Warner Bros. Working on Justice League Movie?
While fanboys continue to flock to movie theaters around the around the world and help Marvel’s The Avengers break box office records, Variety recently reported Warner Bros. hired Gangster Squad writer Will Beall sometime in the past year to pen a Justice League film.
According to the article, Beall is quickly becoming Warner Bros.’ go-to writer with projects such as the Lethal Weapon reboot and a remake of Logan’s Run.
This is not the first time the studio has attempted to put the popular superhero team on the big screen. Mad Max director George Miller was attached to direct a Justice League movie as early as 2007. The film was going to include small-name actors starring as the heroes: Armie Hammer (The Social Network) as Batman, D. J. Cotrona as Superman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman and Adam Brody (The O.C.) as the Flash. Warner Bros. eventually cancelled the project because of the writers’ strike and lack of tax breaks…and after seeing that cast, maybe that’s a good thing.
There is no doubt Warner Bros. won the lottery when they hired Christopher Nolan to direct Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, but they failed to strike lightning twice with Green Lantern, a mediocre film that was a financial failure for the studio ($116 million domestic gross with a $200 million budget). Variety does report that Marc Guggheim and Michael Green (the M. G.’s) were hired to pen The Flash for director Greg Berlanti, and Michael Goldenberg has the writing duties for Wonder Woman. It is unclear whether the studio, which also plans to bring Lobo to the big screen, will follow Marvel Studios’ formula of establishing the characters in their own films to set up the Justice League, but judging from the article…that does not seem likely, which is a risky move.
I’m all for having the Justice League on the big screen, but what if the film flops and fails to garner a similar audience that flocked to watch The Avengers? That would be disastrous for not only the Justice League brand, but for all the heroes associated with it. A bad Justice League movie will hurt any other future projects that involve the characters, including Flash, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. The studio has yet to make a good DC Comics film the last decade without Nolan, who is attached as a producer for The Man of Steel. Superman Returns was a disappointment, Jonah Hex was laughable, The Watchmen polarized fans and Green Lantern really let down fans of Hal Jordan. Good luck Warner Bros., you have a lot of catching up to do.
Filed under: Movies