ROTTEN TOMATOES: One Justice League of America Rumor Cleared Up, Another Started

One Justice League of America Rumor Cleared Up, Another Started

No Bale? No Routh? No problem.

by Jeff Giles | August 23, 2007

Forget The Dark Knight and Iron Man -- the big comic-book adaptation everyone's talking about this week is Justice League of America, the superhero extravaganza that's supposedly starting production in a matter of weeks. Questions and speculation surround the project, specifically the rumored involvement (or non-involvement) of Christian Bale and Brandon Routh, who already play JLA anchors Batman and Superman in their own film franchises. Yesterday, Moviehole and IESB claimed to clear up some of the Justice League mysteries.

First, from Moviehole, comes word that Bale and Routh will not be on board for Justice League of America. No sources are named, but in Bale's case, naming a source really isn't necessary; earlier this week, he flat-out told IESB that he wouldn't be participating and hadn't been asked. Direct from the hilariously terse IESB report:

Q: Are you doing Justice League after TDK?

Bale: No.

IESB: Have you been approached for Justice League?

Bale: No.

According to Moviehole, Justice League director George Miller "has some ideas who he'd like to cast as Batman and Superman but naturally, they mightn't be the same faces the WB want...within the next month we should start seeing a few announcements about the movie."

So what gives? Sure, it's better for Warner Bros.' existing franchises if they don't go inserting their stars willy-nilly in other projects, but what's the point of doing a Justice League with a different Batman and/or Superman than moviegoers are accustomed to seeing? Heading back to IESB, we learn that this decision might make perfect sense. According to one of those ever-popular sources with the funny names, JLA will be a motion-capture film, along the lines of The Polar Express and Beowulf.

As the IESB article points out, this would explain the production rush, as so-called "mo-cap" films tend to sit in the pipeline longer than traditional movies, and even if the studio gets started as early as we've been hearing, it probably wouldn't be ready for release until the summer of 2010. It would also free up Warners to cast a new Superman and Batman without stepping on the capes of Routh and Bale.

Just to recap, all we've really learned from this is that Christian Bale says he won't be playing Batman in the Justice League movie, and everything else is just more rumor and speculation. But we can't have a day without at least one news item about a superhero movie here, can we?

Source: Moviehole
Source: IESB
Source: IESB

Related Items

Movie:	The Polar Express
	Iron Man
	Beowulf
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Celeb:	Christian Bale
	Brandon Routh

(1-20 of 35 posts) | Reply

jasperoosterveld writes:
on Aug 23 2007 04:28 AM

haha what a soap this is. But is it cheaper to do motion capture?

(Reply to this)

jjdippz writes:
on Aug 23 2007 05:14 AM

what???

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cgcbooks writes:
on Aug 23 2007 05:16 AM

The budget on The Polar Express was 165 million. That's not cheap. It did take in 300 million worldwide though.

(Reply to this)

BUCK69 writes:
on Aug 23 2007 05:29 AM

I am releived beyond words [almost]! A live-action JLA would've sucked. Animation makes perfect sense, as many contributors have pointed-out. I'm not real crazy about motion- capture though, its too stiff. They should either use straight, old-fashioned animation [like "The Simpsons"] or computer animation [like "Happy Feet"].

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Gimy writes:
on Aug 23 2007 05:35 AM

already knew this, lil' late here guys. thank goodness bale isn't involved. the story won't revolve around the routh and bale characters in their respective movies anyway so it wouldn't have been smart to have them in it. all they have to do is come up with a decent plot, make it pg like Fantastic Four...and they'll make 150 domestic...EASY. they have two of the most popular characters ever...c'mon. unless its total crap, this should make decent $ simply by name alone.

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TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Aug 23 2007 07:05 AM

I'm obviously not taking credit for any of this, but this DOES sound deceptively similar to what I was demanding/requiring/begging for, which is for them to go an animated route, though I confess I wanted them to just do a feature length animated movie based on the EXCELLENT cartoon. ****, just bring back the writers (and the voice talent) from the cartoon and I'll be there if they use muppets.

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ClericPreston writes:
on Aug 23 2007 07:43 AM

"they mightn't be the same faces"

This will probably be such a solid movie they'll use 'mightn't' in the script

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AcE! writes:
on Aug 23 2007 07:45 AM

I dont think it should be live action until at least a few years after the superman and batman trilogies are finished. No it shouldnt use the same actors that wouldnt make sense, it would feel like their worlds are connected but they werent. This film is a cheesy idea anyway, some things just belong in cartoons and comics and nowhere else.

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IMAmoose24 writes:
on Aug 23 2007 07:48 AM

Best news I've heard about this JLA movie since the whole thing began. CGI is the way to go.

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TheIceGhost writes:
on Aug 23 2007 07:58 AM

This is the type of movie that mo-cap makes perfect sense with.

If it's true, chalk me up under excited.

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Drunken Mastermind writes:
on Aug 23 2007 08:28 AM

Well,with stop-motion they get animation will real thorwn,so it's the best of both worlds. Now if they could only find decent people to play Bats and Supes(The former played by David Boreanz,and the latter played Matt Dillon)

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ManofStee1 writes:
on Aug 23 2007 08:51 AM

Mo-cap? Hell yeah! Sounds like a great idea.

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blank blank writes:
on Aug 23 2007 09:17 AM

i guess im the only one who isnt excited about it being CGI or mo-cap. it would feel cheesy to me.

i would love to see a live action JLA movie on an epic scale. they should make it a LOTR-style trilogy where they have one consistent plot through all three movies, and where they introduce certain characters later on in the story. for example, batman doesnt have to come into the story line until the second movie (after the current bale batman trilogy is done). Or, they could just use batman as a very shadowy small character who is always in shadows and never reveals his face, in the first film, and then bring him on in the second one (whether with bale or with a recast batman).

for superman, you could easily tie in the continuity of the superman returns movie into the JLA. one line of dialogue ("good to have you back supes") can do the trick. plus, it doesnt seem like there is a huge demand for a superman follow up. if anything, this can strengthen the superman franchise if they play him right.

then you can use the JLA movie as a springboard for wonderwoman, flash, green lantern, aqua man, etc...

if i had my way, i'd have an alien invasion story line trilogy, with spielberg directing. that would be awesome. but we're not getting that. i hope WB knows how important this JLA movie is to the rest of their superhero franchises and that they have a big picture plan (which, unlike marvel, is something that they dont seem to have, even though marvel has pushed out some crappy movies, at least they have a plan)

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BUCK69 writes:
on Aug 23 2007 09:39 AM

In reply to this comment (#1065626)
I'm not real not real high on the animation angle either, but on the other hand, by going this route they've done away with the continuity issues of a straight-forward live-action film. I'd like to see something along the lines of "Sin City" or "300".

You have some good ideas blank blank, but I still don't think you can tie-in the Nolan Batman with any Jusitce League movie without doing damage to the franchise. It works best as a stand-alone trilogy [or series]. A cross-over or follow-up with the JLA would detract from the realistic approach Nolan has taken.

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MarvelZombie88 writes:
on Aug 23 2007 10:24 AM

id rather see a christian bale batman trilogy instead of some gay jla movie.

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blank blank writes:
on Aug 23 2007 10:32 AM

buck, i agree that they need to leave batman alone until he finishes his trilogy, so how about this timeline:

TDK 2008
JLA (without batman) 2009/10
nolan batman 3 2011
JLA 2 (with batman?) 2012

but I think you can still have batman in the JLA movie without ruining what nolan is doing. batman can have a non-speaking part, and a presence throughout the movie. example, you can have a scene on the gotham rooftops where superman asks batman to join the JLA. Batman can stay completely in silent and in the shadow during this scene. and as he is the world's greatest detective, batman could very stealthily give the JLA clues or evidence or whatever it is they need just by leaving a package with the bat signal on it. stuff like that, where you have a batman presence in the movie, but without ruining the nolan batman. and when the nolan trilogy ends, have bale play batman in the JLA or just recast the role (although i do hope nolan makes more than 3 batman movies)...

bottom line WB, be creative and give us the best JLA movie you can. dont mess it up.

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Uradik Smoke writes:
on Aug 23 2007 10:48 AM

COP OUT !!!

WB and DC had a chance to do something amazing and monumental with a JLA live action Trilogy. I agree with Blank Blank that they could have gone LOTR style on this and done a 3 movie shoot all in one with one solid plot that introduced charaters along the way and sub- plots and then wrappd it up with amazing final movie and fight scene like LOTR. It could have been the biggest comic book trilogy/Story ever and put Spiderman and X-men to shame ...

So they copped out huge . Lets say filming all 3 movies at once cost like wat 150 Mil per movie. If LOTR can be done for 95 Mil a movie they should be able to work with that budget. Forget Bale and Routh , recast both Batman and Superman , lets not use any big stars , find some solid actors to do this and make it what it should be a character development trilogy that introduces all of the JLA and has one mega storyline throughout. It would be the most amazing comic book trilogy of all time and due Justice for the JLA

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Sputnik99 writes:
on Aug 23 2007 11:14 AM

I agree with uh, Uradik. This is a total cop out. They're taking the easy way out. X-Men proved that a live action super-hero movie could be done, but WB is taking the easy street.

I don't want to watch another cartoon. Do you realize how many Superfriends and JLA cartoons I've watched in my life? I want to watch real people now. It would be so amazing! I don't care if motion capture is higher quality, it's still animation, and that just isn't worth my $10.

And if you think I don't like animation, I own as many cartoons as I do movies on DVD.

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Bigbrother writes:
on Aug 23 2007 11:35 AM

It's not like they couldn't have two different actors playing the same characters at the same time. It's not like when Superman Returns came out Tom Welling was just mysteriously wiped from the face of the globe.

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unbreakable_samurai writes:
on Aug 23 2007 11:43 AM

This is crap if it is true, I really want a live action version JLA. I would kinda like to still have Bale and Routh in it too, but that I don't care about that much.

(Reply to this)

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