The Justice League isn’t the only team of heroes in DC Comics. The Justice League Dark — a team of supernatural heroes who fight ghoulish threats that the normal Justice League is ill-equipped to handle — is set for its own movie, Justice League Dark, which was formally announced at San Diego Comic-Con this past July. However, the film has already experienced trouble behind the scenes: Director Doug Liman (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) left the project in May. In a new interview, the director reveals that he never found a script that satisfied him.
In an interview with CinemaBlend to promote the Blu-ray release of his latest film, The Wall, which stars Aaron-Taylor Johnson and John Cena, Liman says that the overwhelming attention that comic book movies attract pressured him to get a script that was “special enough” to stay on. “I develop more movies than I make,” Liman said. “There’s a weed-out process, and it’s just that when you get to the comic book one, suddenly everybody hears about them. So, the script never got to a place that was special enough for me. Not for lack of trying.”
When Liman was still attached to Justice League Dark, then known by the title Dark Universe, Liman told Inverse that he was excited about his take on the material. “Studios don’t come to me to make conventional choices. Especially in the comic book arena, people are doing such interesting things,” he said. “The bar is so high for me to do something unexpected. But I feel like I’ve cracked it down to something I’m really excited about.”
Unfortunately, fans of the comics will not get to see what the Edge of Tomorrow director had in store.
The Justice League Dark formed in Jeff Lemire’s comic book series Justice League Dark, which ran for 40 issues between 2011 and 2015. Earlier this year, DC produced a loose animated film adaptation of the series, in which Constantine star Matt Ryan reprised his role as the chain-smoking street magician, John Constantine.
There are no release dates yet for the live-action Justice League Dark.
