How To Make a “Justice League” Movie

Editor’s note: This blog was written in 2013. Obviously some things have progressed and changed since then…

In the past few days, those of us who are rooting for a “Justice League” film have become disheartened. First, came commentary from popular comics writer Mark Miller that it just can’t be done and then reports that the most recent script, featuring Darkseid as the villain, had been scrapped. Both seem to feed into the popular consensus that this movie will just never get made.

How could it be so hard to put this movie together? DC has the full weight of Warner Brothers behind them. They own the rights to the entire DC Comics library of characters (unlike Marvel, who sold the rights to X-Men, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four before their films starting gaining momentum). If I were approaching it, here’s what I would do:

Forget the Origins—I think this is a huge hangup for the creators, trying to figure out how to explain how this team came to be and how the heroes became heroes. Why do we need to rehash or reinvent? I say just start with an already-established team dealing with their most significant threat. Perhaps you could weave the origin of one of the characters into the storyline (Wonder Woman making her appearance in civilization or Aquaman leading a battle against the world). The original X-Men bypassed the origin story and it gave them to chance and momentum to go back and do it with X-Men: First Class. 

Go With Good Inspiration—My guess is they were going with the New 52 Justice League as inspiration for this now-rejected script. Someone may have thought it was as good as the original Ultimates, which influenced The Avengers. But I don’t think it is. It turned some of the heroes into egomaniacs and they bicker senselessly. That may work for the Avengers but the Justice League has always seemed to be above that to a large extent. Some of the better stories to me might be the oversize JLA: Liberty and Justice by Paul Dini and Alex Ross. Justice by Jim Kruger and Alex Ross is also one of my favorites, but it would have to be pared down significantly on characters and plot. Still, it’s not impossible.

Use the Big Guns—Don’t use a Justice League that includes second-tiered characters instead of the ones everyone is rooting for. If reports were true, they were going to leave out Aquaman and Green Arrow from the new film and to me, that would be okay if they were saving them for a sequel. Even so, don’t use someone like Firestorm or Blue Beetle or even Cyborg and let a powerhouse like Batman or Flash sit on the bench. Beyond the characters, bring in the best creators as advisors.

Cast Wisely—Since DC seems to be doing the opposite approach of Marvel in using the team to jump into individual movies, they won’t have the name recognition of the actors, unless they use Henry Cavill to reprise his role as Superman. It would then make them nervous to have a big blockbuster with no big names, so they’d spend too much of their budget securing actors that would make a marquee look good, seriously depleting their budget for effects. That’s a big challenge. Would the studio give you a big-budget movie without many marquee names? If they could, realizing the marquee names are the heroes themselves, it would be great.

If I were providing an outline for a script, here are some scenarios I think that would be entertaining and filmable. No reason to involve Darkseid or aliens, which to me would skirt too close to the Avengers, anyway.

• Something (Brainiac) has taken over Superman’s mind and has turned him into a killing machine, set on destroying the world. Defeating both of them becomes the league’s biggest (or you could revert to an origin story and say first) challenge yet.  
• Survivors of a shipwreck find themselves on the undiscovered island of Themiscara. After sending a distress signal, they are all killed. As the nations descend on the island, the Amazons prepare for war and the Justice League is called on to help. Through the process, they fight against and then befriend Diana. 
• Some super-powered heroes are sanctioned by the government and are sent to capture those operating outside of the law (Batman, Green Arrow, etc). They fight against each other (which is what everyone thinks viewers want to see) before finally joining forces and singing Kumbaya. 
• Use the popular “Doom” storyline where Batman’s files are compromised, exposing the team to a coordinated attack on their alter egos and their loved ones. 
• As Krypton explodes, a baby is sent to earth in a meteor shower. One meteor hits Bruce Wayne’s parents, leaving him orphaned. Another hits Barry Allen, turning him into the Flash. Then Halle Berry’s Catwoman teams up with Arnold Schwartznegger’s Mr. Freeze. Oh, I was just seeing if you were still paying attention. 🙂