Last week when I spoke about the looming doom that is Man of Steel I might not been clear what I was so worried about. I was not convinced Man of Steel itself was going to be a bad film, I was more worried about what the creative choices of the new Superman movie would mean for the immediate future of the DC cinematic universe.
It looks as if those fears have just been given an unfortunate boost. Rumors are flying that Warner Brothers is about to toss out their current Justice League script because it apparently sucks. Badass Digest is reporting that new writers are on order as the current script is as good as trash:
I’ve now heard from multiple sources that the Will Beall script for Justice League has been scrapped. The story from each source is the same: it’s terrible. Some sources seem to think the whole movie is going to fall apart and never happen, while some believe that Warner Bros will keep moving forward, unwilling to lose the superhero arms race.
This is pretty much exactly what I was afraid of, Warner Brothers clearly has no idea how to handle their superhero universe. The three times they have had commercial and critical success with a comic book movie it was because they had a visionary director calling the shots. Left to their own devices WB can’t get out of their own way and we get Batman & Robin or Catwoman.
Marvel Studios has proved that respecting the source material works and that audiences will accept outrageous concepts that worked in the panels of a comic book. Even when Warners brought in Geoff Johns to consult on Green Lantern it was clear that studio influence handicapped the film more than it should have.
But as the saying goes, a broken clock is right two times a day, and the Warner Brothers style of comic book film making does yield good movies with the character of Batman in it!
