DC Comics fans know well the story about the never-made “Justice League: Mortal” film. With George Miller as director, “Justice League: Mortal” was set to star D.J. Cotrona as Superman, Armie Hammer as Batman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Adam Brody as The Flash, rapper/actor Common as Green Lantern, Hugh Keays-Byrne as Martian Manhunter, Santiago Cabrera as Aquaman, Jay Baruchel as Maxwell Lord, and Teresa Palmer as Talia al Ghul. The Writer’s strike in 2007 as well as a change in tax break advantages in Australia resulted in the project being cancelled.
In an episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Jay Baruchel told MTV’s Josh Horowitz how far into pre-production the film was when it was canned…
“They had all the costume design. They had all of the pre-vis. They had all of the sort of production design figured out, and so they would take us and walk us through this command center where they had everything,” the actor said of checking things out down in Australia. “The aesthetic choices that they were making and the story and character choices they were making are so ballsy, and we won’t ever see it.”
Baruchel also revealed that there was supposed to be a scene in the film where his character (Maxwell Lord) would take over Superman’s mind, forcing him to battle Wonder Woman…
“All of a sudden this guy’s got Superman as a weapon,” said the actor.
In the script, Lord would get a nosebleed whenever he took over someone’s mind, but Baruchel pitched to Miller that taking over Superman’s powerful Kryptonian brain would cause Lord to bleed out of every orifice in his head.
“I turn him into full red eye Superman, and then there’s this big ass fight between him and Wonder Woman, where he breaks her @#%$ing wrists and shit,” he continued. “The first time you see Wonder Woman, the opening scene on Themyscira, it was just her. It’s her on top of a steed … and she stood about half a kilometer away from a Minotaur. The Minotaur has a battle-ax in his hand and she just rushes him. All the Amazons are there cheering her on, and she just beheads him. Gets off her steed … holds up the Minotaur thing and doesn’t say a goddamned thing. It’s like, ‘That’s the Wonder Woman I want to see!’ It would have been special.”
You can listen to this episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast at MTV.com. The “Justice League: Mortal” discussion takes place around 42 minutes in.
What is the fascination with making Superman a bad guy??
So glad this atrocity never got made.
I was thinking the same exact thing. It’s terribly lazy storytelling.
I don’t like the idea of Superman turning “dark”. I hope that won’t be the case in Justice League. Although the nightmare/future warning scene in Batman v Superman is leading me to believe that Superman will go dark.
I’m not so much opposed to a hero being mind-controlled by the villain and forced in the short-term into attacking allies. I’m just bored with it being Superman. I understand the rationale. He’s the strongest and potentially most lethal. If you have a villain who wants force a superhero to do his bidding, it makes sense the first target is Superman. It’s just smart strategy. Also, from a dramatic standpoint, it ups the stakes as the strongest ally is now the strongest opposition. It’s just that — ESPECIALLY with Superman — it’s become a cliche. Frankly, I’d rather see Lord… Read more »
Y’all do know that Maxwell Lord controlling Superman and fighting Wonder Woman is taken DIRECTLY from the comics right? You’d think, given all the complaints that the DCEU strays too far from the source, that ya’ll would be happy that they adhered so closely.
Whereever the idea of Superman turning bad or mind controlled came from comics, movies, cartoons, live-action TV shows, or video games I don’t like it.
Taken directly from Wonder Woman 219 where Maxwell Lord is controlling Superman and leading to the events of Infinite Crisis. And this was straight outta the source material. I’ve read the script online and all I had to do was imagine how the scene might have looked like on film. Pretty much epic if you ask me. Now granted…Some of us do not want to see our beloved hero being pushed and controlled to do the bad guy’s bidding, but it all depends from story to story and how the situation goes on developing. While playing Injustice 2 I hoped… Read more »
For me, it’s not so much that Superman being mind-controlled/turning evil is a bad plot for a story, it’s just that at this point it’s hack. It’s been done to death. Just like having Batman beat Superman in a fight. It was mind-blowing, original, and bad-ass… 30 years ago. Quit running it into the ground. Come up with something better for Superman to do.
Glad it was never made, I’m sick and tired of hollywood making Superman look bad and fighting other heroes.
Everybodys right! We ALL don’t want to see any more story’s that have Superman turn evil and battle the JL. Marvel made that stupid mistake in the Avengers when the Hulk got mind controlled. Then Stark slips into the “Hulk busting suit”!.Oh brother…was that stupid. Let us all prey that we won’t have to see any of that nonsense.