Director Ryan Unicomb is heading to the Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Sydney later this week to shoot preliminary scenes for his proposed documentary on George Miller’s Justice League Mortal.
Unicomb plans to film interviews with comic book artists on the enduring cultural influences of the superhero characters including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern, that would have featured in Miller’s movie.
In 2008, Warner Bros. pulled the plug on Justice League Mortal, which the director wanted to shoot in Australia, after the Film Finance Corporation ruled it wasn’t eligible for the then-new 40% producer offset.
Since IF broke the news on the feature doc, working title Miller’s Justice League Mortal, the story went global, reported in around 200 media outlets.
Unicomb is working with producers Aaron Cater and Steven Caldwell (with whom he collaborated last year on Gifted, a short he co-directed with Jordan Bailey which followed the rise and fall of the world’s first superhero, Guardian) and writer-producer Maria Lewis.
The filmmakers acknowledge they need clearances from producers Kennedy Miller Mitchell, Warner Bros and DC Comics. They have made an initial approach to KMM and are hoping Miller will help them secure Warner Bros’ co-operation.
They say their aim is to “to celebrate the genius of George Miller and the amazing artists who worked tirelessly to bring the production’s vision to fruition, while we also examine the cultural immortality of the Justice League characters across all forms of media.”
After the story broke, some heavyweight figures expressed their support. Guardians of the Galaxy writer/director James Gunn said on social media he would “absolutely love to see that documentary made."
Director Kevin Smith voiced his enthusiasm during his Fatman on Batman podcast. Iron Man 3 screenwriter Drew Pearce indicated his willingness to do an interview on the Justice League characters if the filmmakers get clearances from KMM and WB.
Unicomb tells IF the plan is to raise funds via Indiegogo for the documentary, once the necessary approvals have been given. The timing is elastic.
Asked how long he expects to take to shoot, he said, “As long as it takes to make it properly.”