A rumor purporting George Miller's Justice League: Mortal was going to be filmed completely in motion capture has been debunked. In 2008, long before Warner Bros. launched the current DCEU, the adventures about the iconic superhero team were getting a different treatment for the big-screen. While Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight series was still going and there being plans for a follow-up to Superman Returns, the studio was preparing to set up another shared universe for their DC properties. The Australian director was picked to helm the first live-action Justice League film that would Armie Hammer as Batman, D.J. Cotrona as Superman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman amongst others. With a full cast set, production all ready to begin, the film was pulled back and it became one of the most famous superhero films to have never been made.
However, back when Justice League: Mortal was being developed, rumors were surfacing that it'd not be a traditional live-action picture. Reports were circling that Warner Bros. was highly considering doing it in motion-capture. While the movie ultimately never happened and would have been done as a normal live-action film, there never was proper clarification if the studio was seriously considering it or not. Ryan Unicomb, an Australian filmmaker and content creator, is through Purryburry Productions, going to helm a documentary for Miller's unproduced DC film. Following the initial announcement in 2015, Unicomb is now reviving the project under the name Seven Friends: George Miller's Justice League that will celebrate the vision from the Mad Max director that never got to screen
In an upcoming exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Unicomb was asked about the biggest misconception about Justice League: Mortal that he sees regularly online. Throughout the chat, the Seven Friends director brought up the motion capture rumor by setting the record straight. Despite the rumors that were floating around over a decade ago, Unicomb explains how it was never a thing that was even being considered when the studio was first developing Justice League: Mortal.
To be honest, the biggest thing that I see all the time is that people [say], "I'm so thankful it got canceled because who'd want a motion capture, animated Justice League movie in 2008?" And that's not what was gonna happen. There was never a conversation; that was never a legitimate thing that was gonna happen. Like, a 3D animated, mocap-based movie. The logistics behind that and the budget behind that would be astronomical and impossible. So, that's probably the biggest thing that I see.
Besides the DC trinity, the film would have also featured Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter, who would have been played by Common, Adam Brody, Santiago Cabrera, and Hugh Keays-Byrne respectively. Once Justice League: Mortal was shelved by Warner Bros., the current DC film landscape instead began through Zack Snyder's Man of Steel several years later. However, Cotrona and Brody were still brought into the DCEU as the grown-up versions of Pedro Peña and Freddy Freeman in Shazam while Common appeared in Suicide Squad.
While only a few glimpses of Miller's DC movie has made its way online, including test costumes, that's not even half of what was produced before Warner Bros. scrapped the project. The documentary will shed light on a lot of never-before-seen aspects of the Justice League film that would kick-off Warner Bros.'s original DC cinematic universe. Stay tuned for Screen Rant's full exclusive interview with Unicomb about Seven Friends: George Miller's Justice League.