In February of 2007, Warner Bros. hired Keiran and Michelle Mulroney to write a script for a
Justice League movie. This caught many observers by surprise as WB had just released Bryan Singer's
Superman Returns the year before, and Chris Nolan was just beginning production of
The Dark Knight. Leaving many fans wondering if Brandon Routh or Christian Bale was part of the equation. In September of 2007, George Miller ("Mad Max") came on board as director and would later confirmed that his film would feature new interpretations of Superman and Batman.
Warner Bros. fast tracked the film in hopes of avoiding the Writers Guild of America strike, and scheduled the film to begin filming in February 2008 in Australia. This is when the perfect storm happened. Recently-elected prime minister, Kevin Rudd, changed the tax rebate incentive program and then the writer's strike took place. With an estimated budget well over $200 million, and with no ability to make changes to the script, due to the strike, Warner Bros. had to pull the plug on the project. It also didn't help that fan backlash to the film was incredibly high, so anticipation for it was lukewarm at best.
With that out of the way, let's get to the material below. An
Anonymous member of 4chan has posted a full breakdown of the
Justice League: Mortal script. Now, of course you can take it with a grain of salt, but my instincts are telling me it is authentic and that is why I'm posting it here. If, this is the script to Miller's live-action (blend motion-capture technology) superhero film, I think many fans would be quite pleased with how much of it borrows from the source material, yet adds a few twists to keep avid comic book fans on their toes. Much of the story, is based on three major comic book story arcs:
JLA: Tower of Babel,
Superman: Sacrifice, and an emotional ending that pays homage to
Crisis on Infinite Earths #8.
The story begins with a funeral for a member of the
Justice League, with everyone in attendance but Batman and Flash. Thus, you are supposed to be on the edge of your seat wondering which one is in the casket. Then the story goes back a few days to show how everything lead up to the funeral. It begins with Batman, as paranoid as ever, tracking the superheroes of the world with his special satellite, so that he can find their weaknesses. Batman's technology is compromised and soon the heroes of the world are under attack. That is when the superheroes begin to come together to try and figure out who is after them, and why. When they finally learn that this dastardly plan was hatched by Maxwell Lord, with Talia Al Ghul as his accomplice, they must fight his army of cyborgs, called OMACs (One Man Army Corp).
The really exciting parts are borrowed from
Superman: Sacrifice as at one point Maxwell Lord controls Superman's mind, having him believe that Wonder Woman has tortured and murdered his beloved Lois Lane. A beyond epic fight between Superman and the rest of the
Justice League ensues. It sounds like it would've been worth the price of admission. In the comic storyline Wonder Woman ultimately has to kill Maxwell in order to free Superman's mind, but for
Justice League: Mortal another hero would step up to perform the grisly task. And that isn't even the climax, as one Justice Leaguer makes the ultimate sacrifice, his life.
A special thanks to
Robert M. Laurence for spotting, and making me aware of this. By the way, I decided to just post highlights from the breakdown, but if you'd like to read the whole piece
click here.
Also, below the script details, you can see 'unofficial' concept art that was created by
Daniel James Cox. It was used as a pitch to the production designer. Let me stress, it is NOT officially concept art.
D.J. Cotrona as Superman * Armie Hammer as Batman * Megan Gale as Wonder Woman 
The script opens on Superman's shield, but it's black. He's floating over Metropolis, wearing an all black costume. We hear tolling bells. Metropolis is all but deserted, and at a cathedral, a funeral crowd of thousands upon thousands watches Superman descend. Superman joins other black clad figures with their heads bowed, who can only be made out by glimpses of their iconic symbols and elements of their costumes. WONDER WOMAN. GREEN LANTERN. THE FLASH. AQUAMAN. THE MARTIAN MANHUNTER. All except for a familiar Caped Crusader, and there's a lone coffin there near the heroes.
Wonder Woman gives a eulogy that is poetic, flowing, and powerful.
WONDER WOMAN: But we also know... Those of us who come from different lands... Different worlds... We know where truth lies. Where peace can be found. Where justice is. We know, because he taught us... It is in the human heart.
The superheroes then act as pallbearers, and lay one of their own to rest.
In the Fortress, the heroes confront Batman. He tells them they aren't safe. He's hiding how badly the OMAC injured him earlier with his cloak. Superman asks how he located them, and Batman won't tell him. He tells them they won't be safe anywhere, and that someone is watching them all right now. Superman tells him that no one else on Earth knows about The Fortress, and Batman reveals that there is a satellite system that knows their identies, their weaknesses, and how to attack them. The heroes question who could do such a thing, with guesses like Lexcorp, the CIA, NSA, or some rogue military group, and Batman tells them he was behind Brother Eye. They interrogate him about why he would do such a thing, and he asks what would happen if they turned against the world, or someone controlled them or changed them somehow. The heroes don't believe they're capable of such things. Batman tells them he knows what they're capable of, and tells Diana that no one on Earth, no mortal, could ever control them if something happened. They're angry at him, and he explains that his traps were designed to contain them if neccessary, but points out that he did not attack them. They ask who stole his files, and is using his database, and he tells them several times that he doesn't know. Aquaman is hurting, and he's angry. Superman asks him how to turn Brother Eye off, and Batman responds that he doesn't know, and explains that he cloaked the satellite and its location... Even from himself, if someone compromised him.
Superman lifts Batman up and slams him against a wall, yelling "How could you be so stupid?" Wonder Woman punches Batman out of Superman's hands and to one knee, saying Superman may be forgiving, but she is not.
With his cloak open, the heroes can now see how hurt Batman is. He's got high-tech braces on his left shoulder and his right knee, like in "Kingdom Come". Batman tells them the program attacking them is called "OMAC", and explains that it's an abandoned military program, and the nanotech and psyops the project dabbled in. Batman explains there's a human component to OMAC, and some kind of transformation from man to killing machine, and that he was attacked.
Common as John Stewart * Adam Brody as Barry Allen * Anton Yelchin as Wally West At Planet Krypton, Wally tells Flash and Wonder Woman that OMAC stands for One Man Army Corps, and that the project dealt with nanotech, but in the 70's also experimented with mind control. He explains that the project genetically experimented and altered hundreds of babies with radiation, drugs, and chemical alterations, in an event to raise a battalion with the ability to control the minds of others. But the experimentees could not take the strain, and they died of heart attacks, hemorraghing, organ failure, their brains essentially turning to jelly. Flash is stunned, and Wonder Woman says something about humanity's capacity to inflict cruelty. Wonder Woman scans the lists Wally brought with him, and ask if they're all deceased, and all children. Wally replies that they are. The only one who isn't deceased is Jonah Wilkes. Wally shows them some photos of the testing group. In each photo, there are less children. Wally has circled Jonah Wilkes in all the pictures. He tells them that he's run Jonah Wilkes face through a forenic program to see what he would look like now, and shows them the photos he has of Wilkes "aging", becoming more and more familiar. Until he places the last photo near a copy of Fortune 500, which shows:
Maxwell Lord.
....................................
In Lord's control room, Batman is unconscious, the life being squeezed out of him. Talia tells Max this is not what she wanted. Max orders the OMACs to release Batman, and he falls to the floor. An enraged, battered Batman asks what Lord wants. Lord tells him that he wants an evolved world...evolved to the point where children don't lose their parents, where friends don't die, and no one is alone. He implies that they are similar in this manner. Batman tells him they're not the same, and Lord asks who it was that spent hours and years figuring out how to kill all his friends. Bruce tells him that he never would have done that, and Lord says that Batman loaded the gun, and Lord just pulled the trigger.
Santiago Cabrera as Aquaman * Hugh Keays-Byrne as Martian Manhunter * Jay Baruchel as Maxwell Lord Lord is fighting the influence of Wonder Woman's lasso. She tells him to stop, and he tells her that it's enough. He tells her that there's only one way to stop him, and that's to kill him. Lord tells Wonder Woman that she won't kill him, because she made a vow never to kill, to take a human life. Wonder Woman struggles with herself and pulls the lasso tight around Lord's neck, like a noose. Max tells her he knows how bad she wants to kill him... That he can smell it on her, like perfume. But she won't.
Lord taunts Wonder Woman, saying that she can't kill him. Wonder Woman turns to see Superman heading right for her. He tackles her from behind, and gets his arms behind her, pulls her up toward the ceiling, tightening the lasso, so that with a tug, she could break his neck and kill him. Lord is eerily calm, says again that she knows she can't kill him. She drops the lasso, and looks at the fallen heroes, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and The Martian Manhunter. She's resigned to her death. Superman is ready to kill her.
MAXWELL LORD: Where were you? Where were any of you when I needed you?
A shadow envelops him. A dark cloak. Batman breaks Lord's neck, and he falls dead, wrapped in Batman's cape like a shroud.
The color returns to Superman's eyes and he releases Wonder Woman, who collapses to the floor.
Wonder Woman is shocked. She says "Batman...no...no...".
Teresa Palmer as Talia Al Ghul * Zoe Kazan as Iris West * Stephen Tobolowsky as Alfred Pennyworth Flash goes to Iris. He enters his house, and finds Iris watching footage of the OMAC battle, also frozen. Barry sits down beside her, touches her cheek, and tells her not to worry. He kisses her and holds on. Then he says that he's realized that he can save the world, and so he's going to do it. He's crying.
FLASH: Because you're in it.
He touches her heart, and we see a single tear in each of her eyes, like he's gotten through to her somehow. The Flash steps outside and takes a last moment, looks around at his life.
FLASH: My God. What a beautiful world.
And he's grabbed in a warp in space/time and yanked back to where he was. Time starts up again, and the noise of the battle is deafening. The Justice League fends off the attacking OMACs. Flash tells them he will see them later, and runs off inside OMAC ULTRA, taking out several OMACs along the way.
Flash, inside Omac Ultra, runs out over the water, and into a world of speed. The OMAC ULTRA moves across the Earth, faster and faster, until Flash actually runs out of the machine, pulling it's molecules behind him. Barry pushes himself further and further, and then he looks down to see Wally West matching him step for step.
Wally tells him he's going too fast, and Barry replies that it's not fast enough, looks back, and sees a molecular trail stretching thousands of miles. Wally asks him what he is doing as they go faster and faster, side by side. And then Barry turns to Wally and smiles.
FLASH: Tag. You're it.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL SCRIPT BREAKDOWN
Concept Art (Pitch) by Daniel James Cox