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Squaremaster316

Bryan Singer screwed up chances at a Justice League film years ago.

By Squaremaster316, in The Speakeasy

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Squaremaster316 Box Office Gold

Squaremaster316

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Some people ask as to why a Justice League film has never been able to make it to the big screen during the previous decade.

Some state that Nolan's attempts to ground Batman, not to mention his refusal to include other characters derailed any plans for that to take place.

That's a load of bull.

Batman Begins gave a slightly altered take on Batman, but nothing that couldn't be incorporated into a shared universe if WB wanted. They could have simply hired a new director to continue with the current franchise and blended it into other universes.

No, the blame for this lies squarely on the shoulders of another man who is no stranger to adapting graphic novel properties for the big screen, X-Men director, Bryan Singer.

The year after Batman Begins hit theatres, Singer unleashed what he called a "love letter to Richard Donner" in a film called Superman Returns.

SR was, to say the least, a problematic film. But while the poor casting choices, bizarre characterizations, lack of ideas (with a plot that basically remakes the first film), definitely hurt the quality of the film itself, the main problem was that it also marketed itself as a sequel, indicating that the events of Superman 1 and 2 DID occur.

In other words, for a shared universe to be possible, WB would have to retcon the hell out of Batman Begins, if not just reboot again altogether, to incorporate the events of the first two Superman films, which occurred years before Batman came into existence.

However, given the far stronger critical and audience acceptance, as indicated by the much stronger home video sales and references in pop culture, there was no way BB was budging.

Personally, I have no investment in a JLA film and could care less whether or not one ever gets made, but the bottom line is that Superman Returns was far more guilty of derailing any momentum for such a film than any of Nolan's Bat films.

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dashrendar44 Global Phenomenon

dashrendar44

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Wait what? SR came after BB so logically it's BB that screwed up JL movie first because it didn't acknowledge the mere existence of Superman (which Nolan/Goyer knew was in the works at WB studios) in its grounded universe. That's revisionist Nolanite wank.Did you know that George Miller was actually set to direct a JLA movie but due to Nolan, it was flushed out the toilet?

Edited by dashrendar44
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Jessie Global Phenomenon

Jessie

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Wait what? SR came after BB so logically it's BB that screwed up JL movie first because it didn't acknowledge the mere existence of Superman (which Nolan/Goyer knew was in the works at WB studios) in its grounded universe. That's revisionist Nolanite wank.Did you know that George Miller was actually set to direct a JLA movie but due to Nolan, it was flushed out the toilet?

Congratulations, this one post just made this whole thread completely irrelevant. I salute you.
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Webslinger Box Office Gold

Webslinger

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The reason a JL movie wasn't made is because WB didn't know how to go about it.

This.I think the main area where Marvel succeeded in getting The Avengers off the ground was in developing indications of a shared universe in the films leading up to it. Iron Man had S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Nick Fury stinger, The Incredible Hulk had a Tony Stark cameo and other references to Stark Industries, Iron Man 2 alluded to what ended up being a plot point in Thor (and then explicitly connected the two films with the hammer in the stinger scene), Thor brought in Coulson, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Hawkeye (and the tesseract in the stinger), and Captain America had the present-day framing device and Howard Stark. The Avengers was carefully planned, as opposed to something they threw together as an afterthought following the other movies' success.On the other hand, there was none of that shared universe building in the Dark Knight trilogy, or in Superman Returns (or Green Lantern, even though just about everyone has forgotten about that one). That isn't a knock against any of those movies; it's just the way it is. Making a Justice League movie would require forcing connections between the universes that don't exist, and that's because the concept of a Justice League movie wasn't built from the ground-up.
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CloneWars Blockbuster

CloneWars

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WB screwed up. They approved Superman Returns and they didn't make the GL movie until it was too late. Frankly, they had no faith in Marvel's idea or they would have done it themselves years ago. It wasn't until TA blew the OW that WB execs pissed their pants and realized they made a huge error not going after a JLA movie like they should have.

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Jessie Global Phenomenon

Jessie

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I don't think he's saying that.If he's actually thinking it is another matter. ;)PS: Superman Returns is underrated IMO.

Superman Returns is like Indiana Jones for me. I was never a fan of the source material for both yet I enjoyed these movies along with critics whilst fans slated them.
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Squaremaster316 Box Office Gold

Squaremaster316

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Wait what? SR came after BB so logically it's BB that screwed up JL movie first because it didn't acknowledge the mere existence of Superman (which Nolan/Goyer knew was in the works at WB studios) in its grounded universe. That's revisionist Nolanite wank.Did you know that George Miller was actually set to direct a JLA movie but due to Nolan, it was flushed out the toilet?

Nothing was stopping WB from making a Superman film where he debuted shortly after Batman. It was the stupid decision to make a film that was a sequel to the two Donner films instead of making it its own beast that caused the JLA to be put on hold.
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