Various rumors about a ‘Justice League of America’ film have been circulating following the cinematic release of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, some of the speculation regards potential directors for a JLA film, who included Ben Affleck at first and more recently the Wachowski siblings. No formal announcements have been made about a JLA director at this point, but it seems that one might not be a long way off.
Warner Bros. are in a difficult position in terms of their potential suite of superhero films from the pages of DC Comics, the successful Dark Knight trilogy has come to a close, Green Lantern is highly unlikely to be getting a sequel, there has been no real progress on Flash or Wonder Woman (since Joss Whedon’s aborted project) but obviously a new Superman film is very close to release. Where to from here?
We might just now be getting our first indication of what Warner Bros. plan is for a new line of superhero films. Superman will be out in June 2013, it has previously been stated that Batman will be rebooted, and lately a director is being sought for JLA. A new rumor has emerged tying all these things together and claiming that a rebooted Batman will appear in the JLA film (without a supporting origin film), and that new superhero franchises will come later.
The approach with Batman seems to make sense, with Nolan’s trilogy so recent there’s no reason to redo an origin tale, bringing him into JLA without a new supporting film is unlikely to cause any problems, how the new Superman film ‘Man of Steel’ might or might not tie into a new JLA film remains to be seen, though he’s another example where a character could likely be brought into JLA with little need for a retelling of his origin, especially if ‘Man of Steel’ covers it.
By releasing the big cross over film first, JLA will also be able to serve as a potential launching point for other characters with no current cinematic screen presence such as Flash, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman and possible a re-launch for Green Lantern.
Supposedly relatively new comer Will Beall has written the script that is currently being looked at by Warner Bros, Beall has worked on the TV series ‘Castle’, as well as potential scripts for ‘Logan’s Run’ and ‘Lethal Weapon 5’.
While everything remains to be speculation only, with no formal announcements being made all indications are that a Justice League film will happen, but the details of how and when are a long way from being set. Whether it manages to measure up to what has been achieved with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we’ll just have to wait and see.
In the meantime those who can’t wait for a JLA live action film should take a look at the Jim Lee/Geoff Johns JLA series that has been launched as part of the DC Comics reboot that took place late 2012.
