News from IESB.net says that the Justice League film may be an all motion capture project rather than actors in tights… which I am actually in full support for in this case.
Fantastic Four is part comedy so it’s okay if they look absurd, but the JLA is the pinnacle of super heroics, making a live action adaptation a very risky endeavor if you don’t want the audience snickering over Green Lantern‘s long johns.
Making the film all cgi might just deliver the right impact on audiences.Here’s the source email sent to the site admin:
I’m in Europe on business right now, but managed to check my email (filled to the brim with spam of course) and noticed a very interesting message from a contact over at Sony Imageworks.
It seems that although they did cgi work on Superman Returns, there has been no talk of them coming back to work on the sequel. However, and take this with a grain of salt, Imageworks are apparently in the running to provide services on the JLA film, competing with R&H and possibly WETA (the latter being unconfirmed).
But the real interesting thing about this is that the contract is for an all-cgi “photo-real” motion capture movie, much like the upcoming Beowulf.
This is unsurprising, given George Miller‘s recent track record with the likes of Happy Feet, and motion capture cgi would certainly account for the casting sessions that are supposedly starting next week, meaning that Miller can cast actors rather than faces for the roles, use their performances and tweak things as he sees fit.
Now a real-looking cgi JLA does seem likely, but I wonder what will become of Man of Steel given that Imageworks won’t be returning for that project. I know there were some rumblings within the company that Singer wasn’t satisfied with their work on Returns and is looking elsewhere for the sequel (ILM would be my preferred choice…but can Singer afford them?) and with Spider-Man 4 on hold (another Imageworks project), a mo-cap JLA would become their only major project for the next few years.
I just wonder if JLA might end up being pushed back….these cgi films take a long time to make, and a photo-real cgi JLA movie is quite a big project.
I’ll try to find out more when I get back to the States,
Jawa Juice
