All the signs point to a JLA movie shooting early 2008
Posted by Matt Holmes
It’s difficult to argue with IESB’s article today which is more just a brief synopsis of the JLA/Superman: The Man of Steel situation than it is newsworthy. Although they do claim that movie will begin filming early next year and ya know what, I can’t argue that point.
All the signs point do point to a JLA movie to begin shooting early next year and taking up Superman: The Man of Steel’s place in the summer of 2009. I mean, Warner Brothers are sitting on what they believe to be a billion dollar script here and the thought of having Batman and Superman in the same film must really excite their bank manager.
Superman Returns was disappointing, not just financially but in terms of the film itself… so that’s a factor they have to weigh in too. A sequel to that is not guaranteed to return money and it will never make as much as a JLA movie could. They have hired a good director for this thing and after The Dark Knight next year, people will be dying to see Batman again in a movie the year afterwards.
Brandon Routh would certainly do it. Christian Bale I’m not so sure about, though he has nothing on his schedule after he has completed The Dark Knight and after a couple of months off the possibility is surely there. I’ve always thought that The Dark Knight will finish on a cliff-hanger ending and a JLA movie lodged in between the 3 year gap between The Dark Knight and the next Batman movie afterwards will disrupt this but we’ll see I guess.
You know, I’ve been bitching for a while saying it’s way too soon for this type of team-up movie but ya know the more I think about it, maybe it isn’t such a bad idea after all…..
A) George Miller is a really smart director and has a wealth of experience behind him which is a big plus when dealing with so many of these larger than life characters.
B) The script for this is the hottest thing in Hollywood right now. WB are itching to make this and I don’t think they can be stopped.
C) Maybe the timing is right. We have never had in the history of film an actor in his prime playing Batman at the same time as an actor playing Superman. Why not put them together and see what happens. Bale might not want to do a ANOTHER Batman film after Christopher Nolan’s trilogy is complete, so if they don’t do it now maybe it will never happen. Both Routh, and Bale are signed up to three films, one of which is optioned to be an ensemble movie if WB so wish.
D) Think of the potential for future films, not just team-up movies but in one quick swoop DC will have started The Flash, Wonder Women, Aquaman and probably more. All those could spin-off and do their own thing in stand-alone movies.
One thing is for sure, if this movie goes ahead then virtually ever BIG character in the comic book universe will have an actor attached to the role. Everyone!
Could you imagine a DC vs. Marvel flick? lol. Oh boy. I don’t think we are there quite yet.
You know maybe this will work. I would have rather seen Nolan deal with Batman exclusively for a little while longer but if the script is as good as they say then who knows. If they are filming early next year, we should see some big movement on this over the next two months.
categories - Justice League, Movie News, Superman: The Man of Steel
Further Reading
13 Comments »
Leave a comment
Latest Updates
0
Recent Reviews
0
Starring
- Matt Holmes
Editor
- Peter Willis
Marketing & Development
- Mike Edwards
Chief Film Critic
- Ray DeRousse
Chief US Critic
- Mark Clark
Film Critic
- Tom Fallows
Features Editor
- Simon Gallagher
Features Editor
Out Soon
- The Wrestler
31/12 
16/01 - The Brothers Bloom
16/01
- Yes Man
19/12 26/12
- The Spirit
25/12 02/01
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
25/12 06/02
- Valkyrie
25/12
- Revolutionary Road
26/12 30/01
- Defiance
16/01 09/01
- My Bloody Valentine 3D
16/01 16/01
“DC will have started The Flash, Wonder Women, Aquaman and probably more. All those could spin-off and do their own thing in stand-alone movies.”
Ah, Matt. Nice to see you finally come around. As I said in virtually every other post you’ve made about this JLA flick, AOL Time-Warner is a multi-billion-dollar, multi-national conglomerate. Nothing on the face of this planet will stop them from pursuing a moneymaker if they smell a buck, especially now that Harry Potter has run it’s course and they desperately need a new tentpole franchise.
And as I told you months ago, the Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow scripts have been stuck in development hell for the longest time mainly because the studios couldn’t quite make the decision to prioritize these comic book movies. A blockbuster JLA movie would do two things. One: it would break in WW, Flash, GA, GL as known characters to a general audience -most people in their thirties (like me) grea up watching SuperFriends so we’re already familiar but for the tweens and teens this movie would act as a good primer and introduction and give them a built-in audience for the spin-off films. Second: it would establish these characters as a known quantity to the studios who have been (as usual) frozen by indecision. The reason there’s been no movement on a Wonder Woman or Flash script is because the studios have seen the success of comic-book movies but aren’t quite sure they want to take the leap. This would remove those doubts by showing they can make money. And yes, the hand-wringing is irrational, especially given how successful comic-book movies like Road to Perdition and A History of Violence, Blade, Men In Black and other non-superstar/superhero movies have been, but then again that’s Hollywood.
Oh, and the multiple failures of movies like Aeon Flux, Ultraviolet, Ecks Vs Sever have made it where studios don’t want to make a female-driven sci-fi/action/adventure movie…like Wonder Woman. That’s why the Black Widow picture, that David Hayter, my favorite screenwriter, was working on got canned. A successful JLA would do a lot of good. And considering that they’re going to make it regardless, rather than bitch about whether it’s “time” or not for such a movie, we should all put our doubts aside and observe to see if it will be any good. I for one hope it will.
The minute they announced that they were writing a JLA script it was obvious they were having second thoughts about doing a direct Superman sequel.
I felt Returns was a big pile of “bleh” and it seems to get a pass because Bryan Singer directed it and since I’m a total geek for DC comics this is great news for me. Lets face it, there is no way that WB will pull their act together and get solo Flash, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern films off the ground so this is the best chance we’ll get to see these characters on film.
If this script is good (and as Matt points out it is THE hot script around Hwood) - and George Miller (a left-field choice but a good one) signs up - then we have reasons to believe this will be a rockin’ movie!
I stand by what I write in a previous post. Superman Returns = OHMSS, Brandon Routh = George Lazenby.
SUPERMAN RETURNS grossed $390 Million worldwide, off a $200 million budget, not including a very lucrative dvd release.
That’s NOT a disappointment by any stretch of the imagination.
It scored a pretty good 77 on Rotten Tomatoes, so its not a critical flop at all. This idea that the film was a let down by any definition is revisionist history put forward by a few web sites, not anything based in reality– and certainly not anything Warner Bros. is paying attention to.
Scramble:
“This idea that the film was a let down by any definition is revisionist history put forward by a few web sites, not anything based in reality”
Okay, so if I say Superman Returns was a boring, meandering underwhelming waste of two hours that makes me no longer based in reality? Waving the box-office receipts of a movie is the first resort of the desperate. And Matt didn’t say it made no money, he said it was a “disappointment.” Allow me to explain to you why that is. Warner Brothers thought Superman would be the next Spider-Man, a billion-dollar franchise. Sony makes a billion dollars guaranteed every few years now off Spidey. Superman is the greatest comic book hero of all time. He should have set box-office records -WB certainly thought he would. Instead he was given the cold shoulder by audiences -no billion dollars, not even close.
If you liked SR, fine, but most people (sorry to hurt your feelings but you know it’s true) didn’t like it. Want to know why? Superman Returns was supposed to be the triumphant reappearance of the Man of steel for the 21st Century. We expected a story as good if not better than Batman Begins or X-Men. What did we get? A two-hour love-triangle (that failed to engage our interest in any way!) that had nothing to do with Superman. No titanic fights, no smart plot twists, nothing super about it. SR was more stupid than Superman 3.
“…and certainly not anything Warner Bros. is paying attention to.”
Uh, yeah, that’s why the sequel to Superman Returns has been on the drawing boards for over a year now with no real movement on it. And why Bryan Singer has admitted the next flick needs -big surprise!- more action, more villains (Brainiac I’d heard would be the villain in the next Supes movie as well as Luthor) and less emphasis on loving Lois. If criticizing SR is “revisionnist” then Bryan Singer must be in on it, because although he hasn’t admitted the critics were right he has said he’ll make the changes to the things they critcized.
“Superman is the greatest comic book hero of all time.”
He might be the most iconic, but Batman and Spider-Man have had greater commercial success at all levels, from comic books sales to video games to the box office. He ranks third in terms of general marketability. So how about you show me so much as one quote from anyone at WB that said they expected it to do Spider-Man level numbers. And just to note, Superman Return actually DID outperform Batman Begins on the global level.
“If you liked SR, fine, but most people (sorry to hurt your feelings but you know it’s true) didn’t like it.”
Wierd then… how I can see a 77 on Rotten Tomatoes and a 72 on Metacritic. Those are fairly high numbers for a movie of this kind, maybe not spectacular but certainly solid. I mean SUPERBAD is considered a huge critical success, but its at 75 on Meta. So this idea that the popular opinion was that Superman Returns sucked– sorry, but there’s no proof of it. What this IS proof of is a minority who really hated the film. And that’s fine, but don’t pretend that it’s the majority view.
Please for the love of god keep Nolans Batman away from this action figure movie. There are more than enough DC characters in the JLA universe to commit screen time to then to bring in Bale’s Batman. And when you really think about it, how is Batman going to fit in a live-action movie when you have legitimate superheroes flying all around him? In the comics or cartoons it works because you can show him doing outrageous things with his grappling hook etc. that just wouldn’t fly in a live-action setting.
“So how about you show me so much as one quote from anyone at WB that said they expected it to do Spider-Man level numbers.”
First of all no studio talks about projected numbers in DIRECT relation to another studios franchise. That’s akin to economic warfare- declaring that your project has been set up to directly unseat another studios cash-cow. That simply isn’t done in Hollywood. And as far as proof that WB had high hopes for Superman, there can’t be any higher proof than the collosal budget. A quarter-BILLION dollars, just to make a two-hour movie! You don’t spend that kind of money on a character who, as you put it, “ranks third in terms of general marketability” unless you think he does/can rank first.
“So this idea that the popular opinion was that Superman Returns sucked– sorry, but there’s no proof of it… don’t pretend that it’s the majority view.”
Uh, yeah, you declare that you’re right (even though everyone in the universe is saying otherwise) therefore you’re right? Look, you acknowledge that there’s a vocal “minority” who you feel compelled to respond to. That shows that it’s probably not a few folks, but instead damn near everyone -otherwise you wouldn’t know or care about it. But everytime Surpeman Returns is mentioned there’s an immediate groan from moviegoers far ans wide -not critics, mind you, but audiences. Clearly you’re a Superman addict (I love Trasnformers, but not the Michael Bay bastardization of it) but you’re only fooling yourself if you think the majority of moviegoers liked/loved Superman. The sales were LOW! They spent 300 mil (production/marketing budgets) and only got back 390? Small wonder even WB has gotten cold feet. If SR was so successful then shouldn’t they have already gone into production on the next Superman flick then? So far they’re trying to decide where they went wrong.
Face it, the majority of moviegoers didn’t like SR anymore than they liked Pearl Harbor or Transformers. All three films made money and all three films sucked ass. Get over it.
Fuck Singer!..Fuck Bale! Recast them, this IS comicbook world after all.
Then lets have a Massive big fat blockbuster style kick-ass mother of all Superhero Flicks to end all Superhero flickss!!!!
With Watchmen and the Avengers on the Horizon,this could be the Biggest and Best of the lot!(Mind you I carn’t quite get that stinking JLA tv movie out of my mind from a few years back.)
BRING IT ON!!!
“Uh, yeah, you declare that you’re right (even though everyone in the universe is saying otherwise) therefore you’re right?”
No. Maybe you should pay closer attention. I cited actual evidence disproving your assertion that nearl everyone hates the film– the movie scored a very respectable 77 on Rotten Tomatoes and 72 on Metacritic. Those two sites are the most highly regarded and authoritative sites for gauging public reaction to a film. They get their results from thousands of critics and user reviews. Aggregating these varying sources, they provide a balanced overview of how people feel about a movie.
This in addition to a successful global box office and dvd release.
“Those two sites are the most highly regarded and authoritative sites for gauging public reaction to a film”
LMAO!!! RottenTomatoes is “authoratative?” Beam me up Scotty, I have heard it all now! I remember reading posts from people like you on AICN about Transformers. One of my favorties, “Transformers is the best movie since CRANK!” First that, now this. You people are too much.
I explained to you why you’re wrong, damn near anyone on any website, or any man on the street for that matter, will tell you SR sucked ass. You don’t have to like that you’re the only person in the western hmeisphere who liked that turd of a movie, but you need to grow up and stop pretending this movie was any good. It’s box-office sales were a “disappointment” at best, and WB is now scared to make a sequel because the first one was received so badly.
If Superman was so great then why didn’t it do half a billion at least? Batman Begins didn’t do gangbusters at the box-office but then again it had the tremendous weight of the disastrous Schumaker years on it’s back, but everyone hailed it as a great film and now realize Nolan’s going to do the frnachise justice. What’s Singer/WB’s/your excuse?
And what’s your respsone?
“Rottentomatoes gave it a 77.” I’m done talking to you.
Ummm… you should probably work on your people skills. Throughout these comments, you’ve been insulting me and make really broad statements with nothing backing them up. So I guess Metacritic and RT, who takes the columns of pretty much every pro movie critic in the country, and aggregate their grades, can’t be trusted? But you can?
Again, let me try to clarify for you what those sites do– they aggregate tons of reviews from various sources. I don’t really understand how you can argue with the end result. You might disagree with the majority opinion, and that’s totally cool. But those sites do show you, on any given film, just what the majority view actually IS. Can you explain to me what your problem is with their methodology?
Well, I’m done with your hyper-volatile silliness. You should really learn how to talk like a rational adult when online. All you’ve basically done is rant and rave about how EVERYONE hated the movie, even though I’ve pointed you to proof that no, everyone didn’t. You did, and that’s fine. But you don’t speak for everyone, and in this case, it looks unlikely, based on empirical evidence, that you speak for the majority. And again, no one’s criticizing your opinion, just your insistence that you speak for everyone. And no matter how much you shout or condescend, it doesn’t change that. In fact, it only hinders your argument, really.
But again, done, at least until you can carry a conversation with a less demeaning tone.
Yeah, Jaysmack…chill out man, everyone knows deep down that Superman Returns sucked Balls!They just dont want to admit it.
Just wanted to say, you guys have an interesting debate going on and I loved reading it. lol.
Anyway.
If you read the reviews for Superman Returns many of the positive ones are mild positives. They aren’t the kind of positive reviews Batman were getting and they weren’t the damning reviews that Fantastic Four were receiving either.
To me, they seemed like reviews from people on a nostalgia trip who loved
the original Christopher Reeve flicks and they desperately wanted to say
something good about it.
Many gave it a mildly good review. No one was over-whelmed by it and I have a feeling if you asked them about it on second viewing, they wouldn’t be too thrilled by the film.
Roger Ebert’s great review of the film seemed about spot on for me…
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1152326/reviews.php?critic=columns&sortby=default&page=1&rid=1521144
The bottom line on this one is that if Superman Returns had been successful, Warner Brothers would be pushing for a sequel to be filming next year as it’s far easier and less hassle than trying to put this JLA movie together.
I’m hearing they might even re-cast Brandon Routh too even though he’s said many times he would be keen to do a team-up film. Again, if it were a success they would be doing their up-most to keep him.