What is Justice League?

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.

What is Nine Lives 2?

"They may suspect me, but they'll never see me... they may chase me, but they'll never catch me...
Never, never, ever, ever catch me"

Selina Kyle (Jessica Alba) has finally gotten her career as a high-class thief for hire back on track after the disaster at Robinson Park, and the time she's spent licking her wounds in Gotham's East End has given her both a new ally - runaway ex-junkie Holly Robinson (Alexz Johnson) - and a new set of priorities. The beaten down denizens of the east End need somebody to look out for them in these troubled times, and after an up close and personal encounter with The Batman, Selina has been inspired to mould a persona for herself to kick start phase two of her life.

So first, she needs some new tools of the trade - and an exhibition of military-spec technology from Wayne Enterprises, hosted by Bruce Wayne (Ruan Reynolds) himself, looks like just the place to get what she needs! What Selina doesn't know is there's a new sherriff in town - or rather would-be sherriff in the form of ambitious Gotham PD detective Renee Montoya (Mia Maestro), who despite being partnered with grumpy Harvey Bullock (Jorge Garcia) has set her sights firmly on bringing down the perp the press have labelled 'The catwoman' to make her own play for a shiny gold badge...

Holly, meanwhile, is drawn back into the world of addiction she hoped to leave behind when her new job working for Dr. Leslie Thompson (Gillian Anderson) at her free clinic in the East End opens her up to all manner of temptation!

THE CAST

Selina Kyle/The Catwoman (Jessica Alba)
With her life finally back on track both criminally and personally, Selina hopes that getting her hands on some of the wonderful toys from WayneTech will give her the edge she needs to become Gotham's number one thief for hire - as long as her campaign isn't derailed by Montoya's crusade or Holly's own troubles! Strong-willed, independent and ambitious, Selina may have been inspired by The Batman to create her Catwoman persona, but that's where the similarities end - a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, and if that means stealing from the rich and selling to the even richer, then that's just what she'll have to do...

Holly Robinson (Alexz Johnson)
Rescued from the grim brothel Selina was hiding out in by the woman herself, Holly is also eager to get her world in some kind of order and leave behind the drugs and prostitution that almost ended her life before she reached her second decade. Inspired by Selina but inwardly paranoid that she'd dead weight Selina hasn't figured out how to cut loose yet, Holly's thirst for approval may have led to her to seek respectable emplymet at Dr. Thompson's clinic, but it leaves her exposed to her old demons once more...

Detective Renee Montoya (Mia Maestro)
Latino hothead Montoya arrives in Gotham looking to continue her upward rise through the ranks after some time spent away from her family home. Partnered with cynical loudmouth Harvey doesn't slow her down, especially once she sets her sights on collaring the Catwoman as the case that'll get her into Lt. Jim Gordon's prestigious MCU. When confronted with the corruption that runs rampant through Gotham PD and the increasingly weird world of the costumed vigilantes of the city itself, however, can she keep her head above water?

Detective Harvey Bullock (Jorge Garcia)
Overweight, cranky and bad-tempered, but a surprisingly efficient cop despite his many faults, Harvey may not be immune to the backhanders and deals that his follow Gotham PD colleagues fall victim to, but that doesn't mean he has to feel good about it. Viewing rookie Montoya as both an annoyance and potentially the best cop to hit the department since Jim Gordon himself, he may ride her pretty hard but to him, he's just testing how much pressure this kid can handle - because she'll need all her strength to make it.

Bruce Wayne (Ryan Reynolds)
Playboy billionaire and industrialist Bruce may live a pampered life among Gotham's elite, rubbing shoulders with the rich and powerful whilst maintaining only a passing public interest in his father's company WayneTech - but we all know there's another side to Bruce. By night, he patrols the streets of Gotham as urban myth The Batman, his body and mind trained to their limits and his costume equipped with a dizzying array of high-tech gadgets. With the batman still more myth than reality at this early stage in his career, Bruce is also still carving out a niche for himself - and is about to cross paths with both aspects of Selina to test his mettle for real!

Dr. Leslie Thompson (Gillian Anderson)
A respected Gotham ER doctor who moved out of trauma medicine to first work in Africa providing healthcare for the Third World, and then returned to Gotham to set up a free clinic in the east End to open up quality medicine and care to those who need it most in the big city. An old family friend of the Waynes, she's like an aunt to Bruce, and she also shows a tendency to take in waifs and strays when she hires Holly to be her assistant. But with the clinic threatened by both racketeers and thieves, Leslie's going to need some extra help to keep her dream alive.