Isn't that the most exciting headline? My mind is whirling with images of Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Flash showing up to some remote mountain location and saying "Where's my movie?!"

Unfortunately, the goings-on at the summit are a lot less glamorous, but if you're a DC fan they might be nearly as exciting. According to Variety, Warner Bros and DC are busy charting a course for their superhero franchises, trying to decide which hero or what franchise to kick into high gear. While Marvel Studios is announcing origins and crossovers left and right, Warners is still holding onto their DC characters, and finding themselves unable to take the big screen plunge. Even the two they've shoved out the door are about to languish -- Christopher Nolan hasn't committed to a third Batman film, and Superman is wondering why he ever bothered returning. (Though the rumors swirling around the Man of Steel this week suggest he may be a big part of Warners' new strategy.)

They have been in a similar predicament before. Five years ago, Warners was getting ready to hire someone just to oversee their DC movies, aware they could lose an entire generation of young geeks if they didn't get going. And while they did manage Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Watchmen, it's just not enough. While there's no real indication of what their strategy will be, expect the studio to start buckling down and decide what to do with the Justice League.

So, Cinematical readers, which DC property are you hoping they'll concentrate on first? As you can probably guess, I favor Wonder Woman. I think it would be a huge statement for them to concentrate on such an iconic female superhero when no one else has. But based on the persistent comments that pepper my inbox, I'm betting that it's a close call between her and the Green Lantern. Sound off, my friends.

Finally, some good news for all those DC fans! Producer Donald DeLine talked to the boys of CHUD about the long languishing Green Lantern film. While nothing has kicked into high-gear yet, the future is bright for Hal Jordan.

DeLine confirmed that Jack Black is no longer attached to the lead role, which should make all fans sigh with relief. And it is no longer being touted as a comedic movie. Isn't it nice when Hollywood wakes up and realizes they've wasted time on a really dumb idea?

They are currently awaiting the first draft of a script by Greg Berlanti, which DeLine was hopeful would be on his desk very soon. They are looking to make it a sensible origin story of Hal Jordan, with all the heroics and aliens the story requires. Okay, I'm guessing on the alien part, but I don't really see them changing that.

Nor has the death of Justice League Mortal affected this Green Lantern movie -- as seems to be the case with all the Justice League characters, since they were operating on completely different wavelengths.

If I asked you to name a half-dozen Marvel characters besides Spider-Man, Wolverine, and The Hulk, you'd probably have no problem. But if I asked you to rattle off six DC Comics superheroes besides Superman and Batman, your response might sound a little like this: "Well, The Flash, of course. And Wonder Woman. Oh, Aquaman! Um ... Green Arrow and Green Lantern, I suppose..." and then I'd rudely interrupt you with mentions of Hawkman and Martian Manhunter before you started shaking your head in either confusion or disbelief in my nerdiness. (I can never tell which is which.)

I know all about the Justice League movie problems and the inability to get Wonder Woman flying, but really: After seeing how well-received Iron Man was -- and after hearing about Marvel's plans regarding The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers -- I'm starting to feel a little bad for DC Comics' movie division. But here's the thing: As a character of popular culture, Iron Man (born 1963) is not exactly a Spider-Man or even close to a Superman -- and still Marvel and Paramount were able to bang a really excellent blockbuster out of the guy. (And let's not forget that a relatively obscure Marvel character called Blade pretty much kick-started this comic-flick renaissance.) Does anyone doubt that a character like The Flash could have similar results? Given the right cast and crew, I'm thinking The Flash could be one hell of a fun flick. So let's get moving already!

Take from this what you will, but Cinema Blend is reporting on a tip they received from someone who was hanging with Adam Brody in a bar up in British Columbia. What's Brody doing there? Well, apparently some of the cast is with George Miller scouting locations for Justice League Mortal. (Not sure why they'd be up there with the director scouting, but let's roll with it for now ...) Anyway, Brody, Miller and a few others were in a bar, getting wasted, when this girl (who wrote into CB) asked him what they all were doing there. Naturally he said they were scouting for Justice League Mortal (which recently had to shift production from Australia to Canada). Then it gets interesting.

Here's her full quote: "George is our director. He said he's playing The Flash, Common is playing Green Arrow (or Lantern, one or the other), Armie Hammer (sounded like Arm and Hammer) is Batman, someone from "mad max" is Martian Man-hunter (didn't catch the name) and Hayden Christensen is Superman. Brody also nodded to the woman to his right and said "she (he said her name but I didn't catch it) is in it too". Oh, and they had lots of drinks." While I'm very reluctant to believe this one, on the other hand I could totally buy them wanting Christensen to play Superman. He'd bring some more "celebrity" to the cast, even though the fanboys who hated him Star Wars would hate him again -- even more this time -- for Superman. Should be interesting to see this one play out, as Justice League Mortal is supposed to begin shooting this summer.

What do you think about Hayden Christensen playing Superman?

Warner Brothers has assigned Greg Berlanti to direct a feature film version of the DC Comics character Green Lantern according to a report from Variety. Based on Berlanti's resume which includes mostly TV work (executive producer and/or writer on Everwood, Dirty Sexy Money, and Dawson's Creek) as well as helming the 2000 feature The Broken Hearts Club, he certainly wouldn't have been my choice to helm the adventures of the Emerald Warrior, but I'm going to keep an open mind for now. Several of the other people involved with the project have done work that makes me think these guys may know what they're doing. Co-writing the script with Berlanti are Marc Guggenheim, who has written the Marvel comic books Amazing Spider-man, Wolverine and Blade, and Michael Green, who is a co-executive producer on NBC's Heroes and has written Superman/Batman for DC Comics. Donald De Line, will produce the picture.

The Green Lantern character has been through several incarnations since his creation in 1940 by cartoonist Martin Nodell. Probably the best known (and presumably the subject of this movie) is Hal Jordan, greatest member of an intergalactic peace keeping force who use their power rings to bring justice to every corner of the universe. As originally drawn by Nodell, however, Green Lantern was a man named Alan Scott whose high collared cape and red pirate shirt contrasted with the green and black tights that became the standard when the Hal Jordan incarnation was introduced in 1959. Hal Jordan spent several years being dead (though he eventually got better) and was replaced by Kyle Rayner. Other Green Lanterns have included John Stewart (the ring wielder from Cartoon Network's Justice League series) and Guy Gardner who I best remember as a humorous lunatic from the Justice League comics of the 1980s. No word on casting or how this film will tie in with the hotly anticipated live action Justice League of America movie.

Unfortunately, David S. Goyer doesn't have a lot to tell us about any of the many projects he's working on, but most of us will no doubt settle for even the tiniest updates. So, just as I was, you'll probably be satisfied with the little interview he gave to Wizard magazine, in which he was asked about the hottest things he's got in the pipeline. First up is Magneto, the X-Men spin-off/prequel that he scripted and will soon be directing. All he could say is that he's been scouting locations and right now it looks like he'll be primarily filming in Europe and Argentina. He also hinted that he's going to have to budget wisely to get the thing in for a cheap enough price (meaning he wrote some expensive-to-do scenes or Fox doesn't see good reason to spend too much on this one).

Of further interest to comic geeks, Goyer shared that his script for Super Max (aka the Green Lantern Arrow prison movie*) features a number of obscure, "third-tier" super villains, including Icicle from the comic JSA. He says that he gave DC a list of villains he wanted to use and then the comic publisher weeded out the ones it didn't want appearing in the movie. Speaking of DC, Goyer also told Wizard that he's returning to comic books soon with his JSA writing partner Geoff Johns. All he could reveal is that it takes place following the upcoming Final Crisis series.

Goyer isn't all comics, though. He shared with Wizard his inspiration and basic idea for The Invisible Man, which he sees as sort of a sequel to H.G. Wells' novel, and mentioned that he also played loose with the young adult books that Jumper is based upon. The most exciting thing he had to say, at least for Heroes fans, is that he's really interested in scripting an episode of Heroes: Origins. I don't know how he has the time to tackle all of these things right now -- all I can think of is that his real name must be Jamie Madrox -- but I'll just have to patiently await each one in due time.

[ Thanks to ComingSoon.net for the tip. ]

*You know, I think if I had actually been a DC fan, I still would have confused the two Green characters. Apologies to the fans and readers.

While Warner Bros. continues to be slow with comic adaptations of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern and The Flash, it has decided to go ahead with a Justice League of America movie, which could feature all four of these characters as well as Batman and Superman. The studio has officially gotten the project started by hiring the married writing duo Kieran and Michele Mulroney (Mr. & Mrs. Smith; the upcoming Mirrors) to come up with a first draft.

The idea of a Justice League movie is both exciting and difficult to imagine because it would consist of more superhero star power than audiences are used to (Marvel has a similar idea going on with a possible Avengers movie). One big question sure to be driving DC Comics fans mad is will Batman and Superman appear in the contexts of their respective franchises, or in other words will they be played by Christian Bale and Brandon Routh? Maybe Warner Bros. is even thinking of doing the JLA movie in order to launch the franchises for the other four characters (so far we've seen no love for Martian Manhunter at the studio).

My guess is the WB is hoping for a 2010 release, following The Dark Knight in 2008 and Superman: The Man of Steel in 2009. Then, they will get to the spin-offs. And eventually, I'm hoping, there will be some sort of crossover movie that pits the JLA against The Avengers. See, I just can't ever be satisfied. As long as the studios keep producing my dream comic book adaptations, I will have to keep coming up with bigger dreams.

This continues to be a very, very strange association in my mind. Jack Black is a funny man, and I actually enjoy him as an actor. The Green Lantern is a great super hero, and there's a giant poster of golden age Green Lantern gracing the wall of my study. So to sum of these brief thoughts: I like Jack Black. I like the Green Lantern. So why am I so afraid of the two of them joined together? The best explanation I can think of is another example. I love dill pickles. I also love death by chocolate ice cream. Under no circumstances would I ever want my dbc served with dill pickle topping. Two delightful experiences, but delightful for separate reasons which do not easily overlap.

And yet, Jack Black persists in being interested in a Green Lantern movie project. He was recently giving a radio interview, and mentioned that he'd still like to earn the project a green light (green light for Green Lantern, oh I'm SO clever I should write headlines for the NY Times). According to Superhero Hype, Black is still trying to get a developed script and apparently still has at least some interest maintained over at Warner Brothers. My hope for seeing a GL movie is confused and tainted by my fear of Jack Black being involved. What to do, what to do?

Here's a quickie for you DC fans. X-Men movie writer Simon Kinberg has a good relationship with the fans over at the XVerse Community Message Boards. He stops in from time to time to answer questions and discuss his opinions - primarily on his work with X-Men, but really on any subject that's thrown at him. You can swing over there to read his thoughts on the filming of X3; but in the meantime let me fill you in on a very interesting comment he made regarding a Green Lantern movie. In answer to a GL question, Kinberg confirmed that Warner Brothers is actively developing the feature (not secret knowledge by any means), but he went on to indicate that the WB people are so high on the project's potential that they're already discussing trilogy possibilities.

It shouldn't be a surprise; we all know that successful properties are almost immediately considered for enfranchisement, and super hero properties - thanks to their built in fan base and nearly unending well of characters and story lines - seem custom made for sequel potential. However, it is nonetheless pleasing to know that Warner Brothers has an active interest in the project. I've got my fingers crossed for a Hal Jordan lantern myself. Of course, who knows - maybe a trilogy would allow for some crazy Green Lantern Corps action.