The Kidd here...
We've been down this road before. Back in 2008, heading into the writer's strike, Warner Bros. was hurrying to get a JUSTICE LEAGUE movie into production with George Miller at the helm. Adam Brody (The Flash), D.J. Cotrona (Superman), Common (Green Lantern), Megan Gale (Wonder Woman), Santiago Cabrera (Aquaman), Hugh Keays (Martian Manhunter) and Armie Hammer (Batman) would have made up the grouping, battling the villainous likes of Jay Baruchel (Maxwell Lord) and Teresa Palmer (Talia al Ghul). However, a ballooning budget and a desperate need for script rewrites that couldn't take place as a result of the strike ultimately yanked the plug on the production.
Warner Bros. is heading back to the drawing board though, according to Variety, as the studio has secretly hired Will Beall (GANGSTER SQUAD) to pen a new script for a JUSTICE LEAGUE flick. Beall has already been working on a LETHAL WEAPON reboot and a LOGAN'S RUN remake for Warner Bros., so they're quite familiar with his capabilities and clearly like what he's doing.
The timing of this really works in favor of Warners, too, and that has only a little to do with THE AVENGERS banking assloads of money. Warner Bros. is in the middle of a transition period with their superheroes. Yeah, GREEN LANTERN didn't work at all. But MAN OF STEEL is on the way, which gives them a rebooted perspective on Superman that can carry forward into JUSTICE LEAGUE. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES will be the end of Christopher Nolan's vision for Batman, and it's hard to believe they're going to let that DC Comics property sit on the shelf for too long collecting dust when they have the perfect opportunity to restart him for JUSTICE LEAGUE.
This is really the anti-strategy to what Marvel Studios did in creating their movie universe. Marvel used the solo movies to build the characters and propel everything forward towards it all culminating in THE AVENGERS. Warner Bros. may be heading in the opposite direction, using JUSTICE LEAGUE to launch those solo franchises, like Aquaman and Martian Manhunter and definitely The Flash.
It's a risky idea that can work if Beall and whoever gets picked to director can make one hell of a JUSTICE LEAGUE film. After all, Superman and Batman together on the big screen should be enough of a selling point for anyone, regardless of how SUPERMAN RETURNS was or how MAN OF STEEL turns out. It's still Superman or Batman. Marvel's way of doing things isn't the only way, and I'm quite interested to see if Warner Bros. can make working backwards pay off.
-Billy Donnelly
"The Infamous Billy The Kidd"
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