A while back it was reported by Jo Blo that Evil Dead helmer Fede Alvarez was in the mix to direct Justice League Dark for Warner Bros., based on a script penned by Guillermo del Toro.
Production was said to start sometime in 2016, according to The Tracking Board. They also added the following synopsis for the film.
“A series of ancient tomes stolen by a madman hellbent on the destruction of humanity. When he learns of this, occult detective John Constantine seeks out a group of heroes that specialize in the mystic and arcane in order to save the world.”
Deadline just reported that Fede’s competition for the project, the directors of Big Bad Wolves, are instead making MGM’s Death Wish remake starring Bruce Willis. Production would be taking this summer, giving us reason enough to believe they’re now out of the race.
The overall impression is that Alvarez could end up being the one WB hires to direct Dark after all.
This is only our own “speculation” at this point, but we haven’t heard any new traction on the project since. Seeing the studio hiring a horror director to tackle these characters could be priority to someone like del Toro, who we assume is still creatively involved with the project.
Mad Max‘s George Miller was rumored to have been offered it, but likely has declined to make a smaller film instead before making his Fury Road sequels.
Alvarez recently completed production on the horror film A Man In The Dark for Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures and Sony, which stars Evil Dead‘s Jane Levy and Avatar‘s Stephen Lang.
It looks like he could be ready to tackle that possible 2016 production start.
There seems to be wheels-in-motion concerning the casting as well.
Latino Review revealed a possible casting short-list for the film last year, which included Colin Farrell (True Detective, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them) and Ewan McGregor (The Impossible, Son of A Gun, Star Wars) eyed for John Constantine, with the one who doesn’t land the role potentially playing Jason Blood aka Etrigan. Monica Bellucci (Spectre, Matrix Reloaded, Dracula) is wanted for the role of Madame Xanadu. Along with Hellboy himself Ron Perlman wanted for the important role of Swamp Thing,
Heroic Hollywood would later add that Aussie actor Ben Mendelsohn (Star Wars: Rogue One, The Dark Knight Rises, Animal Kingdom, Bloodline) was being eyed to play the role of Swamp Thing villain Anton Arcane in the film. It’s unknown if this role could conflict with the production of Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, if the shoot takes place later in the year it might not be a problem.
Anton Arcane is a mad scientist obsessed with gaining immortality which has led him to create monstrous creatures known as “Un-Men” as well as other monstrous biogenetic experimentations involving the dead.
None of the casting rumors have been made official, but with producer Scott Rudin attached and del Toro more than likely still involved they could have already started the casting process.
Do you think Fede is going to be WB’s choice to direct Justice League Dark and will be able to make that reported 2016 production start?