The live-action Justice League of America movie is in limbo, but the popular comic-book super team gets a worthy screen adaptation in a new DVD-movie based on Darwyn Cooke's graphic novel. The New Frontier, which goes on sale Feb. 26, reimagines the origin of the JLA in the 1950s and early '60s, when fear of communism and alien invasion ran rampant. The team behind the latest DC Comics/Warner Bros. Animation straight-to-DVD movie worked hard to compress the six-issue comic series into a 75-minute feature. "The biggest challenge was deciding what would stay and what had to go," says director Dave Bullock. "There are a lot of great character moments in New Frontier and there were a lot of hard decisions to be made, just due to time factor." The finished product preserves the main unifying story: an alien menace that brings the world's greatest superheroes together for the first time. Still, it's the development of the characters — Superman and Wonder Woman debating how to respond...
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The JLA is no match for the WGA. The ongoing writers' strike is to blame for the Warner Bros. decision to halt production on the theatrical adaptation of DC Comics' popular Justice League of America, Variety reports. Originally expected to go into production this winter in Australia, the live-action film needed some script tweaks, but husband-and-wife writing team Kieran and Michele Mulroney will have to wait until after the strike is settled to make those adjustments. George Miller (Happy Feet) is onboard to direct, but the cast (which was never officially confirmed) saw their options lapse. The O.C.'s Adam Brody was to play the Flash, while Armie Hammer and Megan Gale were poised to dress up as Batman and Wonder Woman, respectively. Variety says the movie now won't start production until late summer at the earliest. — Rich Sands
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