Will Justice League Movie be fast tracked now that Avengers breaks records

[Flashpoint]

I agree with everything you posted. Fantastic post by the way!

Thank you very much!

It's not hard to put this stuff together if you just follow the trades and the Hollywood gossip websites. Especially Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood; highly recommended!

[Cowtools]

Thank you very much!

It's not hard to put this stuff together if you just follow the trades and the Hollywood gossip websites. Especially Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood; highly recommended!

Yes indeed; great post. And Dedline is awesome.

Something else occurred to me while reading your comments: one major reason why DC has a harder time than Marvel gettin a prestige franchise off the ground, is that DC has only one premiere team - The JLA - while Marvel has two - The Avengers and The X-Men. So even though the X-Men franchise slipped at the box office and now belongs to a rival company, they had another group of well-known heroes to sell.
DC doesnt have that. The JLA is their single universe-defining team, and that means if any one element flops, like Green Lantern did, the whole project stalls.

I think their best bet is to do separate Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman movies, since those brands still have value, and to introduce a new Green Lantern along with The Flash in the JLA movie, like they did with Hawkeye and The Hulk.

[Flashpoint]

Yes indeed; great post. And Deadline is awesome.

Thank you kindly.

Something else occurred to me while reading your comments: one major reason why DC has a harder time than Marvel gettin a prestige franchise off the ground, is that DC has only one premiere team - The JLA - while Marvel has two - The Avengers and The X-Men. So even though the X-Men franchise slipped at the box office and now belongs to a rival company, they had another group of well-known heroes to sell.

DC doesnt have that. The JLA is their single universe-defining team, and that means if any one element flops, like Green Lantern did, the whole project stalls.

I think their best bet is to do separate Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman movies, since those brands still have value, and to introduce a new Green Lantern along with The Flash in the JLA movie, like they did with Hawkeye and The Hulk.

That was the idea...until GL didn't hit like they planned. We were supposed to get The Flash and then GL2 after the first GL. But WB dropped the ball on that big time.

As for Justice League being the only real viable team for a WB movie, I have to disagree. They've talked about Teen Titans, but I think the real winner would be Legion Of Super-Heroes. Teenagers with superpowers set in the distant future--and with lots of spaceships and aliens. Besides, they had 2 seasons of their own animated series with a toy line released at McDonalds. (Which is way, way more than Runaways or The Inhumans have ever had, LOL).

With Disney looking at the likes of Runaways, The Inhumans and Guardians of the Galaxy, LSH is not much a stretch, not at all. Same thing with the Doom Patrol (whom DCE is now pushing with shorts coming up on DC Nation). DC has plenty of good options besides the Justice League.

[Flashpoint]

A JLA movie doesn't need to be fast-tracked, although it may well be in light of the success of Avengers. If WB takes anything from this it should a lesson in method and tone. What made Avengers work so well? Was it all the build up from the previous movies? Was it the ensemble cast? The laugh-out-loud humor amidst the big action scenes?

[Flashpoint]

The WB execs must be banging their heads against the wall about killing Whedon's Wonder Woman movie, as they clearly should be.

They should be groveling to get him back on that project.

You couldn't be more wrong. You and every other Whedon WW devotee.

Seriously, people--have any of you even bothered to read Whedon's Wonder Woman ideas? They were absolutely awful. Not okay. Not just kinda sorta halfway decent. They were TERRIBLE.

Google Whedon Wonder Woman sometime. Read it and weep. One of the few smart things WB has done in the past 10 years is let Whedon out of his WW option. For that, I thank them profusely.

Whedon's WW would've been totally wretched for too many reasons to count. Sad but true.

[Flashpoint]

I don't know if that's necessary, in the case of GL2 I think expansion in both concepts and characters would work just fine but they also need a more well developed story and script and a director that can set it all up nicely.

The new GI Joe movie franchise could actually be a good example of course correcting a franchise given that they kept the continuity of the first but are bringing in new characters, better focus, and are being more faithful to the comics/cartoons rather than making weird deviations like the first. While I'll still openly admit that I enjoyed the first GL movie despite it's problems, it still has a good deal of potential and WB would do well to be more collaborative with DC to capture the spirit of the comics a lot closer.

Quoted for truth. I hope and pray this is the case. First Superman next year, then a GL reboot, then Justice League. That would be my fanboy dream.

[DonC]

The WB execs must be banging their heads against the wall about killing Whedon's Wonder Woman movie, as they clearly should be.

They should be groveling to get him back on that project.

Considering that Whedon and the WB both agreed that he was the wrong person for the job, I say let the project stay dead.

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Personally, I think DC should start with a Justice League movie. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman are known enough that you don't need origin movies for them.

[iRacingRyan]

I disagree.

They need the audience to care about the characters before pulling them all together into a huge team movie. Does the average movie-goer know about the Speed Force, or Cyborg, or Aquaman? What Marvel did was make the audience care about the characters, have amazing actors playing them, and weave a small but common thread throughout all of the films. Superman and Batman are so ingrained into the movie-goers minds that I believe you could forego new movies from either character (unless they weave Snyder's Superman into it...doubt it) until the actual Justice League movie, maybe peppering in mentions or a small cameo in the other introductory films. But it needs to be written, cast, directed, and acted perfectly from anything prior to a Justice League film. Another film like 'Green Lantern' just won't cut it.

[Flashpoint]

Considering that Whedon and the WB both agreed that he was the wrong person for the job, I say let the project stay dead.

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Personally, I think DC should start with a Justice League movie. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman are known enough that you don't need origin movies for them.

Rumors have been flying all over the web for several months that this *is* the prevailing view at WB. We should know for sure soon, hopefully by this summer.

RE: Whedon's WW
I'm so sick of Whedon zombies bowing and scraping before their Whedon WW altar. Seriously, if Whedon had made his WW with all the elements he had planned? It would have massively bombed---meaning he'd never have gotten the chance to do Avengers right.

At this very moment, Joss Whedon is the king of the world. He can probably get almost any movie he wanted made right now. Now THAT, my friends, that is power.

Whedon should thank his lucky stars his fatally flawed Wonder Woman never, ever got made. Even Joss himself has admitted he gets Marvel characters better than DC characters. Based on what he has revealed about his WW ideas and his Avengers movie, I think everything turned out exactly the way it should have.

Because his Wonder Woman would most likely have killed his career.

[shingi70]

Starting with a justice league movie is terrible as it means a reboot for superman's and GL.

Plus the biggest reason why a engers got the hyper was they built this up through 5 movies. Starting with the league then backtracking to tell origins is stupid. It works in comical but not movies.

[Flashpoint]

Starting with a justice league movie is terrible as it means a reboot for superman's and GL.

Plus the biggest reason why a engers got the hyper was they built this up through 5 movies. Starting with the league then backtracking to tell origins is stupid. It works in comical but not movies.

Not necessarily. There are few bad ideas, but many more bad directors and bad writers who can ruin even the best ideas. I mean, even I laughed when I heard DC was reviving Teen Titans after cancelling it twice. Dumb idea, right? Doomed to fail, for sure.

Then along came Marv Wolfman & George Perez to prove me spectacularly wrong. And then to beat the Uncanny X-Men and become the #1 comic book. Who'd a thunk it?

After all, what is Prometheus but an origin story that came after Ridley Scott's brilliant original? And that's widely anticipated to be both brilliant and a huge, huge hit.

It can be done. It just has to be done with the right talent. And you don't have to reboot Superman and GL to do it, either.

[ascended]

I dont think this changes much.

We've all known for years that superhero movies can make money. We knew that with Spider-Man, and Dark Knight only reinforced the idea and proved it true.

It's been years since Marvel hit it big with Iron Man. They've had a string of wins since then. Even the second Hulk movie, while not making a ton of profit, is generally well regarded. The genre is a proven money maker, despite the risks involved.

DC, or rather, WB, have not yet made the investment that will put them on the same road as Marvel though. They dont seem to have the faith. Remember it took years of duds like Daredevil and Fantastic Four before Marvel finally got it together with their own production studio and started knocking out winners.

DC needs to find its own formula. Copying what Marvel does isnt going to work. I think Green Lantern proved that. They tried to hit the same note Iron Man had and failed. If I were WB, I think I'd be looking at Dark Knight as a template, and with what we've heard about Man of Steel it looks like WB agrees. Will it work? Who knows? Ask me next year. But if Man of Steel does well, expect to see Flash the following year. Batman around the same time. Green Lantern the following. And JLA shortly thereafter. Maybe a Wonder Woman, depending on how the world looks by that point and how well the formula seems to be working out. I figure once WB finally learns they can make money off DC, and figures out how, we'll see at least two a year.

If DC is ever going to compete in film, WB needs to recognize the fact that the process of finding what works for them is going to be an investment, and no doubt there will be setbacks. Again, Green Lantern. Proved what doesnt work, so it still helped move WB forward that much. But once that formula is worked out you get things like Avengers. And no one doubts that if WB could pull off a good JLA, Batman and Superman together, it would break records.

[skyvolt2000]

I dont think GL needs a reboot. With at least 3 more earth Lanterns to choose from they'll be okay.

Yes you have 3 of them however at the time that movie came out-your target group-kids grew up with a black Green Lantern. So they tuned that film out before it was set to come out. Dang that bad script. They should have done that movie with John telling recruits about Hal's first stint as a GL.

The main issue that DC faces with their films is so many folks have been replaced and bought back that you don't who to expect. You look at the Avengers-the first guy that wore that outfit (excluding Nick Fury) was that same guy you saw in cartoons and tv shows. Aside from Rhodey being Iron Man-folks don't know about USA Agent, Thunderstrike, 2-3 Black Widows and various Hulks from the comics.

Who is going to be on this roster?

Superman, Batman & Wonder Woman-no debate there.

Aquaman-He should be there

Flash-which one?

Green Lantern-which one?

Who is the person/person of color if John isn't in it?

If it was me-Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash (Wally-just to annoy Dan), Aquaman (Maybe have Aqualad make a cameo), Green Lantern (Hal will answer the call but I would include a line that mentions John & Guy not being available) and Black Lighting. If I had to do an eight member-Blue Beetle.

[Reginleif]

Is anyone else tired of these Avenger threads?

[marvell2100]

Doubtful. I think WB is well aware that they don't have the tools or the talent necessary to make a successful JLA film. There is more to loose than gain from a rushed attempt of what would seem like an Avengers knock off to the general public. I think the WB will hold off on that film until they can find the right ingredients to actually pull it off and that is going to take some time.

However, if I am wrong we can bet it will a rushed crappy film not worth the film it's made on.

Edit: Just to add.....I think DC would benefit more from straightening/ironing out their comic verse before they worry about making a live action film. From what I have seen and read on these forums and others DC new 52 is hitting a lot of bumps and confusion. Which will probably only be reflected and Magnified on screen.

I agree. DC's best bet is to get the comics on track. Get a few events under your belt and let momentum build up. If they rush things, we may wind up with the Super Friends Movie instead of the Justice League.