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seriousficAt times, it seems like a comic book movie's development is defined entirely by bad decisions and codeine ("Sam Raimi wants to get a really good script for Spider-Man 4 so it isn't like Spider-Man 3? Fire him and get me the man who directed an okay romantic comedy!"). But every now and then, someone rips off the Bad Idea Jeans like a male stripper at a bachelorette party. Such was the case a decade ago.
The 00s were a good time to be a comic book fan. Joss Whedon was doing a Wonder Woman movie, while David Goyer was directing a Flash movie with Ryan Reynolds as Wally West. Then, suddenly, both projects fell through (the WW film by way of some very sexist-sounding disinterest on the part of the studio, according to Whedon) and in their place arose George Miller's Justice League. Now, a JLA movie directed by George Miller coming off of Road Warrior would've been awesome. But that was over 20 years ago. This was George Miller coming off of Happy Feet. You know, Robin Williams as a CGI penguin? And while not all directors lose their edge as they age... well, does anyone really think the Steven Spielberg of the 80s would've directed a scene where Indiana Jones's bastard son leads an army of monkeys into battle?
Further pissing in fans' cereal was the fact that instead of following the continuity of Batman Begins and Superman Returns, Miller would cast a group of very young (and thus inexperienced) unknowns to play the JLA. While Seth Brody as the Flash could've worked, did anyone want to see Armie Hammer's take on the Dark Knight (ladies, try to keep it down to a dull roar.)? To play devil's advocate, Christopher Nolan conceived of his Batman as being the only superhero around, not sharing space with badass aliens and magic amazons, so it's possible they just couldn't get Christian Bale. But still, you're telling me Brandon Routh was too busy?
The plan was for the heroes to start off in the Justice League and then be spun-off into their own movies, but even Smallville got that the appeal of most superhero teams was seeing a bunch of already established heroes come out of their own stories and interact with each other. After seeing them all take on one big threat, seeing the Flash go back to fighting Captain Cold would have to be a letdown.
The plot would have apparently involved Talia al Ghul, Max Lord, and an army of OMACs. Yeah, who would want to see White Martians, Darkseid, or the Injustice League when you could have a comic relief character turned evil? That's why I wrote my spec script, Superman Vs. Jimmy Olsen: Bloodbath. A few days ago, it came out that Jay Baruchel would play the villain (I'm guessing Maxwell Lord). You probably know him best as the lead in She's Out Of My League. Because when I think of a villain that needs the entire Justice League to take him down, I think of the main character of a movie whose entire premise was that he was too dweeby to land an attractive girl.
According to Baruchel, the movie would've been "dark and fairly brutal and quite gory". When your story is about a woman in an American flag bikini, a man who dresses up as a bat, and an alien with his underwear on the outside, all living on a space station and fighting evil... there should be a lot of blood and guts. Because it's realistic, you know.
Now, any possible Justice League movie is years away, and probably very contingent on the success of Marvel's Avengers movie. But if it comes, it'll probably feature Ryan Reynolds' Green Lantern and a Christopher Nolan Superman. Still, will it ever really be the same without "Armie Hammer as Bruce Wayne" in the credits?
ETA: Megan Gale would've played Wonder Woman, although she's such an unknown that you might as well say "Edith Hoffmann Burr" had the part. This was after Jennifer Biel turned them down. I imagine the news that the star of Blade: Trinity said their movie didn't look like a good bet came shortly before the end.
The 00s were a good time to be a comic book fan. Joss Whedon was doing a Wonder Woman movie, while David Goyer was directing a Flash movie with Ryan Reynolds as Wally West. Then, suddenly, both projects fell through (the WW film by way of some very sexist-sounding disinterest on the part of the studio, according to Whedon) and in their place arose George Miller's Justice League. Now, a JLA movie directed by George Miller coming off of Road Warrior would've been awesome. But that was over 20 years ago. This was George Miller coming off of Happy Feet. You know, Robin Williams as a CGI penguin? And while not all directors lose their edge as they age... well, does anyone really think the Steven Spielberg of the 80s would've directed a scene where Indiana Jones's bastard son leads an army of monkeys into battle?
Further pissing in fans' cereal was the fact that instead of following the continuity of Batman Begins and Superman Returns, Miller would cast a group of very young (and thus inexperienced) unknowns to play the JLA. While Seth Brody as the Flash could've worked, did anyone want to see Armie Hammer's take on the Dark Knight (ladies, try to keep it down to a dull roar.)? To play devil's advocate, Christopher Nolan conceived of his Batman as being the only superhero around, not sharing space with badass aliens and magic amazons, so it's possible they just couldn't get Christian Bale. But still, you're telling me Brandon Routh was too busy?
The plan was for the heroes to start off in the Justice League and then be spun-off into their own movies, but even Smallville got that the appeal of most superhero teams was seeing a bunch of already established heroes come out of their own stories and interact with each other. After seeing them all take on one big threat, seeing the Flash go back to fighting Captain Cold would have to be a letdown.
The plot would have apparently involved Talia al Ghul, Max Lord, and an army of OMACs. Yeah, who would want to see White Martians, Darkseid, or the Injustice League when you could have a comic relief character turned evil? That's why I wrote my spec script, Superman Vs. Jimmy Olsen: Bloodbath. A few days ago, it came out that Jay Baruchel would play the villain (I'm guessing Maxwell Lord). You probably know him best as the lead in She's Out Of My League. Because when I think of a villain that needs the entire Justice League to take him down, I think of the main character of a movie whose entire premise was that he was too dweeby to land an attractive girl.
According to Baruchel, the movie would've been "dark and fairly brutal and quite gory". When your story is about a woman in an American flag bikini, a man who dresses up as a bat, and an alien with his underwear on the outside, all living on a space station and fighting evil... there should be a lot of blood and guts. Because it's realistic, you know.
Now, any possible Justice League movie is years away, and probably very contingent on the success of Marvel's Avengers movie. But if it comes, it'll probably feature Ryan Reynolds' Green Lantern and a Christopher Nolan Superman. Still, will it ever really be the same without "Armie Hammer as Bruce Wayne" in the credits?
ETA: Megan Gale would've played Wonder Woman, although she's such an unknown that you might as well say "Edith Hoffmann Burr" had the part. This was after Jennifer Biel turned them down. I imagine the news that the star of Blade: Trinity said their movie didn't look like a good bet came shortly before the end.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 04:58 pm (UTC)I'm kind of glad it fell apart...
no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 02:39 am (UTC)Insert your own Aquaman joke here.