Justice League: The Movie. I’m Officially Concerned

So you knew it was going to happen, given the fact that The Avengers had made over $1 billion dollars worldwide.  A few weeks back, Warner Bros announced that they have a Justice League movie in development.  The Justice League for those who don’t know is DC Comics’ answer to Marvel’s The Avengers. They consist of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter.  Out of this group only Batman has had the most recent successful movie adaption. Which leads to the main point of this blog post, as a fan of this superhero team, I’m really concerned that Warner Bros is going to massively drop the ball here.  Look at their track record.  Last year’s Green Lantern was a total train wreck.  Ryan Reynolds a good actor when used correctly, but was given bad direction by Martin Campbell (the film’s director).  Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns was a major misstep that was trying to reach back to the character’s late 70s/early 80s film series glory.  Next year, Watchmen director Zack Snyder gets his shot at Superman with the Christopher Nolan produced Man of Steel.  What I’ve seen and heard about this film, it’s my opinion that Snyder may not be right choice for that film and I like his other films (300 and Sucker Punch).  Wonder Woman and Flash have been stuck in development hell for years and a JLA film may be the only way those characters see the big screen. 

Are they ready for the big screen?

Photo courtesy of DC Comics

Moving on from that what would be the plot of a Justice League movie?  Alien invasion is out because it will be hard to top Avengers. As much as I would like to see Darkseid on the big screen, given how Avengers ended, I don’t see Warner Bros and DC getting their stuff together to make that happen before Avengers 2.  So maybe we’ll see The Legion of Doom, that’s a fanboy’s dream match up.  I’ve been waiting patiently for Brainic to make his big screen debut.

 My favorite Superman Villain

Photo courtesy of DC Comics and Warner Bros Television

The big question is who will be in the Joss Whedon mold to bring DC’s dream team to the screen?  Well here’s my suggestion and this duo has enough comic book nerd cred that it would be a step in the right direction.  I suggest Warner Bros bring Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. It’s a radical idea but both have experience with these characters.  Timm has produced Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond Series, Justice League: The Animated Series and Green Lantern: The Animated Series, plus he produced all of DC’s direct to video animated feature films including the fantastic Justice League:Doom. Dini was the writer for the acclaim video games Batman:Arkham Asylum and Batman:Arkham City.  In addition to writing episodes for the previous listed cartoons, he has also written comics and was a writer for the TV show Lost.  They wouldn’t be the first people to go from animation to live action film making.  Brad Bird made the successful jump with last year’s successful Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  

What do you think?  Am I overreacting? Would a Timm/Dini team up be the next best thing to having Whedon direct it?  Let me know in the comment section below.