‘Justice League Dark’ Brings in Another New Writer
Justice League Dark — which is like the Justice League, only dark — continues to float around in the primordial soup of pre-production, awaiting a director and stars. But DC has continued to tinker with the script for the planned Suicide Squad-esque property, and has now brought in an additional writer to do a polish on the current draft.
New Zealand’s own Gerard Johnstone lobbied to direct the film, and while Warner Bros. executives were not quite having it, per Deadline, they clearly saw enough potential in Johnstone’s pitch to let him do his worst on the story. For those not in-the-know on the deeper benches of DC’s character roster, the Justice League Dark (do not call them Dark Justice League, they hate that) is made up of bisexual chain-smoking angel John Constantine, living muck-pile Swamp Thing, dead man Deadman, cool stage magician Zatanna, and the self-evident Etrigan the Demon. Together, the morally ambiguous antiheroes keep the world safe from even graver, tougher-to-control threats. (But where is my main dude Doctor Mist, rocking this goatee and kilt combo?) It is, as previously stated, pretty much Suicide Squad with supernatural powers, but hopefully without anyone saying that normal is a setting on a washing machine.
That particular responsibility has now fallen to Johnstone, though the question of who will direct this down-and-dirty super-movie persists. Doug Liman peaced out to go work on the sci-fi film Chaos Walking, and IT director Andy Muschietti will have to focus all his energy on the sequel to that film. Is it too late for them to sign Johnstone full-time? His debut feature, the horror-comedy Housebound, showed Taika Waititi-level potential. Snatch him up before Marvel does, DC, or else it’s your funeral.