We came awfully close to living in a universe where Mad Max mastermind George Miller wrote and directed a Justice League movie that starred Armie Hammer as Batman. There’s a chance said universe still exists Sliders style, but for those of us in this universe it’s a fascinating What If? scenario. Appearing at Sundance as part of a Kevin Smith-moderated IMDB panel, shared some detail on how far along into the process this never made DC adventure.
SyFy Wire reports that Hammer confessed to making off with Miller’s Justice League: Mortal script when the time came for the scripts to be surrendered. The order to return the scripts happened after in-costume rehearsals with Hammer citing the 2007-08 writers strike and Australian tax credit changes for the scrapped film.
“And then we got a call one day from the producers and they go ‘We need everybody to come in and bring all of your material, bring all of your scripts, bring your notes, bring everything,” explained Hammer. “We were like ‘Ok’ and we show up and they had big bins and they go ‘Put it all in here.’ And I was like ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure and I quickly snuck a CD out of my computer and put in my back pocket, turned [all my materials] in and managed to basically steal a script, but other than that, I had nothing to show for it. I’m sure there’s pictures floating around out there somewhere of all of us in our costumes.”
The prep for Justice League: Mortal apparently included some serious Peter Jackson tech too.
“[Peter Jackson’s] Weta [Workshop] built us a whole functioning suit that had hydraulics and worked and had microphones all through the suit, so I could hear everything happening around me,” shared Hammer. “It was 100 percent functional because we had $300 million to do it.”
If those costumes are still kicking around somewhere, Warner Bros. should do the sensible thing and make the Snyder/Whedon Justice League cast face Miller’s Justice League cast in an in-character softball game on pay-per-view. C’mon WB, this is a great way to even out Justice League‘s shaky box office AND put Ezra Miller in an uncomfortable position running to second.
(Via SyFy Wire)