Given its large costumed cast — and seeming interference with a pair of existing franchises — Warner Bros.’ planned Justice League of America feature is one of the more intriguing projects on 2008’s production schedule. There’s so much that could go wrong with this movie, it seems like the kind of headache no studio in its right mind would want to risk — but according to IESB, Warners is moving full speed ahead.
How fast is “full speed”? Well, maybe not as fast as a speeding bullet, but close enough. From the article:
WB sources have informed the IESB that execs behind the Justice League of America want it to be in production as early as February/March 2008 to be ready for a summer of 2009 release.
That’s fast.
The looming strike has a lot to do with this; seemingly everybody is scurrying to get projects wrapped before it happens. But no matter the studio’s reasons for plowing ahead with a JLA movie, there are some fairly thorny casting issues that will have to be dealt with before a single frame is shot — namely, what are they going to do about Batman and Superman, characters who figure prominently in the League and who just happen to have their own movies to carry? As IESB‘s report makes clear, nobody has a clue:
Some rumors indicate that studio execs have considered recasting Superman and a few names have popped up. But the honest truth is that the studio just does not know at this time whether Brandon Routh will return or not. We’ll just have to wait and see.
And Batman? If Justice League starts production early ’08 that would give Christian Bale a three to five month break between “Batman” films. Would he do it? Would the production team behind the Batman films be accommodating? Would they allow one of their three-picture-options with Bale to be used on an ensemble film? Would Justice League be the last Batman film that Bale takes part in?
On one hand, this is Hollywood, where there’s enough money, there’s a way; on the other, we’ve seen plenty of projects disappear down the rabbit hole over seemingly inconsequential hangups, and figuring out what to do about Routh and Bale is far from inconsequential. February or March of 2008? We’ll see. For more about the JLA movie — including a possible team lineup and storyline — follow the link below.
Source: IESB.net
