With Christopher Nolan declaring himself out of the running for JUSTICE LEAGUE, Warner Bros. has approached another of its go-to directors in Ben Affleck…Thus far, Affleck is the only candidate who’s been sent Will Beall’s JUSTICE LEAGUE script, which the GANGSTER SQUAD scribe was hired to write last summer.
Okay so far.
Affleck has made it clear that he’s only interested in directing films in which he also stars — THE TOWN and ARGO are proof of that — so its likely that if this pairing ever came to fruition, he would don a suit of his own.
Affleck as Flash? Green Lantern? They seem like the “best” choices for him from a physicality and gravitas standpoint. I can’t imagine him as the Bat, and I’m sure Cavill will reprise his Superman role if the film does at all well at the box office. Nothing’s certain at this point, of course, except for the fact that Warner and DC want to duplicate the success of The Avengers. I’m not sure they realize that success is the product of five decent to great precursor films, though, precursors that the JL won’t get with a projected 2015 release schedule.
As much as I love DC, this is just going to be horrendous. If they tried doing it the way Marvel has been (and to great success), I MIGHT see it working, but they aren’t, so it won’t. Can’t just JUMP into the JLA for chrissakes.
I’m sure they’re saying to themselves that most movie go’ers are familiar enough already with Supes, the Bat, and WW that they don’t need to lay any groundwork and that the other characters don’t matter much. They’re wrong, of course, especially since WW has never gotten a good cinematic treatment and Batman and Superman are about to reboot yet again, but that has to be their mindset.
I beg your pardon, but Mr. Affleck most certainly did NOT direct Armageddon! That movie was an ensemble of various talents and Affleck was only required to show off his big fake teeth while the awesomeness of the movie happened around him.
Pretty much. The JL cartoon worked because we already had the Batman and Superman shows, and the rest were given great treatment in the series itself. This movie will neither have the time or inclination to give each character their due, which is something The Avengers did so well because it didn’t need to set things up beforehand.
This will probably shock most people, including Tom, but I enjoy Armageddon until they dock with the Russian space station. From that point on, the escalating series of disasters gets increasingly silly, but until then it’s an enjoyable enough exercise in which the usual band of misfits has to put aside their differences to save something important.
So, likely JLA for a movie would be Batman (new actor), Superman (new actor), Wonder Woman (new actor), Flash (new actor), maybe Martian Manhunter (new actor) and then a grab-bag of possibilities. Probably GL since there’s already a movie even though it sucked pretty hard. You can’t spin up an ensemble superhero cast with nothing but reboots, unknowns, and unfamiliars.
… and they’ll be fighting … uh … Brainiac? Lex Luthor? The Riddler? In order for the JL to work they need to embrace the silliness and … who am I kidding, this is going to be horrible.
I was rooting for the asteroid to put the world out of it’s misery. If that’s the best we could come up with we deserve to die. Hey, anyone mention this on the squandered talent thread…?
And you’d think Aquaman would be at least somewhat useful vs. a starfish, but no, there he is, hanging on for dear life as a tentacle whips him about (yes, I know it’s a space starfish, but still…).
BTW, if you remember that comic “as a little kid”, you’ve got be significantly older than I am. I was born in 1964, but the first JL appearance was in 1960.
