With just ten days until the release of Justice League, Warner Bros. Pictures has debuted a new Superman motion poster, featuring a voiceover by Lois Lane, which you can check out below. The Wall Street Journal has also published a new article on the Justice League budget, which is reported to be in the neighborhood of $300 million. More on that below, along with a new Flash photo in the gallery that shows Barry Allen is a fan of Nikola Tesla and Rick and Morty!
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According to the WSJ article, Zack Snyder and screenwriter Chris Terrio did a last-minute rewrite on Justice League before initially going into production in March of 2016. The purpose of the rewrite was to make the film “less serious” and “more hopeful” than it’s dour predecessor Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. After the movie finished shooting in October 2016 and Snyder delivered his first cut, the studio felt Snyder had improved the tone but more work was needed to lighten it up and bring it in at under two hours. Joss Whedon (already at work on Batgirl for the studio) was brought aboard to do the rewrites, and eventually directed the expensive reshoots after Snyder’s daughter passed away. Said reshoots helped balloon the budget to the $300 million range, and word from those who have seen the film suggests it is very easy to spot the dialogue-heavy Whedon scenes amid Snyder’s amped-up action.
“A lot of the work was integrating the two tones and making it feel like one movie,” said an anonymous production source.
Although early screenings were not successful, the newly-polished Justice League has reportedly earned test scores in the same ball park as Wonder Woman, with Ezra Miller’s Flash being heralded as the breakout character. Warners originally saw Justice League as their most important tentpole of the year, but after the surprise success of both Wonder Woman and the horror film IT, the studio no longer needs Justice League to overachieve as hard. It is expected to open north of $100 million, though.
The article also notes that aside from James Wan’s recently-wrapped Aquaman and Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 2 in pre-production, no other films are locked into the DC Extended Universe slate. With a 13-month gap between Justice League and Aquaman, 2018 will be a “reset year” for the studio to recalibrate their DC slate with more filmmaker-driven pictures focused on individual characters. They are deviating from their Marvel Studios competition by dumping the corporate mandate to put out particular films in a certain order. Right now the priority is the Flashpoint solo movie with Ezra Miller, Whedon’s Batgirl, Matt Reeves’ solo Batman movie, the Green Lantern Corps film, and two different Joker movies (one with Jared Leto and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, and director Todd Phillips’ unconnected solo Joker movie set in the ’80s).
Justice League stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, and J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon.
Fueled by the hero’s restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Justice League sees Bruce Wayne enlist the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Directed by Zack Snyder (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel), the screenplay is by Joss Whedon and Chris Terrio from a story by Snyder and Terrio. Whedon directed the additional photography for the sequel and is overseeing the completion of its post production following Snyder’s family tragedy. Justice League is produced by Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Jon Berg and Geoff Johns. The executive producers are Jim Rowe, Wesley Coller, Curt Kanemoto, Chris Terrio and Ben Affleck.
