Yesterday’s victory in the Joe Shuster case has definitely left WB looking to jump on a lot of movie-related stuff, including, a Justice League movie.
The studio is expected to accelerate development of a planned “Justice League” movie that would join Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and other characters, according to a knowledgeable person not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Warner hopes to shoot the film next year and release it in the summer of 2015. The studio already has a “Justice League” script in the works. Next it needs to attach a director and then cast the lead roles.
A Justice League movie helmed by George Miller was once in pre-production before the Writer’s Guild strike felled the project (perhaps thankfully) and there have been other attempts at filming it, including an atrocious TV pilot in the ’90s. According to the Times, WB tried to get Christopher Nolan to helm the franchise, but he turned it down.
Warners’ plan is to use the JLA movie to spin off franchises for the various heroes, such as, one guesses, Wonder Woman and, maybe a revamped Green Lantern. This is in opposition to the Marvel plan of uniting all the heroes in one big frothy tentpole.
The Shuster decision is expected to be appealed, but clearly Warners chugged a lot of champagne after they got the results yesterday. And it might be a comfort to some that the legal efforts of the Siegel and Shuster families held up the big corporation for as long as they did.
Ummm… this doesn’t make any sense.
Warner was willing to make solo Superman movies before the Shuster decision, but was somehow hesitant to make Justice League movies featuring Superman?
Please explain.
^What he said.
its champers for all the time warner stock holders! so pretty much anyone with a 401K or pension, let’s pop the pagne!
John, it makes perfect sense. Had they not won the rights, having a JLA film with Superman in it would mean bending over and getting f*cked by the heirs all over again cause that means they’ll have to pay royalties to the families once again. Not to mention they might not even be given the rights to show Superman in a world exclusive to his own cause DC might have lost Superman and The Man of Steel franchise would just be a non-DC superhero film..
Jess you just described a dream senario please, please god let that happen.
Agreed. This is exceptionally obtuse reporting, of the sort that leaves readers knowing less than they did before they read it.
First, how does having to pay a royalty check constitute getting screwed over? Most actual business people would call that, “Normal business operations.” Paying rights holders for the right to use their material is kind of the opposite of getting screwed. I think people misinterpret these copyright lawsuits as, “Ha ha, I WON! You can’t have my toys now, suckers!!” They’re just procedures that establish (hopefully impartially) what rights and responsibilities different interested parties have and a clear process for those parties to continue working together in the future if they choose. It’s OK — they won’t keep your movie away from you.
And if you’re really concerned about it, remember that Time Warner still owns the Superman trademarks and half the copyright, making a non-Time Warner Superman movie somewhat difficult to make / impossible.
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