Caffeinated Clint
Cast and crew given one week notice
Update! : Variety has confirmed the news below – “Justice League” is off for the time being. The reasons? “The studio’s reasons included not getting the official response it needed on tax breaks from shooting in Australia. And while WB execs like the script they got from Kieran and Michele Mulroney, it would benefit from a little more work, something that isn’t possible because of the writers’ strike”. Interestingly enough, the studio has let the options lapse on the cast – which includes Megan Gale, Armie Hammer and Teresa Palmer – but the studio still told them they’re “determined to make the film with them in it’.
I guess now that the cat’s out of the bag – I’m allowed to feed it.
A few days back I had a chat with one of the local casting directors on “Justice League” and asked whether there was any truth to the rumours that the film’s script needs work and as a consequence, the studio was going to postpone the flick. She told me that on Wednesday – as in yesterday here in Australia – she’d know for sure. So yes, the rumours were true.
And yes, the decision did indeed come down. And it came down hard like a brick on an office desk. The film, says IESB.net, has indeed been postponed.
The film was originally set to start filming in February.
The people I feel sorry for in this case are the actors – so many of them have already relocated to Australia for the shoot. Aussie actress Teresa Palmer, who was set to play Talia al Ghul in the film, returned from L.A to do the film – I believe she was getting a place in Sydney for the duration of the film. Adam Brody, of “The OC” fame, and Jay Baruchel (“Knocked Up”) are also here. In fact, as far as I know, everyone bar Zoe Kazan had arrived.
What know for them? Well, they’ve got to just pack up their stuff and return home. As for whether they’ll get replacement jobs? Hard to say, especially with this friggin strike –there’s just no work around. This film would’ve paid the bills for most of the year for a lot of these actors – now they’ll have to live off their savings (granted, that’s probably not so bad – -you could imagine how hefty some of these folks’ savings account’s might be). Unless, of course, the studio coughs up some remuneration money to hold them over – which they should, especially if they want to lock them in for the film so when it does get up they haven’t all moved on to new jobs.
And of course, let’s not forget the crew – these guys have families to feed, and “Justice League” would’ve been their meal-ticket for the next few months. There have been a few instances where big U.S productions, filming on our shores, have gone into turnaround – “The Fountain” being the most notable example – and severely hurt the crew.
According to IESB, the film has been delayed until after the writer’s strike – they say around June, or thereabouts. I assume that’s because they want to work on the script.
This script must be bad – I mean, Paramount still went ahead with J.J Abrams’ “Star Trek”, even though its script apparently need a minor re-write.
Now, I wonder whether they’re actually going to hold any of the actors. Or will we, once again, see the Batman and Superman rumours fly… as Warner searches for replacement JL members? Not that any of the actors had ever been officially announced anyway…. In fact, the only person that was ever officially reported to be in talks was Jessica Biel (who would’ve played Wonder Woman) and she disattached herself from the project about a week later (no doubt, because of the script).
Anyway, now you know why the studio never officially announced any of the actors – that was supposed to happen a couple of months ago, according to one of the actors on the film, but never came – nor send out an official release on the pic. Seems they were never confident enough about it in the first place.
Chris Nolan has a smile on his face.
