Justice League Movie Official; Director named

As expected, George Miller, who most recently directed the very successful animated Happy Feet for Warner Bros., has been named as the director of the long-rumored, now official Justice League of America movie. The studio is aiming to release the movie in the summer of 2009, which would put the production ahead of the next Superman movie.

Neither Batman Begins star Christian Bale or Superman Returns star Brandon Routh are expected to reprise their roles in the movie, though their characters are featured in the script. Other heroes expected for the movie are Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman and Green Lantern.

According to Variety:

Batman and Superman are active properties for the studio, though the next installment in the Superman franchise has taken a backseat to Justice League in part because Warners is so keen on the Justice League script by Kieran and Michele Mulroney.....This project could give the studio a launching pad for future Wonder Woman and the Flash pics. The studio has been developing bigscreen adaptations of both DC properties.

In a follow-up post, IESB.net, the site that first reported the rumor that Smallville's Tom Welling was in line to play Superman in the JLA movie, has now confirmed that Welling will NOT be the team's Man of Steel, and it's possbile that Routh will suit up for the movie after all. The site is now also reporting that Ryan Gosling heads the short list of actors for Batman. Bale and his director Christopher Nolan have made it clear that they are not happy about the JLA movie plans.

The Bat-sequel, The Dark Knight, is scheduled for summer 2008; Justice League of America, the following summer. The next Superman movie? Up, up, in the air!