Warner Bros. injects some much-needed life into their Justice League feature by tapping scribe, Will Beall (Gangster Squad).  Clearly, after Disney and Marvel’s The Avengers put a superheroic dent into 2012′s box office, the studio behind the DC version would like to do the same.  Beall has yet to turn in his draft, but the studio has shown strong faith in the screenwriter, having attached him to their reboot of Lethal Weapon and their remake of Logan’s Run.  The latter will reunite Gangster Squad’s Ryan Gosling with his Drive director, Nicolas Winding Refn.  Hit the jump for more on this exciting news for Justice League and to find out who is writing the Wonder Woman screenplay.

Studios have been trying to get the most bang for their buck when it comes to their blockbusters.  The Lone Ranger had to wrangle for a lower budget, and Paradise Lost, and The Dark Tower have been put into limbo as studios try to figure out how to bring down costs.  THR reports that Warner Bros. has put their adaptation of the manga/anime Akira on hold as they try to figure out how to re-work the script to lower the budget.  Producers Jennifer Kiloran Davisson and Andrew Lazar, and director Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown) are trying to make the necessary changes, and Steve Kloves (Harry Potter) may be brought back to do another re-write after already having done one a year ago.

Hit the jump for more including a few updates.

In September, we learned that Warner Bros. and producers Dan Lin and Matti Leshem were aiming to get Steven Spielberg to direct the biblical epic about the life of Moses, Gods and Kings.  According to Twitch, this lofty aspiration has surprisingly led to formal talks with the legendary director.  I can understand the appeal for Spielberg who likes going big with his movies, and Gods and Kings would present him with the challenge of measuring up to Cecil B. Demille’s 220-minute Moses epic, The Ten Commandments.  While most studios today would never allow an almost four-hour movie into theaters, I’d be interested to see if Spielberg could get away with it (assuming he wanted to make a four-hour movie).

Michael Green and Stuart Hazeldine‘s script covers “the life of Moses from birth to death.”  Hit the jump for a great recap of the major episodes in Moses’ life.  Spielberg’s next two films, The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse, are due out next month, and he’s prepping to go into production on his Abraham Lincoln biopic, Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

Warner Bros. and producers Dan Lin and Matti Leshem are in development on Gods and Kings, an epic cinematic take on the life of Biblical hero Moses.  Last time we checked in on the project, WB was courting Darren Aronofsky to direct, and the plot was said to focus on the Exodus (i.e. older Moses).  However, Deadline says the script by Michael Green and Stuart Hazeldine covers “the life of Moses from birth to death.”  This is important to me, but an update on the directorial status of Gods and Kings will be more noteworthy to everyone else.  Things presumably did not work out with Aronofsky, so the studio is setting their sights even higher: the one, the only… Steven Spielberg.  There’s no guarantee they’ll get Spielberg.  And if they do, it will become one of a dozen projects the director would eventually like to get to.  But I’m excited by the possibility.  We haven’t seen Spielberg direct a big, effects-driven tentpole since 2005′s War of the Worlds.  [Edit: Not sure how I forgot Indiana Jones 4.  Still excited, but this section is invalid.]  The epic-but-animated The Adventures of Tintin doesn’t count, and his next films War Horse and Lincoln look to be more character dramas.  Robopocalypse could break the streak, but the life of Moses is the prototype for the special-effects summer blockbuster.  Thousands of frogs will rise from the Nile!  The Red Sea will be parted!  The desert ground splits open to swallow up rebellious Reubenites!

Speaking of which, a rundown of the many notable events in Moses’ life is after the jump.

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.

The first footage from director Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern has hit the net as Entertainment Tonight has released a preview for their Tuesday show.  It appears that on Tuesday, they’ll be world premiering footage from the Ryan Reynolds movie and to get you to tune in, they’ve released 30 seconds from the movie.  If you’ve been waiting to see what Reynolds costume looks like as it’s all CGI, hit the jump.  You’ll also get a look at Blake Lively, another Green Lantern (I won’t spoil who), and you’ll get a taste of the first comic book movie to take place partly on another planet.  What are you waiting for!

Warner Bros. must really love the Green Lantern dailies. In a bold move, the studio has decided to have the writers of Green Lantern, Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim, develop treatments for both Green Lantern 2 and The Flash. Additionally, the trio would then go on to write the screenplay for one of the films. Heat Vision Blog is reporting that Green Lantern 2 will ostensibly continue the intergalactic story of Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) while The Flash will probably use the Barry Allen version of the character. At the very least, the writing is in capable hands considering that Berlanti, Guggenheim and Green have created the TV series Everwood, Eli Stone and Kings, respectively. Hit the jump for my thoughts on this big news.

In the wake of Disney’s purchase of Marvel this morning, Fox is hurrying to reboot a Marvel property is still owns: “Fantastic Four”. The franchise is one of four Fox owns in perpetuity, irrespective of Disney’s $4 billion deal, including “X-Men,” “Daredevil,” and “Silver Surfer.” Thought details are scant on the new project, a few names have been dropped. Those, and why this could be a good thing after the jump.