Monday, October 22, 2012

DC News: Justice League is in the Works

On June 6, DC and Warner Bros. officially announced that a Justice League film is set to arrive in theaters in the summer of 2015, which is also when Marvel is scheduled to release Avengers 2. If this does indeed happen, it's obvious that DC is going ahead without first making movies for individual superheroes, such as Flash and Wonder Woman. Also, Nolan's Batman will not be featured, making yet another reboot of the character inevitable. I thought I'd share my thoughts on this project, and where I think it'll go.

First off, let me go ahead and share my ideal JLA cast and crew, which can also be found on IMDb.

Directors: Andy and Lana Wachowski; Writers: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof; Producers: Wachowskis, Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas; Cinematographer: Wally Pfister; Composer: Hans Zimmer; Consultants: Bruce W. Timm, Geoff Johns

Now for the cast: Henry Cavill-Clark Kent/Superman, Nathan Fillion-Bruce Wayne/Batman, Terrence Howard-John Stewart/Green Lantern, Michael Fassbender-J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter, Chris Pine-Wally West/The Flash, Kate Beckinsale-Wonder Woman, Elizabeth Banks-Hawkgirl, Brad Pitt-Steve Trevor, Angela Bassett-Amanda Waller, Mark Hamill-Voice of Darkseid 

Those are my picks, but who knows how close it'll be to the finished product. While I am a hard core DC fan, I have plenty of concerns as to how they're gonna handle this project. The reason behind the success of Avengers (say what you want about it as a movie, but it did the characters justice) is because Marvel had it in mind from the beginning. There have been so many separate franchises within the DC cinematic universe that it will be difficult to culminate each one into a single film, especially for viewers outside the comic book world.

Despite the enormous impact and success of Nolan's Batman trilogy, the character will have to be reinvented in order to be incorporated into a world of aliens and monsters beyond Gotham. Whoever is given the task of composing this film's script will need to keep this in mind, so as to avoid duplicating Nolan's version.

Choosing which characters to include is another vital aspect of bringing JLA to the big screen. There are as many JLA heroes in the comics as there are Avengers, if not more. I picked these seven not only because they're the main force in the animated series, but because they're the best. This team has a great mix of personalities, powers, and each play a pivotal role in each other's stories. Once they are used, an assortment of others can be featured in sequels.

As far as the plot goes, I'm hoping DC will make this a trilogy, so long as the first installment proves successful. I would imagine an apocalyptic war with Darkseid to initially unite the team. If you look at the animated series and the New 52 comics, you'll see Batman investigating C.A.D.M.U.S. closely prior to an invasion of Earth, and Martian Manhunter's origin linked to these events. Get a solid writer or two on board and we can expect a good epic to launch the series.

My ideal title for a sequel would be JLA: Project C.A.D.M.U.S., which will document Amanda Waller's strive to end the ever-growing superhero organization, along with Lex Luthor's rise to becoming President (whom I think should be portrayed by Timothy Olyphant.)

Other heroes and villains I feel should come about in sequels would be Green Arrow (Norman Reedus), Red Tornado (Jon Hamm), The Atom (Ben Affleck), Dr. Fate (Laurence Fishburne), Black Canary (Morena Baccarin), Deathstroke (Liev Schreiber), Solomon Grundy (Ron Perlman), and Vandall Savage (Javier Bardem).

Justice League will be one of the biggest comic book films of all time, and has the potential of being one of the best. If done right, it will be gritty, compelling, and contain a wide range of characters. In order for this to happen, each cast and crew member must be carefully selected; and the script needs to be a knockout.

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