The Plot
An Alien race known as the The Dominators are the primary alliance behind all violent and attack orientated extraterrestrial lifeforms, a kind of intergalatic terrorist cell that serves to eradicate all forms of life in the purpose of universal conquest and extreme bigotry against other lifeforms that don't correlate to their belief system.
Having slain a bloody path across the galaxy, they turn their attentions to Earth, keen to give themselves a warm-up before going to war with Mars. But when they get to Earth they find that it isn't quite as easy as they thought; for while they are able to trick Batman and Superman (I figure that there'll need to be an explanation for why they aren't here... perhaps they have their own missions unrelated to this, and thus are out of the equation for when the story occurs. Something that plays into their characters, I'll work out the specifics later), they don't count on the appearance of a band of misfits who pool their resources to protect Earth from the incoming threat.
The resistance group begins with the appearance of Martian Manhunter on Earth, a green-skinned humanoid who was sent from Mars against his will. When he lands on Earth, he finds himself trapped inside a human body, forging a human identity which he battles with for the entire film. We later find out he was sent to Earth to help fight off the Dominion, for the express purpose of seeing how tough they were, so that Mars could adequately prepare for their arrival. He has his superpowers, but for all intents and purposes looks human. His major role in the story is going to be making Green Arrow into a leader, turning said Arrow (real name Oliver Queen) from a billionaire playboy vigilante without purpose into someone who can help defend the human race.
To this end they recruit other purposeless human beings in Flash (Bart Allen) and Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance), who possess superhuman speed and sonic scream powers respectively. With these two in check, the team tries to enlist Wonder Woman for their cause. But she's iconic, a Goddess, a legend, and won't bow down to their team, content to stand her ground. (What I plan to do here is have her like Batman and Superman, disconnected from the team... but she'll eventually get into it. I do this because she's incredibly powerful and awesome, and I think having her in it for the entire screentime is just going to result in cutting short her powers -- and the Lasso of Truth -- in a redundant way, which doesn't really work for the character.)
Zatanna is also on the team. She's an exceptionally powerful magician (a genetic trait here) who acts as a childhood friend of Oliver's. Out of all of them, Zatanna is the one who most obviously embraces her ability and her role in life, but at the same time she has no real concept of how far her power can go, or to what ends it can be used.
It's not too much of a spoiler to point out they kick ass, yet also get their ass kicked.
Cast
Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Neil Hopkins)
Dinah Laurel Lance/Black Canary (Christina Hendricks)
John Smith/Martian Manhunter (Tony Todd)
Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Morena Baccarin)
Bart Allen/Flash (Jason Segel)
Zatanna (Emilie De Ravin)
Style
Not obviously comic-book, not obviously real. Based in reality, but a hyper-reality. The team will have their original powers, but it won't be a 'wow' style. They'll be awesome, but they won't overshadow the story. Well, not too much. I hope to take a lead from the Brad Meltzer work (Identity Crisis etc) where he deconstructs them in a visualised love-letter, showing us their flaws and imperfections and ambiguity and humanity in a way that makes us see how great a group they are.
The Justice League is, first and foremost, a group of friends. This group doesn't start that way, but they end it. While the actions within the scrpt do cause tension, it's more because they like each other and don't want to have to face the fact that they are flawed than anything else. And Green Arrow is the heart of the story, it's him whose the character I really want to explore.
What really resonates with me is looking for the humanity within these Gods (and Green Arrow). The parts that make them human, flawed, connected to Earth. It is an origin tale, but not in terms of powers. The majority of them have had them for a while when we begin. No, it's an origin tale of bringing strangers together and making them a family, making them a strong unit who can be counted on to join forces and go kick some intergalactic ass when need be; who can mesh past their individualistic nature and become part of something greater than each of them.
