With The Avengers making out like gangbusters at the box office, and basically no end in sight when it comes to Marvel movies breaking the bank, Warner Brothers and DC have been way behind the 8-ball in coming up with their most powerful countermeasure. That, of course, would be a Justice League movie, which would blow out The Avengers in terms of name recognition without question. They're really in a tough spot, though, and are basically still in the starting gate if the goal is to somehow match their rival's success. Sure, The Dark Knight Rises is probably going to gross comparable numbers to The Avengers, but it's also the final part of the trilogy with nothing really set beyond it. Green Lantern was going to be their next big franchise with Ryan Reynolds the centerpiece, but obviously it didn't work out as planned. So what the heck has Warner Brothers been doing all this time? Why haven't they been preparing? Well, apparently they have.
Variety reports that the studio has hired red hot scribe, Will Beall, to pen a Justice League movie script. Apparently, the studio began the process last year in anticipation of The Avengers' success, bringing on Beall in secret and keeping it under wraps all this time. He hasn't turned in a draft yet, but you know it's going to be top priority now. Beall has been a WB favorite for awhile, having written the script for Gangster Squad, and also being hired by the studio to write the Logan's Run remake. An ex-cop turned writer, Beall is also hard at work developing a Lethal Weapon relaunch.
So what does this mean for a timetable? Eh, it's hard to say. As you probably remember, a Justice League film was in the works with George Miller(Mad Max) as director, but it fell through for a number of reasons. It would have starred a newbie Armie Hammer as Batman, Adam Brody as The Flash, and rapper Common as Green Lantern. Warner Brothers has been angling to give it another try for years, but nothing has been concrete. At one point 2013 was looking like the year it would happen, but I would guess 2015 is more realistic. That would give them time to continue developing the solo projects that have been in the pipeline. 
For one, we've known that The Flash has been in development for the past two years. Greg Berlanti was hired to direct, with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green writing the script. Michael Goldenberg was brought on to start a Wonder Woman script, with Brad Peyton recently signed to direct a Lobo flick. There are also Shazam and Aquaman films that have been rumored in the past, so if even half of these projects pan out, Warner Brothers could find themselves in a pretty sweet position.Zack Snyder told us last year that his upcoming Man of Steel and Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises will be totally separate from a Justice League movie, so the chances of seeing Christian Bale or Henry Cavill are slim. The jury's still out on Ryan Reynolds.
So, it looks like we can start kicking around those casting calls. Who would you want to see cast in a Justice League movie? Got any ideas on a director?
