Rumor: Brett Ratner, McG join Justice League short list

We’ve recently spent a large amount of time discussing who might possibly be tapped by Warner Bros. to helm its upcoming movie based on DC Comics’ Justice League superhero team. A quick search reveals no less than three separate articles on Ben Affleck’s non-involvement with the project, and we were also quite pleased to hear that the WB has the Wachowski siblings on its short list of possible directors. Unfortunately, the latest rumors swirling around this film aren’t quite as rosy. According to Den Of Geek, Warner Bros. has added two more names to the list of candidates: Brett Ratner and the annoyingly pseudonymous McG.

Den Of Geek reports:

… the names that were or are on the shortlist are Ben Affleck (who has said that he’s not involved), The Wachowskis (Warner Bros is reportedly impressed with their work on Cloud Atlas), Brett Ratner, Ruben Fleischer (presumably Warner Bros is happy with his upcoming Gangster Squad), McG, and Zack Snyder (a logical addition to the list, given Man Of Steel).

Alright, forget Fleischer and Snyder for a moment. Not because we have anything against either man, it’s just that they both seem potentially capable of creating a solid, entertaining Justice League movie. We aren’t as excited by their names as we were for Affleck or the Wachowskis, but it wouldn’t upset us if either of these auteurs was handed the reins to the WB’s next big tentpole feature. We would however, be appalled if either McG or Ratner were to be tapped for the gig.

Let’s take a quick look at IMDB to remind ourselves of the work these two men have done in the past. McG (née Joseph McGinty Nichol) has been behind the camera for such shining cinematic gems as the Charlie’s Angels films, Terminator Salvation and the music video for Sublime’s “Santeria” — which, as you can see, isn’t exactly “Thriller.” Ratner on the other hand, has been attached to such films as the Rush Hour series, 2011’s disappointing Tower Heist, and the third, objectively terrible X-Men movie. The really depressing bit though is that we didn’t have to cherry pick films that might make these two directors look bad. Aside from that Sublime video these are the most prominent, fiscally successful films these guys have created to date, and the most positive thing we can say about any of them is that Jackie Chan was pretty entertaining in the Rush Hour movies (though, in fairness, that’s probably more the result of Chan’s massive charisma and borderline-superhuman martial arts skills than anything Ratner might have done).

The good news here is that all of this is technically still a rumor. Granted, the sources on these rumors do have a pretty solid track record of being right about this kind of thing, but until we get official confirmation that either Ratner or McG will be directing The Justice League, we’re going to keep our fingers crossed that this has all been a horrible dream.

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