By Warner Bros. is getting serious about a Justice League movie again after the massive success of The Avengers. Gangster Squad screenwriter Will Beall has been hired to write the film. Variety points out that Beall has likely been at work on the screenplay since last year, and that the writer is also working on scripts for a Lethal Weapon reboot and Nicolas Winding Refn’s remake of Logan’s Run.
You may recall George Miller (Mad Max) was at work on a Justice League film five or six years ago that eventually fell apart. (Miller’s at work on Mad Max: Fury Road, which should begin shooting some time in the next few months with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.) No word on if he’ll be involved in this mulligan or if Beall is using material from Miller’s defunct Justice League (written by Kieran and Michele Mulroney) in his own screenplay.
I’m wondering what the line-up will be for the film. The classic seven (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter) are a nice collection of heavy-hitters, though they could go with the DC reboot line-up that swapped Martian Manhunter for Cyborg. (It also swapped the cool, fascistic Kirby Darkseid for some inarticulate mook in chipped 90s armor.) Also wondering what the film’s story will be like, and if it will draw on big Justic League intro stories of the past — like the recent Geoff Johns/Jim Lee reboot, Mark Waid/Barry Kitson’s JLA: Year One, Darwyn Cooke’s The New Frontier, Grant Morrison/Howard Porter’s first JLA stoy, or, hell, even tap some old school Gardner Fox/Mike Sekowsky stories.
Big challenges ahead whatever the case may be, and this movie won’t have the luxury of The Avengers given that movie’s multi-film/multi-franchise build-up.
[Variety via /Film]