Justice League Movie Script in the Works; Batman Franchise May be Rebooted
Posted 03.29.11 by Ryan
An adaptation of DC Comics' superhero team Justice League was ready to step in front of cameras back
in 2007 with George Miller at the helm and a cast that included
Adam Brody as The Flash, rapper/actor Common as the Green Lantern, D.J. Cotrona as Superman and Armie Hammer as Batman. Hammer revealed last October that pre-production was finished and the movie was only "a couple of days away" from starting, while Brody revealed in 2009 that the production went as far as assembling the cast in Miller's native Australia, but "sets hadn't been built yet." Ultimately, Warner Bros. pulled the pug due to the Writer's Strike, and, more importantly, the Australian government denying the production a 40% tax rebate which would have saved the studio a significant portion of the movie's ballooning budget.
Last September, DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson revealed that they wouldn't mirror Marvel's strategy of creating individual superhero movies and combining them in 2012's The Avengers as many assumed they would, instead claiming that "we've got great stories and characters that will lend themselves to great standalone experiences."
With Green Lantern on the way this summer, and a Superman reboot and a third Batman movie on the way, it looked like Justice League was many years away if it was ever going to be made at all. Not according to Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinov.
The LA Times reports that Robinov wants to get a Justice League movie "on the big screen in 2013" and that a script for the movie is in the works. Justice League would combine DC Comics' most popular characters into one movie. Although a script for The Flash is already well documented, Robinov also revealed that another script for The Flash is also in the works (and reportedly due at the end of last year) and, surprisingly, mentioned that a Wonder Woman script is in the works as well. Both movies would come after Justice League, and Robinov felt that the Wonder Woman movie would not be impacted by the television show in development.
"Wonder Woman could be a film as well [as a TV show], the same way that Superman Returns came out while Smallville was on," said Robinov, who has a more pressing problem on his hand with the character of Batman.
Director Christopher Nolan publicly stated last December that 2012's The Dark Knight Rises would be his"the last chapter" in his "Batman saga," but that doesn't means that Robinov and Warners are finished with the franchise.
We have the third Batman, but then we’ll have to reinvent Batman...Chris Nolan and [producing partner and wife] Emma Thomas will be producing it, so it will be a conversation with them about what the next phase is.
Whether that means Batman will have to be rebooted (again) is unknown, but Nolan has always resisted using other DC Comics characters in his Batman movies, outside of the lead character's canon, and the lack of character crossover will continue in The Dark Knight Rises and the Superman reboot despite Nolan directing the former and producing the latter.
However, as Robinov points out, something will have to change for the Batman franchise if the character is to be included in the Justice League movie in 2013.