This probably comes as no surprise, but according to Variety, the Justice League movie over at Warners will depend on Man of Steel‘s box office performance. It’s encouraging (if not obvious) though, because it’s the first sign of level-headedness the studio has displayed regarding the superhero omnibus project. Before this, they’ve talked a big game all while planning to follow the Marvel method without laying any popular, systematic groundwork. Without Christian Bale, the branding game on Batman changes a bit (although there’s no denying the character’s ability to draw a crowd), and it’s not clear if anyone at all cares to see Green Lantern back on the big screen, so slow-playing the potential 2015 release until Zack Snyder’s Superman movie has a chance to succeed or fail is a smart move. The only question at this point is how much success Man of Steel will need in order to get Warners to pull out the giant check book (seriously, it’s comically large) and push Justice League out the door. How much will it have to earn worldwide? $600m? $800m? Does it have to cross the $1b mark or break records? The original Iron Man earned $585m, but it also wasn’t the sole launching pad for a giant, caped ensemble event movie. It had help where Man of Steel doesn’t, so it’ll be interesting to see following the latter’s release whether Warners will go ahead and place their big gamble on the table. But barring all the smart business, do you even want to see

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s the thing that makes you feel better about the world after a long, tough day. And lets just all agree that it’s been a long, tough day for so many people. So a little escapism is in order. Hobbit Wizardry – We begin tonight with a shout out to our friend Eric Vespe, best known as “Quint” from Ain’t It Cool News. That’s pertinent information, because this excellent article he wrote about Peter Jackson and The Hobbit for Popular Mechanics includes his real name in the byline. It looks like everyone’s using their real name lately. The article is excellent, even if it is dealing in-trade with one of the more disappointing films of the year, according to some.

The fine folks over at Latino-Review, who are either doing a stellar job of reporting or leading every movie fan down the garden path, have announced that an inside source has revealed the plot to Justice League will come from a comic source familiar to readers. They proclaimed earlier that Darkseid would be the big bad for the flick, and now the word is that writer Will Beall will draw from the 1980 issues #183-185 to craft the tale for the moving picture. The plot for the three comics from Gerry Conway sees Darkseid (an absurdly powerful being from another planet) attempting to replace Earth with his home world without finding a proper place to relocate the place we all live.

So who is this Darkseid anyway? What are his hobbies? Who are his inspirations? Why does he spell his name like a stout German lager? All of these questions and more should be answered if the (often highly reliable) team over at Latino Review is right about the villain’s appearance in the forthcoming Justice League movie set for 2015.* No doubt DC and Warners will want to introduce him to the world as we get closer to the release date, and even if they don’t want to, comic book fans will definitely be staking out the set for a glimpse of a costume for which to ridicule into oblivion. The thing about Darkseid is that he represents the filmmakers (who have yet to be named) going big. As big as their gamble on making an omnibus superhero flick 1) just because Avengers destroyed the box office and 2) without thoroughly-introduced cinematic heroes. He’s just about as iconic as it gets — an alien force of evil from the planet Apokolips that’s one of the toughest foes the team has ever faced. He’s immortal, invulnerable and a genius to boot. Good luck with that, Batman. In a way, that makes sense. If you’ve got Superman and Friends getting together for 2 whole hours, you’ve got to give them someone who takes a while to take down. That could be a villain like Darkseid or one who could raise an army large enough to keep them busy. It’s also kind of cool

For those of you clamoring for a Robin movie after the underwhelming ending of The Dark Knight Rises, your dreams may have just been dashed. However, a new dream may have arrived as its replacement: Joseph Gordin-Levitt as our new Batman. That’s right, boring cop John Blake may takeover as the cape crusader. This news comes as one of first pieces of casting rumors for the upcoming Justice League movie, and while we should never take those rumblings too seriously, Hitfix’s Drew McWeeny seems pretty confident in his exclusive. McWeeny says, according to his sources, Levitt will “absolutely” be playing Batman in the Justice League picture. That’s not all, as Warners Bros. is apparently locking down deals not only with Levitt, but with one other actor from Nolan’s Batman universe. More than likely, it’s Lucius Fox providing the team with gadgetry and such or Alfred to help pick Blake up when he’s down.

“We approach the film as a single endeavor,” he says. “There are a lot of gears that have to turn in the world of commerce and the world of the mythology we create to facilitate more adventures for this character. We’ll see what happens.” That’s Zack Snyder telling the New York Post about the kind of loose coordination that goes into planning Man of Steel and two following Superman movies, but he could just as well have been talking about the Justice League universe itself (although that film seems a bit more definite). Warners has made no secret that it plans a Marvel-style omnibus for 2015, but right now, Supes is the only speeding bullet in the chamber with no concrete plans to bring Wonder Woman, Flash, a rebooted Batman, a rebooted Green Lantern, Aquaman or Elongated Man to the big screen before the big event.

Development has really been heating up the over that Justice League movie. A few months ago, Gangster Squad writer Will Beall was hired to handle script duties, there was word Warner Bros. was eying Ben Affleck to direct, and then we got a director short list including the Wachowskis, Ruben Fleischer, and, who could forget, Brett Ratner. Today the project became even more real, thanks to a resolved legal dispute. The Los Angeles Times is reporting the studio is gearing up fast for a 2013 shoot and a 2015 release, which would pit the film up against The Avengers 2. After that, mostly depending on whether the film’s a hit or not, Warners would then follow up the film with a reboot of Batman and solo films following whatever heroes they decide to put in the movie. So if any of you have been holding your breath for a Hawkman movie, then perhaps your big dream may finally come true.

According to Batman On Film, there is a rumor floating around that Justice League will be used as a launching pad for a rebooted Batman franchise. It may be a rumor, but it feels like common sense. Warners has got Man of Steel next year, but the next time we’ll see superheroes from them is in 2014 when LEGO versions hit screens thanks to Phil Lord and Chris Miller. It’s seems unlikely that they’d want to – or even be able to – mobilize a Batman reboot so soon after Christopher Nolan‘s franchise closed out, and with the omnibus superhero movie in their sites, it seems inevitable that we’ll see Bruce Wayne (or someone) as The Dark Knight playing well with others before we get to see him on his own again. The question is whether that’s a good call. It’s hard to say. If Warners is echoing Marvel‘s method of success, they’re doing so without laying all the of right groundwork that aided The Avengers in becoming such a massive smash. Plus, by investing so much in one film, it could mean sabotaging individual superhero projects if Justice League doesn’t take off like they want it to. Beyond focus group polling, how would the studio even know which characters were working the best in the film, which were connecting with audiences, which deserve their own properties? The only character that is immune is Batman. If Man of Steel falls flat, it will be two in a row for Superman, calling even the most iconic hero

Another day, another quick jolt of comic book news to keep us pumping. This time, however, it’s DC that’s lighting the wires up. Variety reports that Warner Bros. has “approached” Ben Affleck to direct their highly anticipated Justice League film. “Multiple sources” have told the Variety newshounds that Affleck is expected to “discuss the project with studio brass in the coming days.” The stupid reportedly considers Affleck, who has emerged as a talented and energetic director, to be high on their “list of filmmakers who can be trusted with prime properties,” thanks to his work on both The Town and the upcoming Argo. Adding beef to this story is the reveal that, of the list of possible candidates that WB is considering (and that list has not yet been revealed), Affleck is the only one who has been allowed to read Will Beall‘s script for the project.

With Batman in the bag and Superman on the way, Warner Bros. is still in the kind of long-term trouble a superhero team understands all too well. Like a group of heroes blindsided by a syndicate of villains that pulled off a world domination ploy, Warners is scrambling to come up with a plan to challenge Marvel Studio’s $1.5 billion The Avengers world take-over. We all know what that plan is: assemble the Justice League movie. We also know the big question Warners is frantically facing right now is how they’re going to do that. The studio can balk at mimicking a competitor’s model all they want, but the way to get everyday non-comic reading people to really care about a Justice League movie is to roll out the individual hero projects first. Warner Brothers can’t assume people want a Justice League movie simply because everyone knows who Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are, or that post-The Avengers there is a guaranteed appetite for superhero mega-mixes. For a team-up flick to have maximum impact – i.e. maximum box office returns – without sacrificing integrity or quality, Warners needs to build a demand. The only way to do that is construct a road paved with exciting, entertaining, excellent movies (give or take an Iron Man 2 or two) that compound anticipation and audience faith.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a collection of all the things you’ll be talking about tomorrow with your friends. Assuming you have friends. We hope you do. If not, we’ll be your friend. We begin this evening with the first image from Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim, featuring Idris Elba looking badass in a suit that, if our guess is right, allows him to control giant robots or something. Everything about this film makes it a giant, sloppy, wet orgy for nerds. We cannot wait.

The LA Times did a big profile on new Warner Bros. president Jeff Robinov. They talk about a few things in it, from his managerial style to controversial decisions he has made such as passing on Slumdog Millionaire and refusing to work with David Fincher. But what is most interesting about the piece is that it slips in some pretty major news about the direction of Warner’s big, tentpole DC Comics properties. According to Rubinov, he wants both new Superman and Batman films to come out in 2012, and then he’s aiming for a Justice League movie to come out in 2013. There’s even mention of spinning off Flash and Wonder Woman films after that. We already know that the Superman movie is being overseen by Christopher Nolan and is going to be directed by Zack Snyder, and the Batman movie is Nolan’s next directorial effort The Dark Knight Rises, but will these be the same characters that appear in the Justice League movie? Superman doesn’t get a mention, so it seems like the answer for Snyder’s character is yes, but post Dark Knight Rises Batman will be getting a reboot. Much like with the Superman project, Robinov has gotten Nolan on board to oversee the character’s new direction. If you add in this year’s Green Lantern, it’s looking like Warner Bros. finally has the proper leadership in place to give Marvel’s recent spate of film adaptations a run for it’s money. With this news and the announcement of all

Rob Hunter loves movies. He also loves working for the local “retirement home” as head geezer catcher… basically he gets a call whenever one of the elderly residents escapes wanders off in a daze from the home. These two joys come together in the form of cash money payments that he receives every week and immediately uses to buy more DVDs. This week… Up, The Merry Gentleman, Spread, and more!

There was a lot of fake movie news floating around yesterday, but there’s always a lot of fake movie news floating around. We take a look at eleven rumor stories (some true, some false) that really should have been posted on April 1st.

In a recent appearance on a morning talk show in Sidney, Australia, director George Miller revealed that he is no longer involved in the Warner Bros. production known as Justice League: Mortal.

As if it were gift wrapped and sent with chocolates, this story win’s this week’s award for most pun-prone news item. Apparently The Flash movie isn’t moving so fast…

While director George Miller and actor Jay Baruchel continue to talk about this mysterious cluster known as the Justice League movie, we explore why we think Warner Bros. should just ditch it and go another direction.

As producer Joel Silver has stated that the Justice League project has been “tabled” in the near future, he has let out some details about the Wonder Woman movie.

George Miller gets denied a tax break for his upcoming project… For the Justice League, the hits just keep on coming.

Sure, the live-action films are for the most part pretty great (with some exceptions like Daredevil and The Hulk). But it’s in the animated genre that the really cool things are happening.