Warner Bros. has been developing a Justice League film for some time now, but the colossal success of Marvel’s The Avengers has put some rather heavy pressure on the studio to get moving on the DC Comics all-star pic that brings together Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and The Flash. Early this month, the project took a step in the right direction when word surfaced that WB was courting Ben Affleck to take the helm. The move wasn’t incredibly surprising given that the studio has been very high on Affleck as a director since his excellent one-two punch of Gone Baby Gone and The Town, soon to be followed by the great-looking Argo.
That said, it was doubtful that Affleck would ultimately take the gig given his preference for more dramatic material and the fact that he’s committed to directing an ambitious adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand. Affleck has now spoken up about his involvement with the project, confirming that he won’t be helming the superhero pic. Hit the jump to see what he had to say and to find out who could possibly bring the film to fruition.
ben-affleck-justice-leagueSpeaking with 24 Hours Vancouver, Affleck outright denied that he’s directing Justice League:
“I’m not working on the Justice League. One of the problems with entertainment web sites is that they need to fill pages, and that’s how rumours get started… Justice League sounds really exciting, but it’s not something I’m working on.â€
So, just as most expected, Affleck is not tackling a superhero movie in the near future. The initial story came from a solid source (Variety), so it’s likely that Warner Bros. asked if Affleck would be interested and he politely passed.
In the wake of this news, Moviehole is now reporting that The Matrix trilogy directors Lana and Andy Wachowski are on WB’s wishlist of people they’d like to helm Justice League. This should be taken as rumor for now, and Moviehole notes that the directing duo is only “under consideration†and no offers have been made. Apparently Warner Bros. is really happy with the spectacle of the ridiculously ambitious Cloud Atlas adaptation directed by the Wachowskis and Tom Twyker, so the studio may or may not be mulling over a Wachowski-led Justice League movie.
Should the studio actually offer the project to the duo, it’s not exactly guaranteed that they’d take the gig. They enjoy a great amount of creative freedom and Justice League is not exactly a property that WB would be “hands off†on. They financed Cloud Atlas independently after every major studio passed on their take, and we’re likely to see one of the more ambitious films in recent memory when that hits theaters.
Lana and Andy Wachowski have also been prepping a big-budget sci-fi film called Jupiter Ascending as their Cloud Atlas follow-up, so their slate isn’t wide open. That film already has Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis as the two leads and may be the first in a proposed trilogy.
