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Adam Brody reflects on George Miller's scrapped Justice League movie, says it would've been 'a classic'
Hollywood is full of wild "What If?" scenarios. Some are bigger than others, but one that seems to crop up in the headlines more often than not is the Justice League: Mortal movie that George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) never got to make. It's even more unfortunate when you consider the fact that the cast — which had Armie Hammer as Batman and D. J. Cotrona as Superman — was ready to start filming in Australia when unexpectedly production fell through forever. Among the A-list ensemble was Adam Brody (Jennifer's Body), who was locked in to play The Flash, and he apparently had very high hopes for the now-dead project.
"The script was really good," he told Yahoo! Entertainment during an interview. "It's not that it was revolutionary, and I'm pretty objective about this kind of thing, and I think I have a pretty good gauge of scripts. It was very solid. I thought the casting was right. Not just me, but everyone, tonally, was going to fit right. I was so excited to work with George Miller, because he was a legend, and he was very nice. At the same time, nobody — I didn't have any idea, I bet Warner Bros. didn't have any idea — what a f***ing badass he still was. Because he hadn't made a live action movie in like 15 years. He had made Babe 2 and Happy Feet. Yeah, he's like the Australian Spielberg, but who knows? "Then you see Mad Max: Fury Road and you're like, 'Oh my God, he's as fresh as anyone. He's ahead of the curve. So in hindsight it hurts more, actually. Like that would've been a classic movie after seeing what he did."
In the end, it took a little longer than expected, but Brody did make his way into the DC Universe as Captain Marvel Jr. in this year's Shazam! Of course, the role is a glorified cameo as the character only appears in the third act when Freddie Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) turns into a superhero to help Billy Batson (Asher Angel/Zachary Levi) fight the evil Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong). A sequel (which may feature Mr. Mind as the central villain) is already in the works with the original screenwriter on board to pen the script.
"I've heard enthusiastic rumblings and more so," added Brody. "I definitely don't know anything official. But I would say that it seems likely and warranted, and I'm very excited. Hope we do."
As it turns out, this week was big on Tinseltown insiders revealing what could have been for major studio projects. Another instance came from makeup designer Joel Harlow, who discussed the plans for Abe Sapien in Lionsgate's scrapped Hellboy reboot sequel. According to Harlow (whom SYFY WIRE interviewed last year), the character — teased at the very end of the new film — would have been very different from the one portrayed by Doug Jones in the Guillermo del Toro adaptations.
"The unfortunate thing is that the movie did not do very well and if it had, we would have explored Abe Sapien again," Harlow told ComicBookMovie.com "There were actually a lot of creatures coming in potential sequels. For this one, we get a glimpse at him at the very end with that teaser with his hand but if we had done the entire character, first of all, it would be vastly different from the other films, more thug-like, and we wouldn't have even have gone with that hand you see at the end of the film. We would have designed something from scratch. That's one of the ones that, because I have an affection for fish people and fish characters, would have been really fun to work on but alas, no."
Both Shazam! and Hellboy are now available on digital and home video.
