Source:Variety

February 23, 2007

Warner Bros. Pictures is looking to make a feature based on super team the Justice League of America, hiring writing duo Kiernan and Michele Mulroney to write the script, reports Variety. It's the first major action the studio has taken on the project.

The feature film is bound to include some combination of DC's most iconic superheroes, although the studio wouldn't confirm which ones they might be. It's unlikely that the studio and DC Comics, a division of Warner, would opt to feature second-tier characters.

Since its inception in 1960, JLA has featured almost every major hero in the DC Comics universe, although the core team has largely remained the same: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter.

The heroes typically band together to fight alien menaces or groups of supervillains.

"The Justice League of America has been a perennial favorite for generations of fans, and we believe their appeal to film audiences will be as strong and diverse as the characters themselves," Warner president of production Jeff Robinov said in announcing the hiring of the Mulroneys.

The trade says that in taking on the ambitious project, Warner faces several conundrums.

Now that the Batman and Superman film franchises have been revived, does the studio go after Christian Bale (Batman Begins) and Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) to star in a Justice League pic? The studio is also trying hard to bring Wonder Woman to the big screen.

To a large degree, casting will depend upon the story arc for the JLA feature and at what point in the superheroes' lives the plot takes place.