If you spend any time looking into the history of Batman on film, you’re sure to have at least come across a mention of the abandoned Justice League Mortal project.
More than a decade ago, George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) put together a film for Warner Bros. called Justice League Mortal. It got through pre-production, and it even got to the point that the cast gathered in Australia to do costume fittings and prepare to film. And then absolutely everything fell apart from a writers strike to funding going off the rails due to currency fluctuations and the loss of a tax credit.
The project was abandoned and the cast sent home.
It seems as though Armie Hammer gets asked about this the most because he was supposed to play Batman. Speaking with Maltin on Films this week, he dove into a bit of what the take on the caped crusader was going to be.
I wanted this Batman character to be so dark. I was like look, no one – and this was George’s idea as well, this was really in the script – but no one ever really shows how truly psychotic this man has to be. Like this is a guy who chooses to put on a costume, in all black, and sneak around at night and beat the s— out of people.
Bruce Wayne was the mask that you never really see. I’m probably not supposed to be talking about this, but they took the job away so whatever! So even in times when he would be sitting around, like let’s say he had his batsuit off and all that, he would be sitting down with the thing, looking at the thing with the cowl on, because that’s where he felt the most comfortable in his own weird, twisted way.
He was a neurotic, like borderline schizophrenic dude who didn’t trust a single person, including anyone in the Justice League, and had all the dirt on every single one of them, and was ready to take all of them down at the snap of a finger.
This immediately think of the time Wonder Woman put the lasso of truth on Batman and asked him who he was and he responded, “Batman” as opposed to “Bruce Wayne.” It would have been an interesting take on film, and sadly we’ll never see it.
SOURCE: Maltin on Films
