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Wondercon: Justice League movies

Coming out of Wondercon are titbits of info about two Justice League movies. The first is Justice League: Doom, a new direct-to-DVD animated feature announced by Bruce Timm for release in early 2012. It’s written by the late Dwayne McDuffie and is an adaptation of Mark Waid’s “Tower of Babel” – the story of Batman’s anti-JLA contingency plans being stolen by Ra’s Al Ghul.

The second one is the live action film that WB’s Robinov mentioned was in development for 2013. There had been speculation that it may tie into Chris Nolan’s Superman and Batman franchises and with the new Green Lantern franchise, but there have now been a statements refuting that. Ryan Reynolds (Hal Jordan in the new Green Lantern movie) was asked about his involvement with the Justice League project at the GL Movie Panel at Wondercon. Quoting from Comic Book Resources:

The only other newsworthy item concerned the recent talk of a ‘Justice League’ movie. Asked if he’s going to be involved, Reynolds replied, “It’s not something that anyone’s talked to me about.” Then he looked pointedly at [Geoff] Johns, who said to the crowd, “I can’t really talk much about ‘Justice League,’ except [to say that] it’s in development.”

This mirrored a short red-carpet Q&A that Superman reboot producer Zack Synder had given a few days earlier. He said that the Justice League film would be “it’s own thing, with its own Batman and it’s own Superman.”

(Man that Synder line has been refracted and reflected across almost the entire blogosphere. I was so sick of seeing it that I almost didn’t bother posting it, but the Ryan Reynolds quote makes it more of a story. )

Justice League movie in 2013 (updated)

The LA Times has a profile piece on Warners President Jeff Robinov and mentions that he may be planning a JLA movie. It describes how WB are planning to move from the Harry Potter series to a new series of DC based tent-pole movies. This starts with Green Lantern, but…

He’s then aiming to release new “Batman” and “Superman” films in 2012 and “Justice League,” a teaming of DC’s top heroes, in 2013.

We’ve heard this before. It was Robinov who back in 2007 announced that WB were going to make a JLA movie based on a script by Kieran and Michele Mulroney. At the time he described JLA as:

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.

That attempt became a victim of an industrial dispute and DC Comics reorganisation into DC Entertainment. One assumes that the LA Times reference was checked with WB and wasn’t just a random reference to the last attempt.

UPDATED: LA Times writer Ben Fritz blogged more details about his chat with Robinov including the detail that it’s a new script they are looking at:

But Robinov said a new Justice League script is in the works. Also being written for Warner are scripts featuring the Flash and Wonder Woman, who could be spun off into their own movies after Justice League.

So they are looking to do a new film and it’s pencilled in for 2013, but they are still at the script stage. The Mulroney script was fast tracked in a spectacularly short time, but we’ll have to wait for more details on who the new screen writers are.

Green Lantern Movie Trailer

That really looks amazing – not sure about the bit in the apartment at the end – but it’s certainly close to the comics. Sinestro, Sur, Kilowog, Tomer-Re, Oa, Cowgirl or Carol, and even the yellow glow or Parallax were in there.

Legends of the Superheroes coming to DVD

The most unexpected news released to coincide with the New York Comic Con — even more unexpected that the price drop on 22-page $3.99 books — is the announcement that Legends of the Superheroes is being released on DVD.

Legends is the Star Wars Christmas Special of superhero shows – a show of such unimaginable cheesiness that it was thought buried in Warner Brother’s doomsday vault never again to see the light of day. Well under DC Entertainment’s new directive (“For godsake make some money!”) Warner Archive are releasing Legends for the public the judge for themselves.

The official synopsis reads:

Heroes and villains of DC Comics square off in the two-part, live-action, made-for-TV (with a laugh track!) smackdowns of Legends of the Super Heroes. The Challenge: Batman and Robin (Adam West and Burt Ward of the live-action Batman TV series) lead The Flash, Green Lantern and more JLA members against The Riddler (Frank Gorshin reprising his TV role), Mordru, Weather Wizard and other Doom-dealers. The Legion’s ultimate gambit: trick the heroes into downing a diabolical depowering drink! The Roast: Poking fun beats swapping punches when celebrity host Ed McMahon emcees a rowdy rave-up. Who knew DC Super Heroes and villains packed as much verbal wit as physical grit when not locked in mortal combat? These Legends will leave you laughing.

Warner Archive is usually the label Warner Brothers uses for releases of obscure material where the financial burden of preparing DVD extras may not be justified. However, for Legends we’re in for a treat – or trick – as the DVD will include 8.5 minutes of previously unseen SFX shots, bloopers, and the like. They joked on their twitter stream:

We almost literally dug the original 2″ video masters out of the salt cave in Kansas, mislabeled and forgotten. + we found cans of outtakes with unseen footage. whether the footage deserves to be seen is another matter, but then I’ve seen it like 8 times already.

What is even stranger is that this is one of the few instances where you’ll be able to own a DVD with Adam West playing Batman live. The theatrical release that went with his 1960s shows is available on DVD, but the rights for the original Batman TV series are still locked up in an arcane splits between Warners, ABC/Fox, and the producers.

Updated 19/10/2010: Warner Archive have released the box design for the Legends release.

The release date will 20th of October and it will be available exclusively from WBShop.com. [update via: TV Shows On DVD.com]

What do DC’s plans mean for a JLA movie

DC is reorganising (again) which has prompted a new round of press interviews  that touch on the possibility for a Justice League movie. What has effectively happened is that DC Entertainment (DCE) – WB’s new multimedia exploration and holding company – is being slowly wrapped around the traditional DC Comics publishing company. DC Comics remains in New York as the traditional comic-book print-publisher we all know and love, but it is now only a focused subsidiary of the larger DCE. Many of DCs non-print activities (digital publishing, movie development, etc) have been elevated to the parent division in Hollywood.

All that means that DCE have had to come up with a coherent plan for how they want to manage the torrent of intellectual property coming out of DC Comics. We’ve heard rumours that this plan existed and that’d it’d be announced in spectacular fashion, but that still seems some way off. Diane Nelson, the head of DCE, has commented to IGN about their overall approach to getting DC’s characters into movies and TV shows,

For example you might find that a Batman or Superman or Wonder Woman or… Green Lantern, though you could argue we have some work to do before Green Lantern has the same meaning to a broad audience that the property means to comic book fans… but in each of those, you might find there are different expansions into different forms of storytelling that can happen, not so much concurrently, but you can have a layered approach to how those properties can come out.

[...]

Equally I think it’s important to distinguish that… People make an assumption that we’re going to mirror Marvel’s strategy, for example with Avengers. We do have a very different attitude about how you build a content slate. And it isn’t necessarily about connecting those properties together to build into a single thing. We think we’ve got great stories and characters that will lend themselves to great standalone experiences, and that’s the way we’re focusing on it.

What she seems to be saying is that they are going to let the characteristics of the individual properties dictate how they are managed and exploited rather than use a single house style. That last paragraph doesn’t explicitly rule out the Avengers approach – the launching of several individual moves followed by a collective sequel – but it does down play it as a factor.

Remember Justice League is one of those properties just as Batman, Green Lantern, and Superman are. Maybe the best approach to a Justice League movie is just to do a Justice League movie without worrying about binding it in the baggage from a half-dozen other potential franchises.

6/7 JLA founders heading to the big screen

Warner Brothers have slowly been putting their comic book movies in order. The central engine for this was the creation last year of DC Entertainment as a division centred around DC Comics. Cinematical concisely describes the process since then:

This monolith of movie production was set up in order to usher in more DC character franchises, and one of their first steps was to “recall” all characters like Wonder Woman and The Flash who had been in ongoing development under producers like Joel Silver. There was apparently no unity in the way things were being done, and DC Entertainment was going to change that. Well, that was almost a year ago. We’ve only seen The Green Lantern become a reality, though Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer brought Superman and Batman 3 back into the game.

Well DCE have had their big strategy meeting some time ago and we’ve been waiting for “The Big Announcement” (TM) of their new movie strategy. When pushed on the timescale for this Geoff Johns, DCE creative mandarin,  told people to ask him again at this year’s San Diego convention. The big elephant in the room for Warners is the end of the Harry Potter franchise and there is logical  need for something to succeed it – a series of DC movie would fit that bill.

There had been a JLA film, Justice League Mortal, in the works prior to DCE’s formation. It was to have been directed by George Miller, produced by Dan Lin, and shot in Australia. It was fully cast and appeared to be close to filming. However, that stalled and Lin commented in December 2009 that…

You know, I thought that was the ultimate project. I was a fan-boy for me to work with all those characters together on a team and kind of the themes of that movie. That’s my dream. It’s on-hold right now as DC sorts out its strategy but as you’ve talked to Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov it seems like they’re building to Justice League instead of going with the team movie first and doing individual movies after that.

A few more details emerged about the 2011 strategy during an investor briefing by Warner Brothers chairman and CEO Barry Meyer. Heat Vision reports that the Green Lantern movie is scheduled for 17th June 2011 release date, a month before the last Harry Potter film. At the same event it was announced that a Green Lantern cartoon series based partially on the movie will launch in the fall of 2011.

Heat Vision further reports that,

Meyer particularly highlighted that DC Comics characters are key parts of Warner’s future, mentioning a July 20, 2012 release date for the latest Batman film by Christopher Nolan and a holiday season 2012 Superman film.

He added that the studio is also “nearing” a greenlight for a Flash movie, with films featuring Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Mad magazine characters also in development.

No mention of a specific Justice League film, but the announcement that six of the seven foundering members (minus J’onn J’onzz) have movies in production/development would seem to support the idea that DCE are going down the Avengers route – i.e. set up a series of films about each character and then bring them together in a single film.

I’d have thought that a 2012 Batman film is a fairly done deal, Nolan has the pipeline set for those and they’re a known quantity. A Superman film for the same year is interesting – the road to Superman: Returns was notoriously treacherous and long. What excites me is the 2013 could be the year of the Brave and the Bold we could see Green Lantern II and a Flash film.

WC10 JLA News including roster changes

Convention season processes a pace with San Francisco’s WonderCon 2010. There were the normal DC Nation and Editorial panels are well as a Spotlight panel on JLA writer James Robinson and a special Brightest Day panel.

Spoilers for Blackest Night #8 follow…

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Superman movies in the Public Domain

The 1940s Columbia movie serial that is. It’s available to view over at the Internet Archives. I knew that the 1940s Superman cartoons were Public Domain, but I was not aware that this motion picture serial was also in the public domain. The Archive describes it as:

The Superman serial was a 1948 15-part black-and-white movie serial starring an unaccredited Kirk Alyn (but billed only by his character name, Superman) and Noel Neill as Lois Lane. It is notable as the first live-action appearance of Superman on film and for the longevity of its distribution. The serial was produced by Columbia Pictures, directed by Thomas Carr (who later directed many early episodes of the Superman television show) and Spencer Gordon Bennet, produced by Sam Katzman and shot in and around Los Angeles, California. The series was originally screened at movie matinees and after the first three scene-setting episodes, every episode ends in a cliffhanger. The Superman-in-flight scenes are animations, in part due to the small production budget

[via Boing Boing.]

New Justice League and Justice Society trailers

Warner Brothers TV and Home Video have released new trailers for February’s Smallville “Absolute Justice” JSA appearance and the direct-to-DVD feature Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.

Smallville “Absolute Justice”

The Justice Society are due to appear in the upcoming Smallville “Absolute Justice” feature-length episode written by comics scribe Geoff Johns. WB have released a new trailer which shows Clark walking around shut-up JSA meeting rooms.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

This clip is a minute-long segment that sees the Justice League fight a group of recognisable characters. Their opponents seem to be based on Detroit-era League. We see a Vixen, Elongated Man, and Black Lightning parallels.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s rather obvious that this is a script held over from the DCAU Justice League cartoon. The quip from the Flash is funny, but you almost expect to hear Michael Rosenbaum’s voice. Nevertheless, it looks fantastic.

Lots of JLA news quotes harking forward to 2010

In these last few days before Christmas there have been a few quotes about the Justice League and what 2010 has in store for them. Dan Didio addresses a number of JLA topics while speaking with Newsarama,  the JLA movie producer has commented on WB’s evolving strategy, and Mattel has announced that their JLU line will continue.

Justice League Mortal

The most widely discussed/re-tweeted story has been from Dan Lin, the producer of the in-stasis Justice League Mortal. Lin is also the producer of the current Sherlock Holmes film and Collider.com has had a running seven-part interview within him. During that interview Steve Weintraub for Collider asked Lim about JL Mortal.

Collider: You’re listed [as producer] also for Justice League Mortal.

Dan Lin: It’s the dream project.

Collider: Right, that’s why I’m sort of saving it. It’s like the punch at the end.

Dan Lin: Yeah. I mean it’s… I’ll say it’s the reason I started my company. You know, I thought that was the ultimate project. I was a fan-boy for me to work with all those characters together on a team and kind of the themes of that movie. That’s my dream. It’s on-hold right now as DC sorts out its strategy but as you’ve talked to Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov it seems like they’re building to Justice League instead of going with the team movie first and doing individual movies after that.

Collider: [...] are there certain superhero movies that you are interested in bringing to the screen….because I know they did a whole shakeup at Warner Brothers with people letting go of projects and other people coming onboard.

Dan Lin: Right. The only one right now as you probably know, they’re unveiling their DC strategy in January so you’ll hear more about that and they’ll speak about that in the new year. The only other one besides Justice League that I’m working on is the Suicide Squad.

This specific strategy shake-up had been mentioned by Charles Rovin, a director who had been linked with a potential Flash film. However, this is the first time that we’ve got a date for the announcement of the results.

The 1980s Justice League

Over at Newsarama Dan Didio, DC executive editor, is holding an end of year twenty-questions session. In the third installment, it was suggested that the 1980s JLA wasn’t doing to well out of the current DC Universe.

There is a lot of dicussion about if the 1980s Justice League had a target on their backs. I’m happy to tell you Bifford [the questioner] that the 80s JLA group is going to be back, and be back with a vengeance in 2010.

No clue about what that means, but the reference to a “target on their backs” makes it implicit that he’s talking about the Booster Gold and Blue Beetle Justice League. Over at Blog @ Newsarama Russ runs a bit of a conspiracy theory about this quote and DCU recent events.

Roy Harper’s Injury in Cry for Justice.

In the same round of questions Didio was asked “what makes the maiming of red arrow significant when has friends who are capable of replacing his arm?” To which the answer was,

I really want to be very clear about this, this story is not just about replacing it with a cybernetic arm, if that is how the story turns out. And this is one of those cases where I want to remind people to read the story as it develops. There is so much emotion depth that is going on here. Roy is an archer first and foremost. To [..] lose his arm, his ability to do what he does best, is what really leaves the emotional scar on him, not the idea that he can replace it simply, but more importantly that he’s lost a part of himself, the part of him he considered the most valuable, that helped define him as a person. That’s what we’re going see develop.

Roy’s arc in the Justice League has been about stepping into the role of Red Arrow, in succeeding to his father’s place in the Justice League. He was already knock-backed by his break up with Kendra so this really does look like the lowest ebb for Roy – maybe even lower than his old drug habit.

The Price of the Justice League comic book

In the final round of questions Dan Didio was asked directly how DC could justify raising the price of JLA when the sales had declined.

[Pauses] Price increase is only the answer when we improve quality and quantity. We’ve been saying this a lot over the last couple of months, especially with so many people being price sensitive at the moment, but I wanted to reiterate it with this question. A 3.99 price point is something that is on books that have greater than the standard number of pages and will continue to be so. We will continue to hold the 2.99 price point as much as possible, but if we feel that the story warrants extra pages then unfortunately the price will increase with that, but hopefully you will get the feeling of value in that book.

With Justice League: so much that is going on with Justice League, with the fall of Green Arrow and the rise of Arsenal Justice League, will be playing prominently into that storyline. A lot of focus is on the team and how its being built there is a lot of focus on JLA throughout 2010.

Mattel JLU figures to continue in 2010

Miraculously Mattel’s of Justice League Unlimited figures are still running – over three years after the cartoon itself finished. On their Facebook Blog Mattel confirmed that the line will be continuing at Target,

JLU is going to continue in Spring 2010 at Target stores. We’ll have some new figures to reveal at Toy Fair in NY at out collector event on Feb. 14th. Stay tuned!

[...]

And as stated above, JLU will still be at Target stores in 2010. We have some great singles, 3 packs and 6 packs in store including many more fan demanded character, a return to Apokolips and a few out of the blue surprises we think JLU fans are going to love!

Superhero Times has the full quote.