and Iron Man were taken as seriously as they were. Miller’s JLA just sounded like a campy joke from the start. Good riddance.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
They really have to take a step back and look at what Marvel is doing. They’re slowing introducing characters in their own movies to build up demand for an Avengers movie - that’s a great strategy. Granted Hulk wasn’t big hit but it was more watchable than Superman Returns.
All DC has right now is Batman and that’s pretty much in a class of it’s own. I really think Warner Bros. should hand the reins to Bruce Timm and Co. Back in the Batman Animated days, Timm had said that doing Justice League would be impossible but then he hit it out of the park with Justice League and JL Unlimited. Somehow, along the way in development he figured out what makes good team based storytelling. Do give it to writers and directors who don’t give a crap or don’t understand these properties.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:29 am
Project not canned and Miller not off…See new article on Dark Horizons posted today.
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news08/081202n.php
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:52 am
Common is definitely not a “young, up and coming hipster”. Unless you’ve never heard of him.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
No, Common’s not.. But most of the rest of the rumored cast? I honestly thought the stories last summer said this project was DOA, pretty much once and for all. Honestly, this has never sounded promising. Not the casting, not the rush to get into production before the writer’s strike last year, nothing. WB can’t get Superman right, took forever to finally get Batman right, and can’t get anything else that’s not a Vertigo property into production, but they still think they can do JLA? Whatever.
Really, the Marvel studio approach is the way to go. It’s way too early to tell if it’ll all work out in the end, with just one bonafide success (Iron Man) and one moderately well received film (Incredible Hulk) thus far, but laying out their shared universe bit by bit is just a more logical blueprint for WB to follow. And doing any of this while Nolan’s Bat-saga is active and going (incredibly) strong is just foolish.
This will probably never get made, but just in case: Please WB, let it die already.
December 4th, 2008 at 1:14 am
“Common is definitely not a “young, up and coming hipster”. Unless you’ve never heard of him.”
Yes, but he’s not exactly JLA material either.