The Justice League Movie That Almost Was (In Laman's Terms)

What if I told you this almsot wasn't the first live-action movie iteration of the Justice League?

 In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

Come this Friday, we're finally getting a live-action Justice League film adaptation. It seems crazy that superheroes like Spawn, Howard The Duck, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Tank Girl, Steel, Ghost Rider, The Green Hornet and Big Hero 6 all got movies prior to the Justice League, but it's not like Warner Bros. hasn't been trying to get a live-action Jutice League movie off the ground. In fact, a decade ago, it seemed like a Justice League movie was gonna finally get off the ground, one that has now joined the likes of Tim Burton's Superman Lives or Edgar Wright's Ant-Man movie as among the most tantilizing "What Could Have Been?" unmade superhero movies.


Let's take a step back to the start of the year 2007, the year after the X-Men trilogy had been capped off in an underwhelming fashion and Bryan Singer's new take on Superman had ended up being thoroughly divisive instead of beloved. The Marvel Cinematic Universe didn't exist yet (which sincerily feels strange to say, but yes, there was a time when the American superhero movie landscape did not have the MCU) and Warner Bros. had just cancelled two prospective DC Comics movies, a Wonder Woman film and a Flash movie. With Batman Begins kickstarting the 21st century Batman films in style, WB saw they could still make money from movies based on their comic book properties and thus, their interest in a prospective Justice League movie began to form.

In February 2007, Kieran and Michele Mulroney were hired to write a Justice League movie and their first draft of the script was done four months later. A looming Writer's Strike (which ended up occuring in Novemebr 2007) had Warner Bros., who approved of the script Kieran and Michele had penned, in a frantic rush to get the project made. The project, itself now titled Justice League: Mortal, would now need a director if it was to meet the newly enacted deadline set by the WB brass, and after Juno director Jason Reitman turned down the project, George Miller signed on to direct. Considering Miller had just made WB oodles of cash with the first Happy Feet movie, I'm sure WB was all too happy to have Miller onboard to helm this new take on their crucial DC Comics characters.

For his Justice League movie, Miller would not be utilizing the actors that were then portraying Superman and Batman in the mid-2000's. Nope, Brandon Routh and Christian Bale were being eschewed in favor of new actors, with D.J Cotrona playing Superman and Armie Hammer (yes, that Armie Hammer) chosen to depict Batman. As for the rest of the Justice League, Megan Gale was selected as Wonder Woman, Common would be the John Stewart version of Green Lantern (Common would end up getting to work with Miller on the second Happy Feet film), Adam Brody would be The Flash while the part of Aquaman was never cast. Rumors swirled that all of these actors would be portraying these characters via motion-capture animation, a process Miller utilized on the first Happy Feet film.

One of the few pieces of concept art for Justice League: Mortal that's been released

With a cast, director and script in place, what happened to Justice League: Mortal? Well, the Writer's Strike basically put everything on hold and difficulty getting the Australian based filming locations Miller wanted due to tax rebate issues further hampered the production. Now, we're a few months into 2008 at this point and a little movie is about to come out and completley alter how Warner BRos. DC Comics movies....no, not Jonah Hex, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. With that thing making big bucks, WB is suddenly having second thoughts about this Justice League movie they have waiting in the wings, especially the prospct of potentially confusing consumers by having two different people play Batman at the same time.

WIth The Dark Knight becoming a zeitgest defining success, well, that's all she wrote for Justice League: Mortal, the project was more dead than Superman at the end of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Miller went on to do a Happy Feet sequel for WB and also directed a Mad Max follow-up you may have heard about in the decade since the project fell apart while it looks like a statement made by Gregory Noveck, who at the time was the senior VP of creative affairs of DC Comics, in August 2008 that the company would make a Justice League movie "...whether it's now or ten years from now..." ended up being partially true since it took almost ten years to get ourselves a live-action Justice League movie.

I really don't know how the hell George Miller's Justice League movie would have turned out but it sounds mighty interesting and it probably would have ended up being, like all of Miller's directorial efforts that aren't Happy Feet Two, a distinctive project either for better or for worse. The same guy who made Babe: Pig In The City and Mad Max: Fury Road handling the Justice League is an intirguing prospect, one that is fun to daydream about. I mean, c'mon, don't act like you wouldn't want to watch a big-budget superhero movie where the main villain (Maxwell Lord) is played by Jay Baruchel A.K.A. Hiccup from How To Train Your Dragon! But all we have left of this film is some scattered pieces of concept art of the project that have leaked online over the years, the cast list and the dreams of what could have been. Just look at that photo of the cast assembled with director George Miller. They all look like some college kids gathering around a bonfire, simultaneously daunted yet excited about the prospects the future will bring.

I totally wanna party with George Miller, I'm not alone in this, right?