Live Action TV & Movies

Ain’t It Cool’s Ary on why Bale is Bad

Ain’t It Cool’s John Ary recently posted a video to YouTube with the title “Why Christian Bale is Bad for the Justice League”. This is a response to the rumour going around Warner Brothers is trying to get Chris Nolan to godfather the drifting Justice League movie.

Nolan I can see coming aboard in some Producer level capacity, but we’ll have to see whether that includes the rest of his entourage. Attached to that rumour is that Nolan would try to get Bale back again as Batman. Ary does a good job in undercutting that idea and I can’t say I disagree with anything he says.

Australian Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D ride

This one had passed me by, but it appears that our Australian friends have got themselves a brand new Justice League experience. Its a ride at WB Movie World called Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D that combines a traditional movie ride, with 3D glasses/effects, and a game like element where you try to assist the League by shooting Starro’s drones with lasers. The ride is decked out as the Hall of Justice, the staff are dressed as ARGUS agents, and all the characters are in sync with the New 52 designs.

Here is a local TV spot:

August JL movie rumour round up

The last we heard about the Justice league movie was that Ben Affleck had been asked to read the script in view to WB signing him as a potential director. However, in an interview with Canadian news site 24hours he said:

I’m not working on the Justice League. One of the problems with entertainment web sites is that they need to fill pages, and that’s how rumours get started. [..] Justice League sounds really exciting, but it’s not something I’m working on.

Needless to say that “entertainment web sites” were soon on the hunt for another name to spin. Moviehole quickly stepped in with their own report that WB is only talking to a small circle of directors and that the current favourite is Wachowskis (of Matrix fame). Meanwhile the Superman Super Site is putting Brett Ratner forward as a name mentioned by their own source.

The only thing we still know is that WB have a script and that they are looking for a director. It sounds like WB have some sort of internal wishlist and each of these rumours is somebody hearing about a name on the list. Indeed Peter Georgiou has even claimed to have been told a list of 8 potential directors including “Affleck, Wachowskis, Ratner, Fleisher, McG, Snyder”.

In related matters, Batman-on-Film has reported another industry source saying that the Justice League film will be released before the reboot of the Christian Bale led Batman franchise (which was definitely concluded with Dark Knight Rises). Their analysis being that the Batman franchise will spin-out of the Justice League film.

Variety: WB talking to Ben Affleck about directing JL movie

Quoting Variety:

With Christopher Nolan declaring himself out of the running for “Justice League,” Warner Bros. has approached another of its go-to directors in Ben Affleck, who’s expected to discuss the project with studio brass in the coming days, multiple sources tell Variety.

Since guiding WB’s “The Town” to commercial success and critical acclaim from both sides of the camera, Affleck has ascended high on the studio’s list of filmmakers who can be trusted with prime properties. Thus far, Affleck is the only candidate who’s been sent Will Beall’s “Justice League” script, which the “Gangster Squad” scribe was hired to write last summer.

[...] Affleck has made it clear that he’s only interested in directing films in which he also stars — “The Town” and “Argo” are proof of that — so its likely that if this pairing ever came to fruition, he would don a suit of his own. DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. and Affleck’s reps declined to comment.

Not really sure what to make of this as I’m not really familiar with Affleck’s directing work. However, he had a poor experience when he played Daredevil and appeared to swear off superhero films, e.g., this MTV quote from 2009:

“One of the things about doing is that…” he began, then corrected himself. “No, that is not something I would want to do.”

I’m not even sure about which Justice Leaguer he could play. He’s got the classic Hollywood looks that mean he could be almost any of the Silver Age male Leaguers. We’ll see how this turns out.

Mark Millar on Justice League script

Mark Millar (of Millarworld and half a dozen movie deals fame) has commented on Will Beall’s Justice League script. Or at least on what he’s heard through a mutual friend…

A pal of mine is good friends with the new Justice League screenwriter [Will Beall] and said his take on the team is incredible. Very real-world and not at all what you might expect. WB has a chequered history with their superhero characters. They’re great with their boy wizards, but less consistent with their DC stable. But my chum said that this could be a thing of beauty and has been in the works for a little while now, not just an Avengers knock-off. Best of luck to them. The tidbits I heard sound quite dark and mature, which isn’t what I expected. But word on Gangster Squad is great too so I feel this is in really good hands.

The “in the works for a while” quotes jibes with a comment that Jeff Sneider, the Variety reporter who wrote the first article about Beall, made on Twitter immediately before the article appeared. He tweeted that he was:

About to reveal a secret that has been kept for nearly a year!

The “dark and mature” part also sounds like the tone of the last script with was said to have been partly based on the OMAC Project.

Movie rumours resurface

The Justice League movie rumours have surfaced again. Variety is reporting that WB’s latest wunderkind, writer Will Beall, has been tapped to provide a treatment for a League movie. That’s the sum total of the news on this one: Will Beall, Justice League script, not yet written. The massive success of Marvel’s Avengers is obviously a driver for this, but the success of the New 52′s efforts may also play into it.

Back in 2011, Jeff Robinov (WB President) confirmed that WB were still interested in the property, but that they were starting from scratch with a new script. Their choice of Beall would seem to be a no brainer as he wrote the soon to be released Gangster Squad, a retelling of the 1940s battle between the LA police with their gangsters — a group of colour good-guys fighting crime sounds like a fit the League.

A few years ago there was a lot of talk about an earlier Justice League movie, but that vanished at the eleventh hour due to a writer’s strike and the loss of Australian tax breaks. That film even got as far as casting actors, getting their stunt training going, and getting them fitted with costumes. (I’ve got a load of notes on it I should write-up sometime.)

You can keep track of the few details we have on our Justice League movie page.

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.

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]