According to the Hollywood Reporter, director George Miller spent most of the weekend in casting sessions for the Justice League of America movie.
Who showed up?
On the roll call are Adam Brody (Fox’s “The O.C.”), Joseph Cross (“Running With Scissors”), D.J. Cotrona (“Windfall”), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (“Grindhouse”), Michael Angarano (“Sky High”), Teresa Palmer (“Wolf Creek”), Max Thieriot (“Jumper”) and rapper Common.
The cast of NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” is well-represented as well, with Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki and Scott Porter also among those testing for parts. No costumes are involved in the tests, which are being taped as actors read script pages.
Lots of young’uns in the list, and that’s because Miller is hoping to keep the actors around for multiple films. HR says Miller will report his findings to the stdio midweek.
23 Comments
Am I the only one who cringed, and I mean LITERALLY, after reading that line-up?
if that is indeed the line-up (and many rumor mongering sites are saying it is pretty close to final) then the movie is going to be teh suck, and will be no better than those CW teenie bopper shows. If this is indeed the lineup, Warner Bros and Happy Feet director Miller would be better off snatching up the Junior Lifeguard Association from Smallville and use them.
And yes, I know Miller also directed The Road Warrior, but really, if this is the cast, and if the movie sucks, he’s better off as “the guy that directed Happy Feet.”
Stephen
I have a feeling we’re going to get JLA-meets-Fall Out Boy. Super-emo-heroes! And not emo in the “I’m Peter Parker, I’ve got a rough life and I whine about it alot” type of emo – more like the “oh my god I”m Bruce Wayne I’m stinking rich and I’m the World’s Greatest Detective, but nobody understands me” type of emo.
I don’t watch a whole lotta tv so I have no clue whom most of those people are, but this starts to confirm my concerns that this movie will be a steaming pile. The most annoying thing is that if they end up going for a “young n’ hip” cast for The Justice Teens of America, it will have all of the trappings of a “young n’ hip” movie: godawful soundtrack, droll dialog that’s not really smart or funny, alls sorts of romantic links that aren’t really there.
It’s strange, then, that they would choose for this movie a story to tell that’s so literally based in DCU continuity. I dunno. I guess it coud turn out well, but the shortcuts this project is taking is sending up caution flags all over to me.
Just for curiosity sake I googled some names…
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
http://www.celebritywonder.com/picture/Mary_Elizabeth_Winstead/MaryElizabet_DeGuire_14281300.html
Adrianne Palicki
http://tvmedia.ign.com/tv/image/article/797/797582/friday-night-lights-20070618060335652.jpg
Minka Kelly
http://tv.yahoo.com/minka-kelly/contributor/1260323/photos/6
A couple of Wonder Women candidates
and a Black Canary?
I think for many many years the JLA have always been thought of as being in their mid-30s. Look at how the Flash interacts with Snapper Carr in the first JLA story – the two are so far apart in ages that they have no frame of reference for communicating with one another.
So while I might be able to appreciate a younger crowd of heroes (providing they are still in their mid to late 20s) teenage heroes just won’t fly.
This is a potential steaming pile. Who knows, with lowered expectations the only way you can go is up….
I do see the need, though for a franchise, to go with younger actors… if they play them up mature/smart, and don’t go for the teen mentality, I can understand. These movies usually take 3 years a piece to get from script to screen and if you do a franchise of JLA movies, say 3 or 4 you don’t want to necessarily start off with someone say in their 30’s. Example: Robert Downey Jr.’s age (40s) and have an Iron Man (Tony Stark) running around in 12 years in Iron Man 4, and have Tony Stark being in his 50s. If done right, this could work… sign these virtual unknowns for a 4 or 5 picture deal for “cheap” and get the right script and who knows… but I do see the mentality of marketing to the CW crowd. But look at how poorly the Fantastic Four movies turned out, with more mature actors, but a lower common denominator script that was marketed solely to the CW crowd.
Jim: the only problem with your statement is JLA is not following the traditional film production route. JLA is being fast tracked to debut in the summer of 2009 – roughly a year and a half from now, with plans to shoot in the summer of 2008 if not sooner. So even if we get a young cast here, if (BIG IF) the film does good and gets greenlit for a follow up, the studios will take the approach that the fast track worked once, it will work again, and again and again, meaning we could see all three films before 2012. It scares me…
For me, alarms started going off when I saw the name George Miller attached. I hated Happy Feet. It was the most wasted use of 3D, I’ve ever seen. The story was a mess, but the 3D was great. That was it. All style but no substance. Even though it was a kid’s movie, most kid’s movies have fairly decent stories (that don’t end in a lame song & dance sequence, if I may add). Anyways, I’m here about JLA not “Happy Feet”. Since Miller is involved with this production, I have no plans whatsoever to support this movie when it comes out. Especially if names like Adam Brody or Michael Angarano may be attached. Although, I can kind of see Common playing John Stewart, kind of.
The TV teeny bop casting shows how little understanding the suits have for comic book properties. DC Comic icons (the Big Three plus a few others) were never about an audience relating to the characters in the way we relate to classic Spidey, the original X-Men, or other teen heroes. DC’s Big Guns are fantasies based in “who I’d like to be when I’m grown up” even after we’ve reached adulthood. That’s why characters like Snapper Carr and Rick Jones were created: to add the adolescent-like fanboy perspective in stories involving mature authority figures. Smallville works exactly because it deconstructs the Superman mythos. The show would have failed miserably had it been about Supes after he’s got his act together but starred the same young actors.
If this is to be a movie about The League, then it should be about the heroes AFTER they have developed some gravitas.
On a totally different note: If they want early 20’s actors for the rest of the JLA, why are rappers and singers in their LATE 20s to early 30’s the only ones considered for GL? Why not look for an actual actor who is also a physical match with all the other actors cast, and who just happens to be identifiably black? Why must John Stewart be cast using a different standard?
Pull up a picture Smallville’s version of the Justice League. The guy playing Cyborg just happens to be physically inferior to everyone else except Bart Allen who is like Cyborg also desexualized. But that’s ok because Bart is more of a “kid Flash rather than the big masculine hero the others are.
They made a similar move when they cast a physically nonthreatening Pete Ross. I’m glad the producers were bold enough to cast Pete as black, but the casting choice guaranteed that there would be romantic tension involving Lana and Pete, effectively cutting off a major portion of the character’s source material. Why couldn’t Pete be a physical equal as Clark in terms of height, build and general attractiveness, i.e., the using the same physical standard as the rest of the cast?
The DC movie properties will remain a mess as long as they have the commitee approach and not a “show-runner” like Avi Arad. Like him or not, once Marvel put its own company in place, Avi started tightening the continuities up into a singular entity. It would be interesting to see what Marvel could have done with Spider-Man, X-Men, and FF blatantly sharing a movie universe without studio exclusivity, but you couldn’t have had the one without the other.
Come on, now. What single sane person lets Superman get so abused? No one. But put five executives together trying to justify their salaries? You get…”uh, how about a sequel; wait, a Batman/Superman movie; wait, no how about Justice League; should he have a black suit? Maybe he shouldn’t fly. Is there room for a giant mechanical spider? Why don’t we have Lois Lane have a Super Baby? Nicolas Cage would be PERFECT for this! Can we tie it into the TV show? Tell the TV producers to f*** off, they can’t use these ideas or Batman! Can we use Batman? What do you mean ‘continuity?’ What does the Bill of Rights have to do with this? The fans? F*** em, they’ll complain and go anyway, we need a Superman that Soccer moms can relate to! What about the mechanical spider? Is Will Smith available? Lex Luthor’s the only bad guy, right? Can we use that “kryptonite” song?”
Brent: I liked Pete Ross in smallville, besides being physically shorter, I didn’t find him unattractive… I thought he actually did a good job, and had he signed another multiyear contract, i think we would have seen him and cloe get even closer.
I love how we all go ape $&#! over comic book movie casting when we end usually liking the finished product. Obviously the directorship of this movie is key, but I will wait to reserve judgement. For every Ben Afflect cast, you get Tobey Maguire, Hugh Hackman, and Christian Bale. I like the odds. Besides, the young actors on Friday Night Lights are EXCELLENT…one of the best shows on TV. There is some logic with going with a younger JLA to begin a life of fighting crime together. Smallville is not a good comparison because there are just too many TV/special effects/budget limitations….
Brent, that’s just how it is in Hollywood as a whole, you can’t look at Justice League and presume it’s an aberration.
How many times has Morgan Freeman played some sexless old mentor? At least when Liam Neeson plays a mentor character you get the feeling that somewhere, offscreen, he’s getting laid. (We all know Qui-Gon Jinn had a one-nighter with Shmi Skywalker, let’s be frank.) Morgan Freeman’s characters are written like they just go home and do crossword puzzles until they fall asleep. It’s subtle and it SOUNDS ridiculous, but its just…there.
I don’t know of popular this is with folks around here, but they should really throw as much money as they need at Tom Welling, when it comes to Superman that guy has got it. I would pay for a DVD of just super stuff from that show. The right story and director he’d do great.
http://darkcommandos.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/03/wellingsman1.jpg
Where is Ron Pearlman as Soloman Grundy? And what about Picard as Lex Luther…and most of all the Tron Guy should join the Justice League too.
I think the other thing to consider when Warner Bros. or others make “comic book” movies, is they don’t really consider the comic fan at all. They are trying to appeal to the general movie going demographic, and to hell with tradition, story etc. The general movie going audience, 14-24 year olds, is much much larger then the comic reading demographic, who is truly passionate about the content and decisions that go into a comic book movie.
Spiderman, Batman Begins and a few others movies have shown, that you can buck the trend, and not cater to the lowest common denominator.
Sidenote: Daredevil is my wife’s favorite comic book movie to date… and I thought considering how it could have ended up, it was a pretty good effort.
Am I the only one who thinks that Tom Welling is the only one suited to play Super Man?
I meant to say,”…but the casting choice guaranteed that there would be NO romantic tension involving Lana and Pete…” I’m so glad Pete wasn’t a cliché’, but he was definitely neutered.
Speaking of neutered, Mark, you hit the nail on the head with the Morgan Freeman vs. Liam Neeson comparison. People who have to CONSTANTLY exude a nonthreatening, sexless, and bland demeanor just to survive in real life damn sure don’t want to see that same repression with an actor of color onsceen. Yet going 180 degrees in the opposite direction by casting “Urban Street Credibility” is equally insulting. There is a world of variety in between Morgan Freeman and TI. Why can’t they cast minority roles using the same “norms” as the rest of the cast? (And maybe they could write minority characters as regular, 3 dimensional people, since I’m wishing for impossible things.)
I like Common as a music act, and he was decent if unremarkable in “Smokin’ Aces”. I don’t want any rapper/actor/singer honing their chops using up the little screen time a major character of color will have in any given year. If Warner Brothers announced Eminem, K-Fed, or Justin Timberlake for one of the Caucasian roles, there would be a righteous mutiny. I hope for that same indignation should the role of John Stewart be cast as stupidly.
Brent is 100% correct. stop the steretypes all this bullshit.
I would have preferred to see Welling as Superman in Superman Returns – would still like to see him in JLA
Stephen