Unless you've been abstaining from the internet for the past year – in which case, well done on falling off the wagon – you'll know that one of the big movies for 2009 was supposed to be Justice League, which would have brought together Batman, Superman and a number of other DC superheroes in one super-film. The picture suffered many setbacks, including fan backlash, the writers' strike and ultimately an Australian tax break problem that's too confusing to try to explain. We spoke to one of the almost-stars of the movie, Adam Brody, and had to ask him what went wrong and whether the film would ever see the light of day.
"Oh, we're done. We've filmed it. We're finished" He is, of course, kidding. "Actually, I probably shouldn't be commenting on it, but who cares. I don't really know – I still feel like an outsider on that somehow. I know there was a tax credit thing and I know that the strike was a hindrance. Also, you've got Batman coming out and Singer wants to do another Superman. This is only speculation on my part, I have no inside knowledge of this, but, as a fan, I think there's controversy about going off and trying to [show a different Superman and Batman]...I think maybe it will still happen, but I truly don't know any more than you do".
But would it happen with Brody? "I'm a huge George Miller fan and a huge comic fan, so I'd still be in. But maybe I won't be. I know that Ryan Reynolds was attached to The Flash for a while and then I got the part and everyone on the internet was like, 'Oh, he's no Ryan Reynolds! Reynolds is the only Flash!' I hope that if they do it in a year or so and it's a different guy and the new guy gets shit for not being me," he laughs. "Like, I become the only conceivable Flash".
But, if Justice League is off the table – and, if our reader comments section is anything to go by, most people won't mind if it is – Brody would still like to put himself in the running for another spandex-clad crime-fighter. "How do I say this in a way that won't come back to haunt me?," he says. "As a kid, the dream was always to be Spider-man. I always associated the most with Peter Parker". If Spider-Man 4 happens, there could, of course, be an opening for that role, if Tobey Maguire declines to return. "Yeah, I kinda know..."
We can see Brody in the role. He's got the geeky-cool thing going for him and he certainly knows the character inside out. We should make clear that he was in no way saying that he'd had any discussions about the role, but we suspect Sony may be looking for a new Spidey soon. It would be surprising for Maguire to renew his contract for more films. We'll had his name to the list of People We'd Believe As Spidey. That list so far reads as 'Jim Sturgess'.