Guillermo del Toro has developed many projects that, for one reason or another, just haven’t been able to get off the ground. One of those projects was Justice League Dark, which del Toro was working on over a decade ago. Doug Liman (Road House) even came on board to direct the film at one point, but it still didn’t move forward.
Guillermo del Toro on Justice League Dark Casting Rumours
While speaking with Josh Horowitz for Happy Sad Confused, del Toro dropped a few details about Justice League Dark and addressed the rumour that he had been considering Colin Farrell to play John Constantine.
“No, I was not casting yet. I knew I wanted Doug Jones to be Deadman, only because physically he could do the suit, and I knew his mannerisms,” del Toro explained. “I loved that screenplay. I was in love with [it]. I thought it brought everyone in effortlessly. The plot made absolute perfect sense. I really loved how they got tangled. We had the Floronic Man as one of the villains. It was really great because Swamp Thing was very fleshed out.“
It’s no surprise that Doug Jones would have been involved, as the actor has appeared in many of del Toro’s projects.
Batman Would Have Made an Appearance
Del Toro also revealed that Batman would have made a brief appearance in the film.”There was a moment when Batman came in briefly,” he said. “They said, ‘We need a plane,’ and ‘A friend of mine has a plane,’ and then you were in Bruce Wayne’s office. I would have loved to have done it. Now, I wouldn’t.“
There have been rumblings that Justice League Dark could be resurrected under James Gunn and Peter Safran, but del Toro says he hasn’t spoken with Gunn about it. “No, no, no. Now and then, I write him about something else he’s doing right. I think he’s remarkably smart. I loved Superman,” he said. “I really enjoy the way he’s viewing the universe. The screenplay is there. It was a couple of years of development. We never got to the art. It had great set pieces. My favourite one was a chase with Deadman jumping from one body to the next.“
Although it would be interesting to see the Frankenstein director tackle some DC characters, if we could only get one unrealized del Toro project, I’d have to cast my vote for At the Mountains of Madness.
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