Justice League continues to move forward as various news outlets report the film is totally committed to going into full production within 3 months and they’re even starting their main rounds of casting.
This movie has “wrong” written all over it for several reasons, but this news of the casting makes things even worse. This comes from our friends over at Slashfilm:
According to Hollywood Reporter, 35 to 40 actors are set to test for Justice League, including: Adam Brody (The O.C.), Joseph Cross (Running With Scissors), D.J. Cotrona (Windfall), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Grindhouse), Michael Angarano (Sky High), Teresa Palmer (Wolf Creek), Max Thieriot (Jumper), rapper Common, Friday Night Lights stars Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki and Scott Porter. According to the report, the test included no costumes, and script pages.
Hey look, I’ve got nothing against young actors… but I thought the characters in this movie were going to be Superman, Batman, Wonerwoman and the Green Lantern… not Superboy, Batboy, Wonder Girl and The Green Tyke.
One of my few complaints about the casting of Brandon Routh is Superman Returns, was that at 27, he just didn’t have enough age to him. This is the MAN of steel… but apparently the folks at Warner Bros are more interested in giving us a Teen Titans movie…. or more accurately a movie version of Smallville (But at least Tom Welling is 30 years old).
This movie has the totally wrong timing, with the wrong director, being made for the wrong motives and apparently will completely be in the hands of the wrong cast. Justice League is turning into a joke of comic book sized proportions. The only interest I have left in it now is the type of interest you have in seeing a car wreck… I’m just curious to see how much carnage is going to result from it.
What a complete and utter disaster this movie is going to be after reading that atrocious news. My expectations haven’t been this lowered by a comic book movie since the news of a Catwoman & Electra being brought to the silver screen. Why, for the love of God, if you’re a movie producer with any integrity and a hope to make any substancial money whatsoever, would you cast any of the current crop of 20something actors ot there. Face it people, the current crop of young actors out there today, for the most part, SUCK. I couldn’t give a flying fuck about anyone on the OC (is that show even on the air anymore?), or any other teen bullshit show because the actors usually suck on them.
The Justice League should be treated better than this & with more respect. Period. These are ICONIC characters people.
Here’s my JLA cast list:
Superman – Michael O’Hearn (the guy who played Superman in Sandy Collora’s fan trailer for WORLDS FINEST)
Batman – Clark Bantram (likewise, but I could also see Ian Somerholden or Colin Farrell)
Wonder Woman – Jennifer Love Hewitt. Love is power, Love is justice, Love is Wonder Woman (I could also see Megan Fox in the role)
Flash – Seann William Scott
Green Lantern – Dwayne the Rock Johnson (he’s better suited for this, or SUBMARINER rather than SHAZAM)
Aquaman – Justin Timberlake (Aquaman is a joke and should be laughed at)
Martian Manhunter- Eric Balfour
Black Canary – Akira Lane
You may now applaud.
I’m confused here. A bunch of people are testing for a movie and we are saying the movie is doomed? I may be wrong here but open testing often has more to do with an agent pulling strings to get their client in front of the director than anything else and it doesn’t mean much when it comes to actual casting.
Chistopher Reeve turned 26 three months before Superman: The Movie came out. Which means he was only 24/25 when the film was shot. That puts him about a year younger than Routh was. (during filming of they’re respective roles)
It’s not about age, it’s about how you carry yourself.
I assume, John, that this is what you meant when you said Routh just “didn’t have enough age to him”, because if you were just talking about numbers… well, you can see where I’m going with this.
(I actually thought the casting of Routh was the best thing about the otherwise dismal Superman Returns)
Dont get me wrong,
I’m not defending any of these actors as being right for any character in the movie (except for Scott Porter, ’cause he’s great on Friday Night Lights and I could see him as the Flash), but most of those actors are in their early to mid twenties… just like Christopher Reeve was when he made Superman: The Movie.
I, personally, dont want Adam Brody in a Justice League movie any more than the rest of you, but my reasoning has nothing to do with how old he is. He’s not right physically for the role and I dont think he could successfully carry any of these characters… unless it’s Jimmy Olsen.
My point is, I dont care if he’s 20, 25 or 35 as long as he’s physically right for the role and can carry the character.
And stop calling it the Diaper League, because half of those guys listed are older now than Reeve was during filming.
Every post about any WB movie should be labeled: WB Studios Just Don’t Care!
Every post about the JLA movie should be labeled: WB Studios Just Don’t Care!
Well sorry to say guys but this film just failed in my books as well… I’m sorry but you can only dumb down a movie so much… DC had a chance to finally tip the scales against marvel in the film scene by making a crazy amazing cross franchise film with some of our favourite characters and what do they do? Make it into this?
I think in the end it’s all about money… How could they save money? Well if they used a bunch of kids they wouldn’t have to pay them nearly enough, and if it is more kid orientated then they’ll make a killing off the product sales (toys, theme park crap, etc.)
I’m sorry to the fanboys out there but this movie just got a ‘not interested’ until I see something to prove otherwise.
i think Mary Elizabeth Winstead would make a good wonder woman. i’d be there on opening day just to see her
I agree with Nick on the fact that after all these years, the first meeting between Batman and Superman is going to be wasted on JLA. I want to feel my heart pump when Bruce Wayne meets Clark Kent and my eyes in tears when The Dark Knight finally goes face to face with The Man of Steel. Shit, the thought of both of them meeting one-on-one in their own movie is getting me emotional, even when Christian Bale said Batman is cooler next to Brandon Routh in the MTV Movie Awards!
Now, the saving grace is both Bale and Routh stay away and give us the movie that should rightfully be made in the future, and pray that JLA will have the same fate as the Halo film; dead! You think somebody would learn after Supergirl.
You know…at this point with WB so Hell-bent on doing a JLA film for Summer 2009. I say just go all out and do it like the mid-80s JUSTICE LEAGUE comic series by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis (i.e. quick-witted and full of action!)
Ben Stiller as Blue Bettle, Owen Wilson as Booster Gold and Will Ferrell as Guy Gardner with Bale’s Batman. It’d certainly be better than this “teeny bopper” Diaper League we MIGHT be getting.
Christ do I hope this thing collapses faster than a speeding bullet…
Hey Nick,
I’m not at all suggesting you’re “blindly defending” the movie. I just took exception to your claim that I’ve always been against this movie from the start… when clearly I haven’t been.
I don’t necessarily disagree with your example of world’s finest either.
I’m not blindly defending it, I do have some skepticisms.
1. I don’t like the idea of Batman and Superman being recast when there not going to be played by the same actors.
and
2. Having their long running feud in a JLA movie as opposed to it being in a World’s Finest film.
That’s basically an insult to injury.
Terrible news. Ensemble super hero movies just don’t work that well – someone always get short changed. Look at the X-Men movies might as well just have called them the Wolverine movies. And with JLA Supes and Bats would have to dominate the other characters. They are far more iconic than any of the X-Men characters.
Hey Nick,
What’s your point? You said that from the very begining I was against this movie. I showed you a post from March stating I was PUMPED to see it.
Just admit you were wrong an move on.
My very first post was neither positive nor negative about JLA… it was only asking fair questions. The very next post about JLA I said I was pumped to see it… thus proving you wrong in your statement.
Or maybe this is them when they were young – sort of a flashback?
“Diaper League of America?” No thanks. The more I think about it, it’s for the best that Routh and Bale are about as far away from this film as possible. We still have THE DARK KNIGHT and MAN OF STEEL to look forward to.
John, this is from your first post about JLA.
“Ok, now that’s all well and good. But in my opinion there are two very important questions that need to be answered before anyone will get too excited.
QUESTION #1: Who will be in the Justice League. More specifically… will Batman and Superman be in there?
QUESTION #3: Will Christian Bale and Brandon Routh be there to play Batman and Superman?
Question #1 is more important that #2. I just can’t see calling a movie “Justice League” without having Superman and Batman in it. Without those two gods of the DC Universe, you might as well just call it “The Super Team of B-List Superheroes Doing Super Like Stuff”… cause withouth Bats and Sups it AIN’T the Justice League.”
With actors this young, it would have to be “Justice League: Year One” with the heroes just beginning their careers, and maybe detailing the first time these heroes ever met. That would be EXTREMELY difficult to pull off properly. I’m with John on this one. My early, cautious optimism is now gone.
I have no problems with them making a JLA movie with young actors as long as they can act. Also, this will make it easier for Warner Brothers to make sequals to this movie because all of these kids will be available unlike Christian Bale or any of the other actors that were rumored to be in this film that have busy schedules. I’m not gonna turn on JLA just yet so lets just see what happens.
Hey Nick,
Please don’t ever tell me what I did or didn’t think.
This is the opening statement from the first (or second) post I ever put up about a Justice League Movie:
“I am all pumped about the idea of a Justice League movie.”
Here’s the link:
https://www.themovieblog.com/2007/03/batman-in-justice-league
So tell me again how I’ve never given this project a chance and how I’ve been against it from the begining???
This news sucks. BOO!!!
reads the rest of the article… *doh!*
Adam Brody is 27.. *checks how old Brandon Routh is on imdb* … 27, so I’m guessing someone you ended up having no problems with as Superman was 25 when superman returns was shot.
Not that any of these names fill me with excitement, but then my excitement for this film hasn’t been huge. Super hero films have all reeked of, just get it out and it’ll sell, recently. Don’t think I’ve really enjoyed one since Batman begins.. this summer’s offerings were horrible and I didn’t much care for Superman returns either.
No John, you were skeptical from the beginning, and basically said it’s gonna be mediocre.
I had been holding out hope for this film, even though it was so rushed, but then, after hearing who was testing for the parts, that hope came crashing down. The thing I worry about, with WB, is that after something leaves a bad taste in their mouth *cough* batman and robin *cough* women in movies *cough*, they tend to not do that thing again, for a long time. I’m hoping this movie doesn’t leave a big flaming turd on their tongue, cuz I’d really like to see a Flash or GL movie someday.
Hey Nick,
You said:
“it seems like you were condemning this film to hell from the start, oh wait you were.”
Well, if you actually read The Movie Blog, you know how wrong that statement is.
This is totally the opposite situation of Iron Man. Iron Man was a movie I had ZERO interest in because it’s a lame character… BUT… as they started to put the movie together (all the right decisions) Iron Man won me over…
Justice League is totally the opposite. I like the idea at first… but every decision they’ve made has been they wrong one. I was on their side… but they lost me
I never liked the idea of George Miller doing the film in the first place. Grandfathers shouldn’t be allowed to make comic book movies. They have no idea what they are doing.
Wow John, it seems like you were condemning this film to hell from the start, oh wait you were.
how very very disappointing, i had little interest w/ all the previous news surrounding this movie. but man are they taking it to the limit on this one… haven’t they learned their lessons already w/ these poorly conceived attempts? it is like they don’t care about their own demographic.
Uhh…they lost me with two words
“rapper Common”