Saturday, September 29, 2007

Justice League of America Movie

This week's Entertainment Weekly has an article about the potential Justice League of America movie, which may be fast-tracked for summer 2009 release. George Miller is already signed on to direct, and rumors have been abuzz for a couple of weeks that Jessica Biel could be playing Wonder Woman.

The EW provides some details about the film's script, by Kieran and Michele Mulroney, which will feature an origin story for the team. According to the article, "what we've seen remains faithful to the comic book that first appeared in 1960."

So, does that mean we'll be seeing something like this?


Probably not, as this reference indicates: "The plot revolves around villainous businessman Maxwell Lord and involves cyborgs called OMACs (One-Man Army Corps) ..."

While that means we'll be getting this OMAC:

I think we can all agree that a movie where the Justice League formed to fight this OMAC--

--would be AWESOME!

One of the main focuses of the article is the worry that this movie might damage existing francises, like Batman and Superman, or delay other potential franchises, like Wonder Woman and The Flash. However, as one anonymous source stated, "'I don't think you can cannibalize superheroes. The audience has an insatiable appetite for them right now.'" (insert Marvel Zombies joke here)

Unfortunately, audiences don't have an "insatiable appetite" for superheroes, or else they would be flocking to comic stores en masse to get weekly doses of them in between movie releases. Clearly, though, Hollywood studios cannot get enough of superheroes, and it remains a perennial mystery why comic stores can't translate that popularity into a surge in comic book sales.

Here's the team's line-up, according to the script:

This line-up does remain pretty faithful to the original series, with the substitution of John Stewart for Hal Jordan in the Green Lantern position--a change consistent with the Justice League cartoon, and one that is not real objectionable.

Any thoughts?

4 comments:

Siskoid said...

Aquaman!

Castle of Stink said...

Being a non-reader of most comics, for a moment I thought you meant Jon Stewart would be playing the Green Lantern, and I thought, "What?" And then, "well, maybe, that might work in an odd way," and then I realized it was John Stewart... And then I realized I did not know who John Stewart was. I only knew the Hal Jordan character. How far behind am I?

And since you asked for thoughts, here's my dream cast, well, off the top of my head... Christian Bale for Batman, 'cause he's my favorite so far and I like him in everything... America Ferrar (or whatever her name is) for Wonder Woman (though I'm okay with Jessica Biel)... John Barrowman for The Flash... Christopher Eccleston for the Martian Manhunter... Dennis Haysbert for Green Lantern... and, for Aquaman, David Beckham, 'cause he can bend it!

That may be too many Brits, but that's how I roll.

Chris Sims said...

I don't think an International style story with Maxwell Lord putting together a new Justice League would be a bad idea. If it didn't involve False OMACs, I mean.

Anonymous said...

Max Lord JLI + Real OMAC would be awesome, though.