Thanks to Warner Bros. Animation, here's a short Q&A with JL:COTE executive producer Bruce Timm. Enjoy!
EDITOR'S NOTE: You can read the review of the main feature -- JUSTCE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS -- HERE. Also, the review of THE SPECTRE animated short can be found HERE. - "Jett"
QUESTION: What excites you about JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS?
BRUCE TIMM: In a weird kind of way, this is a return to my favorite show, JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED. The original script was intended to be the bridge story between JUSTICE LEAGUE and JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED to explain how we went from seven heroes to more than 50 super heroes. We loved the story and the script, and it floated around here for years while we tried to figure out what to do with it – it was considered for a comic, but fortunately that got shot down. Then we took a look at it and, with just a few slight tweaks, we jumped at the chance to make it a DC Universe movie.
The Batman
Q: What sets it apart from the TV version of Justice League?
BT: It’s a very satisfying, grand scale adventure movie with a big cast of interesting, quirky characters. It’s amazing how much it feels like a great episode of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED as a big, epic film with slightly different visual stylings. That’s a good thing.
Q: Did this film present challenges that the first six DC Universe movies did not?
BT: The biggest challenge, and this is kind of esoteric, was that we had to find the line between the original source material and making it feel like a stand-alone movie so anyone that didn’t watch JLU could follow it. We really didn’t have to tweak the script too much – I think about 95 percent remains untouched. In terms of visual styling, we also wanted it to stand on its own and not necessarily as a continuation of the old show. We have this brilliant character designer – Phil Bourassa – who draws in a style similar to my own in terms of simplicity, but slightly different. So it doesn’t look 180 degrees away from the old show, but it definitely feels unique.
Q: Of this fairly huge cast, do you have a favorite character?
BT: In this story, it’s probably Owlman. He’s a fascinating character himself, but the dynamic with Superwoman is so messed up as a couple, and yet really appealing in a weird kind of way. It’s a little similar to JLU’s relationship between The Question and Huntress. Superwoman is this badass hot chick, and he’s the quiet, brainy, nerd guy. They’re an interesting, odd couple. Plus I loved both James’ (Woods) and Gina’s (Torres) performances – they were spot-on. The amazing thing is we like to get all the actors to record as an ensemble, but in this case it wasn’t feasible, So they never met or performed together, but they totally mesh. It’s such an interesting chemistry considering they’ve never even met.
Owlman
Q: You’ve brought another all-star cast to this film. Anything fans don’t know about the casting choices this time around?
BT: There’s an interesting side note in that Vanessa Marshall, who plays Wonder Woman, came this close to playing the role in the TV show. We were down to the final two choices, and they were neck and neck. The thing about Vanessa is that she sounded perfect for Wonder Woman – exactly what she should sound like. But Susan Eisenberg had this vulnerability. We thought it would be interesting to not play her to type, which ultimately played really well. When it came to casting for this movie, we thought, “What if we go down the road not taken?” So we opted for Vanessa in a full-length movie and she is great.
Q: JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS includes the premiere of the first DC Showcase animation short, THE SPECTRE. How have the DC Showcase shorts changed your work day?
BT: The DC Showcase is fun because it gives us an opportunity to play with characters that maybe don’t have a broad enough marquee value to support their own movie. As much as I like Batman, Superman, etc., the more lower tier, offbeat characters are really fascinating to me. It’s fun to mess around with others characters in the DC Universe. Super heroes are great, but it’s nice to do a change of pace, and that’s a lot of what we’ve done here. THE SPECTRE is a supernatural thriller; JONAH HEX is a western, and so on. So the Showcase is giving us a chance to stretch different muscles.
Q: What made Steve Niles the right guy to write THE SPECTRE and how did you lure him into writing an animated short?
BT: I’ve admired Steve Niles’ work for a long time and, honestly, it would have never occurred to me to approach him. That was Todd Casey’s suggestion. He contacted Steve, and Steve was thrilled to get the assignment. He’s a big Michael Fleisher/Jim Aparo fan, and a big fan of “The Spectre” – especially that 1970s era of the character. Steve is very into crime fiction and horror, so he was the perfect writer for it.
The Spectre
Q: Does “The Spectre” hold any special significance for you?
BT: The Spectre was one of my favorite characters back in the 70s. Even by today’s standards, those comics are pretty hard core, and they were written in 1974, I don’t know how they got some of that stuff past the comic code. It was so different from any other comic on the stands. It’s really dark, really nasty. The character is pretty easy to understand – he’s the dark avenger of the night, even more so than Batman. He punishes bad guys in horrible, horrible ways. He’s like the benign Freddie Krueger. I’ve wanted to use The Spectre for a long, long time and we never had a opportunity to do it, and this was our chance to go hog wild with him.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS premieres on February 23, 2010 -- CLICK HERE TO ORDER
! Visit the official website at JUSTICELEAGUECRISIS.COM.
