As you can see from the above image, not everyone who’s historically been in DC’s Justice League will make it into Warner Bros. Justice League in 2015. The only confirmed creative type on the picture is screenwriter Will Beall (Gangster Squad) as no director or cast is in place yet, but it looks as if we might have a solid core of characters we can expect to see on screen.  We posted an extensive list of possible superheroes a couple of weeks ago, along with the rumors of the movie’s villain and source material.  That list has been whittled down considerably.  Hit the jump to see who made the cut, who missed out and who might pop up as a cameo.

What can we confirm about Warner Bros.’ Justice League so far? We know Zack Snyder (director of Man of Steel) has a lot to say about how his film fits into the Justice League universe, and that Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises) is reportedly not set to play Batman in the picture. Other than that, we know Will Beall (Gangster Squad) is writing the screenplay which will feature Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash and other heroes. But who will these heroes unite against, exactly? Will it be an army of faceless evildoers, much like the Chitauri in The Avengers? Not likely, since the Marvel sequel will be opening the same year as the DC picture and The Avengers 2 already has a Mad Titan in Thanos. So who in the DC universe could possibly be more powerful? Hit the jump to find out.

With the conclusion of Christopher Nolan‘s Batman trilogy, the future of DC Comics movies is entirely up in the air right now.  DC and Warner Bros’ next step in the gameplan is Zack Snyder‘s Superman reboot Man of Steel, which must fight through the general disappointment created by the last reboot, Superman Returns.  That’s nothing compared to Green Lantern, which rode a 26% Rotten Tomatoes score to squeak past $200 million worldwide.  But hey, at least they have movies: Wonder Woman and The Flash are left out in the cold, and Aquaman may only be a viable superhero in the Hollywood fantasy of Entourage.

DC’s rival Marvel spent years carefully assembling their stable of heroes, culminating in the smash success of The Avengers.  It seems DC is going to cut through the Gordian knot and skip straight to Justice League after Man of Steel, and use that to introduce the new era of DC movies.  More after the jump.

Not even close. For the second weekend in a row, DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is America’s number one attraction; down just 41% with an estimate of $35.5 million. Though down a much more substantial 60%, Fox’s Prometheus managed to hold on to second place thanks to two widely underperforming debuts. Those would be Rock of Ages and That’s My Boy which, even when combined, couldn’t come close to challenging for first place.

As the 84th Academy Awards move closer, we’re starting to get a better sense of how things will pan out. We recently shared the 39 songs that will contend for the Best Original Song category, and now the Academy has announced the 97 original scores eligible for the Best Original Score award. AMPAS is notoriously picky when it comes to eligibility in this category, and as we feared the scores for both Drive and Attack the Block have been deemed ineligible. Also disappointing is the ineligibility of Alexandre Desplat’s mesmerizing score for The Tree of Life.

While it’s upsetting to see some of the year’s best work side-lined, there’s plenty to be happy about. I was a huge fan of Howard Shore’s work in Hugo and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, as well as The Chemical Brothers’ brilliant work in the criminally underseen Hanna. Hit the jump for the full list, as well as who I think will make the cut.

This summer we got a comic-book origin tale about a man with father issues accepting his role as guardian and protector of the universe fighting against his someone he thought was a brother, with the film featuring an unnecessary love interest and a supporting cast that should have had more to do, on top of sequences set in outer space. Actually, we got two of those.

Superficially, the resemblances between Paramount/Marvel’s Thor and Warner Brothers/DC’s Green Lantern are hard to ignore, but Thor was a modest hit (or at least not a belly flop), while Green Lantern was the weakest performer of the summer’s comic book films. Both aren’t that good, but both have similar things to recommend: the world, and their villains. Here Ryan Reynolds stars as Hal Jordan, the cocky pilot who takes on the mantle of galactic defender, and must fight Parallax and Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) to keep Earth safe. Our review of Green Lantern on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

This weekend, New York Comic-Con attendees got a first look at the trailer for the upcoming animated feature Justice League: Doom as well as the opening scene from Green Lantern: The Animated Series.  I like that Doom is bringing back almost all the voice actors from Justice League, but the trailer is mostly just action scenes and corny one-liners.  Also, I didn’t realize the new Legion of Doom is six people, which is kind of dinky when compared to the twenty or thirty featured in Justice League Unlimited.  Green Lantern looks more interesting since right from the get-go we’re introduced to members of the Red Lantern Corps.  It may be a bit confusing to those who don’t know the character beyond this summer’s disappointing blockbuster, but I assume there will be some kind of exposition in the hour-long premiere.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and the opening scene.  Justice League Doom is due out on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD in early 2012.  Green Lantern: The Animated Series premieres November 11th at 7/6c on Cartoon Network.

Now that all big four superhero movies have come out this summer, Green Lantern is clearly the biggest disappointment of the bunch.  Rather than charge into production on a sequel, Warner Bros. was forced to take a tepid wait-and-see approach to the international box office and home entertainment sales.  But Green Lantern 2 is certainly still in the studio’s mind and President Jeff Robinov believes that the problem wasn’t the concept but the execution.  However, the flaws he sees in the execution weren’t the ones that sunk the movie.

Hit the jump for what Robinov said the sequel needs to do in order to “improve” on the original.

While DC may not always knock the ball out of the park with their feature film offerings, it’s fairly safe to say that their Animated Television projects have been almost universally hailed as excellent.  With the Green Lantern Corps getting the spotlight this summer in a feature film, video game, and direct to home entertainment animated film, DC looks to once again storm TV screens with a new 3D CGI series Green Lantern: The Animated Series destined for Cartoon Network.  Comic Con alumnus and DC Animated architect Bruce Timm was joined by series producers Jim Krieg and Giancarlo Volpe in the press room and we were able to talk to all of them.  Watch our video interviews after the jump.

Even with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in its path, Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger had no trouble posting the best superhero debut of this comic-happy summer with $65.8 million.

We have reached the end of Paramount’s long, long seven-day launch of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.  So, on this no-news day, let’s take a look at some of the more salient figures regarding Michael Bay’s third installment in his blockbusting franchise. Yesterday, Tf3 broke the all-time record for the Fourth of July weekend at $97.5 million.  With Monday’s estimate of $18.9 million included, the record for the four-day holiday weekend has also fallen. The previous winner was 2004’s Spider-Man 2 with $115.8 million. The holiday take for Transformers 3 now stands at $116.4 million. So, that’s more.

In the US, the Fourth of July weekend is traditionally a giant money-maker for Hollywood movies. So, surprise!  This year was a giant money maker for Hollywood movies.  Make that “movie.”  Three movies debuted, but only one – Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon – made an impact.  A big, record-breaking impact.

Despite an underwhelming box office and middling reviews, Warner Bros. is apparently still moving forward with a sequel to Green Lantern. Back in August, we reported that screenwriter Michael Goldenberg (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) had been hired to pen the follow-up, working from a treatment by the first film’s writers Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, and Marc Guggenheim. However, director Martin Campbell has stated that he won’t be back for another go around. THR reports that Warner Bros. “still believes” in the franchise and is hopeful that it will have long legs in theaters. Hit the jump for more.

After posting a strong start on Friday, Cars 2 went on to finish the weekend with an estimated $68 million from its 4,115 locations.  That was more than double what its closest competitor, Bad Teacher, took in; but not quite enough to get the sequel higher than fifth place on the list of All-Time Pixar Studio champions.

It looks like negative word of mouth was indeed a factor for this weekend’s highest-profile debut.  After earning decent midnight and Friday numbers, Green Lantern fell off by an estimated 22% on Saturday – giving it a three day opening of just $52.6 million.