The film that would not die: Justice League still on

Now that the dispute between screenwriters and the major film studio studios has been resolved, a lot of movie projects are being dusted off and reappraised.

The most surprising of these though is Justice League. According to a report in Variety this morning the superhero team up movie is being prepared a Summer '09 release. Writers Kieran and Michele Mulroney are taking another crack at the script while several reliable sources report that principal photography is being relocated from Australia to Canada

 In a comparatively star-free cast OC alumnus Adam Brody will be appearing as the Flash. Every action movie has to have at least one rapper somewhere in the cast and Justice League offers us Common in the Green Lantern role. The rest of the League is made up of relative unknowns like Armie Hammer Jr. (Batman), Megan Gale (Wonder Woman) and DJ Cotrona (Superman). Former Farscape and Mad Max actor Hugh Keays-Byrne is rumoured to be in talks to portray J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. Keays-Byrne will of course already know Justice League's director, George Miller.

Arriving as it will a few months after the expected success of Zack Snyder's Watchmen Justice League will need to measure up both in terms of script and effects.

I'm stunned that this project is still alive. Notwithstanding my own rather frivolous views on the casting the JLA are DC Comics' premier asset and to see it limp forward in this fashion, when Marvel are taking an ever more inspired and confident approach with their own properties, makes long-time DC nerds like me very sad indeed.