Post by politicidal on Nov 23, 2018 17:58:59 GMT
Still fascinating to hear and read about. Still, cannot believe they were going with Jay Baruchel as the main villain. And Maxwell Lord no less? Between this and Wolfgang Petersen's Batman versus Superman: Asylum that end up being shelved, WB at least sounds like they committed to their insanity back in the day. Ironic how they wound up spending $300 million dollars (minimum) for the DCEU version of Justice League anyway. Karma?
TEXT:
Whereas 2017's Justice League movie elected to tell a story centred around Jack Kirby's Fourth World with the coming of Steppenwolf (Darkseid's uncle from the comics), Mortal decided instead to tell one that hit much closer to home, inspired by two key comic book stories - The Tower of Babel, penned by Mark Waid, and Infinite Crisis, written by Geoff Johns.
The former story, published in 2001, saw Batman's countermeasures against the League exposed by Ra's al Ghul, who then uses the Dark Knight's strategies to immobilise all of the team's members. It's the definitive book about Batman's relationship with the Justice League, and given the direction Miller wished to take Hammer's Batman in, it makes sense as to why it informed Mortal as much as it did.
The latter story, Infinite Crisis, released during Mortal's production, but its characterisation of Maxwell Lord still managed to influence the film heavily. That book saw Wonder Woman kill Lord after he murdered the original Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, and infected dozens of people with a nano-virus that turned them into superhero-hunting weapons.
Of course, Mortal itself wasn't just a beat for beat adaptation of these texts. For starters, it actually opens with the funeral of a League member, before flashing backwards two days in order to introduce each member of the League individually. Bruce Wayne is monitoring the world through Brother Eye, before he attends a party with Maxwell Lord and Talia al Ghul. From that point forward, it becomes clear that someone is targeting DC's heroes and that they know all about their respective weaknesses, which eventually leads to the formation of the League itself.
From that point forward, things get wild. The team discovers that Lord is behind the attacks, but he manages to take control of Superman before they can stop him. Supes then goes on a one-man warpath against his fellow teammates, resulting in a confrontation between himself and Wonder Woman that sees them fighting everywhere, from the moon, to the depths of the Hudson river. It's genuinely epic stuff, and each member is given enough time to shine in their own way, with plenty of purposeful action sequences permeating the third act.
There were some... unconventional, shall we say, creative decisions too, however. Instead of Wonder Woman being the one to kill Maxwell Lord as she did in the comics, that honour goes to Batman. Lord survives, of course, but Mortal falls into the pitfall of the Dark Knight breaking his one rule and it's a little disappointing, to say the least. The climax then sees Barry Allen sacrifice himself to destroy Lord's army of OMACs, seeding Wally West's eventual journey to becoming a member of the League, before the team reunify to fight Starro, who, as we all know, was their very first adversary in the comics.
It's... messy, in parts, but the script isn't without charm. There's actual method behind the madness, and with Miller at the helm, one can only imagine just how it would've shaped up in live action.
Unfortunately, Justice League: Mortal became a victim of the 2007 Hollywood Writers' Strike, which delayed production for several months. Come 2008, and the film was set to begin production, only for progress to be derailed by the Australian Film Commission.
Miller, himself an Australian, wanted to film Mortal entirely down under, which would've brought dozens of jobs and millions of dollars to the country, but his attempts were eventually scuppered by the Film Commission, who felt as though there weren't enough Australians in the main cast to qualify Warner Bros. for a 40% tax rebate.
Production had already been delayed by several months at this stage, but WB were still determined to meet the film's original premiere date of summer 2009. However, production was subsequently shifted to Vancouver, by which point The Dark Knight then released, fundamentally altered the comic book movie landscape, and the studio had decided to shift their strategy to focus on solo superhero features instead.
So, there you have it folks. The cancellation of Justice League: Mortal gave us Green Lantern. Brilliant.
Unfortunately, by the time The Dark Knight came around, Warner Bros. decided there was little sense in pursuing Miller's Justice League, which had suffered from countless delays by that point and seemingly threatened to step on the toes of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.
At the time, and even today, to an extent, Warner Bros. have always been worried about the idea of there being multiple versions of DC's characters on the big or small screens at once. A planned Bruce Wayne origin series was shelved in the run up to Batman Begins' release due to fears that audiences would get confused by the idea of there being two Bat-men, and though Smallville managed to survive Superman Returns, it likely only managed to do so due to its following, as well as the fact it had already been running for five years by the time that film had released.
Point being, although Mortal had a lot of traction for a period of time, its eventual cancellation wasn't as surprising as it probably should've been. WB have never been keen on the idea of multiple incarnations of a character appearing on the screen at once, which is why - even today - Gotham isn't allowed to explicitly reference Joker or Harley Quinn.
Apart from that, Mortal's delayed production eventually meant that its budget had ballooned to an estimated $300 million, something Warner Bros. weren't exactly keen to indulge after Superman Returns tanked just two years earlier.
www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/justice-league/246346/the-justice-league-movie-you-never-saw
whatculture.com/film/justice-league-mortal-what-really-happened?page=6
TEXT:
Whereas 2017's Justice League movie elected to tell a story centred around Jack Kirby's Fourth World with the coming of Steppenwolf (Darkseid's uncle from the comics), Mortal decided instead to tell one that hit much closer to home, inspired by two key comic book stories - The Tower of Babel, penned by Mark Waid, and Infinite Crisis, written by Geoff Johns.
The former story, published in 2001, saw Batman's countermeasures against the League exposed by Ra's al Ghul, who then uses the Dark Knight's strategies to immobilise all of the team's members. It's the definitive book about Batman's relationship with the Justice League, and given the direction Miller wished to take Hammer's Batman in, it makes sense as to why it informed Mortal as much as it did.
The latter story, Infinite Crisis, released during Mortal's production, but its characterisation of Maxwell Lord still managed to influence the film heavily. That book saw Wonder Woman kill Lord after he murdered the original Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, and infected dozens of people with a nano-virus that turned them into superhero-hunting weapons.
Of course, Mortal itself wasn't just a beat for beat adaptation of these texts. For starters, it actually opens with the funeral of a League member, before flashing backwards two days in order to introduce each member of the League individually. Bruce Wayne is monitoring the world through Brother Eye, before he attends a party with Maxwell Lord and Talia al Ghul. From that point forward, it becomes clear that someone is targeting DC's heroes and that they know all about their respective weaknesses, which eventually leads to the formation of the League itself.
From that point forward, things get wild. The team discovers that Lord is behind the attacks, but he manages to take control of Superman before they can stop him. Supes then goes on a one-man warpath against his fellow teammates, resulting in a confrontation between himself and Wonder Woman that sees them fighting everywhere, from the moon, to the depths of the Hudson river. It's genuinely epic stuff, and each member is given enough time to shine in their own way, with plenty of purposeful action sequences permeating the third act.
There were some... unconventional, shall we say, creative decisions too, however. Instead of Wonder Woman being the one to kill Maxwell Lord as she did in the comics, that honour goes to Batman. Lord survives, of course, but Mortal falls into the pitfall of the Dark Knight breaking his one rule and it's a little disappointing, to say the least. The climax then sees Barry Allen sacrifice himself to destroy Lord's army of OMACs, seeding Wally West's eventual journey to becoming a member of the League, before the team reunify to fight Starro, who, as we all know, was their very first adversary in the comics.
It's... messy, in parts, but the script isn't without charm. There's actual method behind the madness, and with Miller at the helm, one can only imagine just how it would've shaped up in live action.
Unfortunately, Justice League: Mortal became a victim of the 2007 Hollywood Writers' Strike, which delayed production for several months. Come 2008, and the film was set to begin production, only for progress to be derailed by the Australian Film Commission.
Miller, himself an Australian, wanted to film Mortal entirely down under, which would've brought dozens of jobs and millions of dollars to the country, but his attempts were eventually scuppered by the Film Commission, who felt as though there weren't enough Australians in the main cast to qualify Warner Bros. for a 40% tax rebate.
Production had already been delayed by several months at this stage, but WB were still determined to meet the film's original premiere date of summer 2009. However, production was subsequently shifted to Vancouver, by which point The Dark Knight then released, fundamentally altered the comic book movie landscape, and the studio had decided to shift their strategy to focus on solo superhero features instead.
So, there you have it folks. The cancellation of Justice League: Mortal gave us Green Lantern. Brilliant.
Unfortunately, by the time The Dark Knight came around, Warner Bros. decided there was little sense in pursuing Miller's Justice League, which had suffered from countless delays by that point and seemingly threatened to step on the toes of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.
At the time, and even today, to an extent, Warner Bros. have always been worried about the idea of there being multiple versions of DC's characters on the big or small screens at once. A planned Bruce Wayne origin series was shelved in the run up to Batman Begins' release due to fears that audiences would get confused by the idea of there being two Bat-men, and though Smallville managed to survive Superman Returns, it likely only managed to do so due to its following, as well as the fact it had already been running for five years by the time that film had released.
Point being, although Mortal had a lot of traction for a period of time, its eventual cancellation wasn't as surprising as it probably should've been. WB have never been keen on the idea of multiple incarnations of a character appearing on the screen at once, which is why - even today - Gotham isn't allowed to explicitly reference Joker or Harley Quinn.
Apart from that, Mortal's delayed production eventually meant that its budget had ballooned to an estimated $300 million, something Warner Bros. weren't exactly keen to indulge after Superman Returns tanked just two years earlier.
www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/justice-league/246346/the-justice-league-movie-you-never-saw
whatculture.com/film/justice-league-mortal-what-really-happened?page=6
