A couple years back, Screenwriter David Goyer was getting ready to go on a movie based on the DC hero The Flash, and he made no mystery that he wasn’t Ryan Reynolds in the role. Then the movie died. Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman isn’t happening either. Batman rolls on into the Dark Knight, and Superman is still tenatively scheduled to return again as Man Of Steel in 2009.
IESB reports that Warner Bros execs are gassed about a Justice League script they got and want to put it into production as early as next spring fro a 2009 release…

Our sources have confirmed earlier reports that the Justice League of America film will consist of at least Superman (Clark Kent), Batman (Bruce Wayne), Wonder Woman (Princess Diana), The Flash (Barry Allen), Aquaman and the Green Lantern (John Stewart) and will follow the OMAC storyline and also feature Maxwell Lord.
Within a few weeks, George Miller should be confirmed as the director and casting should commence immediately. The priority for the studio will have to be to figure out what they are doing with Superman and Batman.

I bolded that last part because its important. I don’t know if Batman or Superman as a franchise can survive with a JLA movie. I don’t know if Nolan & Goyer’s Batman would even work in this movie. And recasting Batman would be as big a mistake as keeping him and changing his character.
Fueling speculation is Ryan Reynolds dodging Flash questions. Why would he talk at all unless he was either already signed or seriously being considered for the role?

Personally I’d leave Batman and Superman out of it. If they’re so gung ho to get a League movie going, lets get Giffen and DeMatteis on it and make a Justice League Detroit or Justice League International movie.

I was browsing through my feeds this afternoon, specifically the Blogs@Newsarama feed and saw the following preview posted to YouTube. It looks pretty interesting. It will be based off of Darwyn Cooke’s comic that was highly influenced by the silver age of DC comics. This trailer was shown at SDCC and will apparently be released in Spring 2008, though the B@N post says February 2008. Keep your eyes open for more info and feel free to share any thoughts on the trailer in the comments!

• Marvel Legends Icons and 2-Packs
• DC Universe/DC Superheroes
• Castlevania

So read on for more details…

[Read the rest of this entry…]

Superman Returns, love it or leave it, did make a pretty big splash and made more than enough money for a sequel. Many were already pencilling in “Man Of Steel” for 2009. Now, Moviehole.net reports now that this movie may be scrapped to put Brandon Routh in the Justice League.

Lending some credence to this rumor is the fact that director Bryan Singer is moving forward with a World War II Era thriller with “Usual Suspects” writing Chris Macquarrie, which will film this fall, pushing any start date for Superman well into 2008.

Variety forced a comment out of Warners today, but it wasn’t much except that Singer is still attached to direct and they’ll do it after his other movie.

I’m of two minds of this. Firstly, I don’t know if its such a good idea to jumpstar the JLA movie by sacrificing a Superman sequel… but on the other hand, Returns didn’t do that good and who’s to say theres even money on the table for another movie? Superman getting the League started could do great, especially if they league consists of heroes that don’t have their own movie deals (I doubt Christopher Nolan’s Batman would work in a JLA movie).

I went by my local comic shop on Wednesday to pick up the final issue of Civil War and the new Immortal Iron Fist and to my surprise, I found DC Minimates! While I didn’t pick any up on this trip, I did manage to score a free poster showing some of the upcoming figures and when they are expected to be released. Start hunting DC and Minimate fans!

• There’s minimal to report at the moment – just lots of room to speculate – but Warner has hired Kiernan and Michele Mulroney (who and who?) to write a script for a Justice League movie. I wonder, if they actually get those Wonder Woman and Flash movies out the door, are the leads (like Brandon Routh and Christian Bale) going to be up for parts in it? I’d imagine the budget couldn’t allow for it, but it’s fun to think about. Ooh, but if we’re lucky, maybe we’ll get Giffen, Dematteis, & Maguire’s Detriot League! (Dare to dream, friends, dare to dream.)
• In case you missed that animated Invincible Iron Man movie, you have a chance to see it for free on Cartoon Network on Saturday, March 3rd.
• Again we turn to Cartoon Network, which will be premeiring the second Hellboy animated feature, Hellboy: Blood & Iron on Saturday, March 10th. I missed the first one, but hopefully I’ll be a little more on-the-ball for this one.

Power Girl and Oracle try to have a conversation, but Bizarro keeps interrupting.

Fan Film director Chris Notarile has created a pretty wide variety of DC comics inspired shorts, featuring some of the best and brightest from the good ol’ days of Justice League International. After the jump see Blue Beetle and Booster Gold deliver a public service announcement, Flash gets a speeding ticket, and Maxwell Lord endorses Advil. [Read the rest of this entry…]

TNI has a couple of interesting interviews up that both touch upon DC Comics action figures. First up is Ryan Mansaur, brand manager for DC Superheroes at Mattel. Next up is Georg Brewer of DC Direct.

I thought it was interesting to find out just how hamstrung Mattel is on the DC Superheroes line (the first decent answer to Marvel Legends from Mattel so far). DC Direct is similarly limited in their control since they contract sculptors instead of doing all the sculpting in-house like Toy Biz did. I always had reservations about DC Direct because of their inconsistency from line to line. Apparently, the outsourcing is the main reason at fault for that, but they are looking to correct that. I still think they underestimate the need for better articulation, but I’m a pretty hardcore Marvel Legends fan so you’d have a hard time convincing me otherwise.