There are few Hollywood directors whose output contains the diversity and eclecticism of George Miller. Though his film career had its breakout hit with 1979’s Mad Max, Miller’s subsequent offerings include the 1993 drama Lorenzo’s Oil, the dreamlike sequel Babe: Pig in the City and, more recently, the animated penguin musical Happy Feet. Having just put the finishing touches on that film’s sequel, Happy Feet Two, Miller spoke this morning at a press junket in Los Angeles, where he touched upon his superhero film that failed to materialize, a Justice League motion capture feature.
“You know, John Lennon said, ‘Life is what happens when you’re making other plans'”, Miller said. “Films keep on coming out of my head and I never know what film I’m going to make next. Common and I were going to work on a ‘Justice League’ movie together. He was cast as Green Lantern and it was almost greenlit when it fell away. I fell in love with the guy and I called him up and said, ‘You can’t play the Green Lantern, but how about playing a penguin?'”
The Justice League film was fully cast when it failed to move forward and would have starred, in addition to Common, D.J. Cotrona as Superman, Adam Brody as the Flash, Armie Hammer as Batman and Megan Gale as Wonder Woman.
“That was a whole bunch of complex events,” Miller added. “It was the middle of a writers strike. There was Australian rebate legislation that was required to get the film going. It was just a whole complex series of events. It was no one particular’s fault that it didn’t happen.”
For the time being, however, Miller isn’t missing any of these other projects and is quite proud of his brand-new sequel release.
“People do think, ‘what happened?’ to me,” he laughs, “but I do love ‘Happy Feet’… I really love making these movies. I love the process of making these movies. They’re incredibly hard to make because of the hours you put in. They’re incredibly complex.”
You can read more about Miller’s upcoming projects over at ComingSoon.net.
