There was talk yesterday of Warner Bros. revisiting the abandoned Justice League film for a 2013 release in a profile piece focused on Warner Bros. chief Jeff Robinov. The mention was small and there wasn’t much to go on so I held back. However, today the news is confirmed as the WB is ready to put in motion the DC Comics superhero team-up to rival Paramount’s The Avengers.
Word is that one year after both Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises and Zack Snyder’s Superman: Man of Steel, Warner Bros. is eying both a Justice League film as well as a “reinvented Batman”.
Currently a Justice League script is being written, though no screenwriter is mentioned by name, along with scripts for films based on the DC characters Flash and Wonder Woman, both of which could see spin-off films following the as yet Untitled Justice League Movie. Even though a Wonder Woman television series is currently in production with Adrianne Palicki for NBC, Robinov says, “Wonder Woman could be a film as well, the same way that Superman Returns came out while ‘Smallville’ was on.” Yeah, we all know how that turned out.
As for this news of a Batman reinvention, Robinov may have said the right thing. Just as everyone seems to breath a little easier knowing Christopher Nolan is involved with Snyder’s Superman, Robinov says, “We have the third Batman, but then we’ll have to reinvent Batman… Chris Nolan and [producing partner and wife] Emma Thomas will be producing it, so it will be a conversation with them about what the next phase is.”
This is obviously a reaction to Sony’s decision to abandon a Spider-Man 4 and instead go in a whole new direction with The Amazing Spider-Man, but the difference is people grew detached from the Spider-Man franchise after the third film, while excitement for Nolan’s Batman only seems to grow and grow. Of course, should The Dark Knight Rises turn into a villain-filled cheese fest similar to Spider-Man 3 (not likely) perhaps there will be merit for the idea of a quick reboot. It just seems a bit hasty to me unless they decide to go Darren Aronofsky’s route with Bruce Wayne as a Gotham street urchin riding in a Lincoln Towncar with Alfred is an African-American mechanic going by Big Al. Then we might have something, but that will never happen.
Then there’s the whole world of the Justice League to consider. I’m curious if there is any way they can rope Christian Bale into playing Batman in the Justice League film, because you have to assume our new Superman, Henry Cavill, certainly has a Justice League appearance as the Man of Steel in his contract.
Bale was quoted by E! talking about The Dark Knight Rises saying, “The thing is that this will be, I believe, unless Chris says different, this will be the last time I’m playing Batman.” Yeah, I’m sure you’re looking closely at that “unless Chris says different” line as Bale doesn’t entirely rule out the possibility. Like Lloyd Christmas said, “So you’re saying there’s a chance.”
Should Bale not sign on, I wonder if they’ll go back to their previous choice of Armie Hammer (The Social Network) to fill the caped crusader’s boots.
I also wonder if the Wonder Woman television series will be a big enough hit to get fans petitioning for Palicki to play the role on the big screen as well. You also have Ryan Reynolds in Green Lantern, which I am sure we can expect him to be crossing over. Teresa Palmer was previously eyed as Talia al Ghul and Adam Brody as The Flash in the abandoned George Miller feature.
Lots of questions, few answers, but I’m sure you’ll have something to say. So speak up in the comments below.
