Wednesday, April 25, 2001

Bruce Timm Talks Justice League: Part Two

By Rob Allstetter/The Comics Continuum

OAKLAND, Calif. -- In the second-part of a two-part interview with Justice League producer Bruce Timm, he talks about the series' villains, the show's scale and working with Cartoon Network.

The Continuum: Is there anything you can say about the villains?

Timm: Yeah, we're using as many cool DC villains as possible. So far, we're using the Manhunters, the Kirby-ish Manhunters, you know the "No Man Escapes the Manhunters." We have the entire Injustice Gang, which is Luthor, Joker, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, Shade, Copperhead, the Ultrahumanite.

One of the cool things we're doing is any time we need a secondary villain - along with a major villain we'll have a secondary villain who has a plot twist or something in the show to spice it up - instead of creating a villain, we're using old DC villains that we don't necessarily consider major, A-list villains. But we'll stick them in the secondary parts, so we'll have cameos by â¤| well, I don't want to give it away. But you'll see. They'll be a bunch of cool DC villains.

The Continuum: How about Darkseid?

Timm: We don't plan on doing too much with Darkseid at the moment, only just because it's a really tempting thing to do. We love the whole Kirby Universe and all the Fourth World stuff, but we've done a lot with it on Superman already. Right now, we're trying to do stuff that doesn't just totally rely on easy things we've done in the past.

So we're trying to avoid the whole Apokolips thing at the moment. If we get picked up for a second 26, I can almost guarantee we'll do something more with Darkseid. But for the time being, we're giving him a rest.

The Continuum: You're working with a lot of familiar people on the show?

Timm: Rich Fogel is our supervising/writing producer, and Stan Berkowitz is our major staff writer. They're writing the bulk of the scripts right at the moment. Glen Murakami and James Tucker are my artists/co-producers. Butch Lukic and Dan Riba are our directors. Our storyboard guys and character guys are a combination of Batman/Superman veterans and some new kids that we're trying out. It's a very talented group.

The Continuum: How far along are you?

Timm: We're about halfway through the first 26. We're moving along.

The Continuum: It's a different network. Are their different sensibilities?

Timm: It's great to be on Cartoon Network. They leave us very much along. We get almost no creative notes from them. Basically, we hand them in a script and they say, "Great!" We get very little Broadcast Standards & Practices notes. Obviously, the usual thing about you can't kill this character or you can't say this. "Can you say destroy instead of kill?" Things like that. But so far, they've been a breeze to work with. Knock wood.

The Continuum: Will you be reaching more viewers with this show?

Timm: Kind of. It's tricky. Especially here at the con, I've had people come up to me and say, "Wow, I'm really glad you guys are doing the Justice League. Boy, I wish I had the Cartoon Network." But, technically, it does reach more households. It's cable, so they've got a really broad base.

It's apples and oranges. There are advances to being on the WB as well.

The Continuum: This is sort of a first for them?

Timm: This is the first straight action/adventure show, original program that they've had outside of anime. They want to get into that more. Actually, I guess Samurai Jack will be on before Justice League. And that's technically an action/adventure show, although it's more cartoon styling.

The Continuum: Andrea Romano is the voice director?

Timm: Andrea Romano is our voice director. We've recorded a lot. Almost as soon as the scripts are done, we record them right away. So, we're about halfway through.

The Continuum: When do you expect to see the first animation?

Timm: Some time in June.

The Continuum: So there might be a little sneak preview for Comic-Con in San Diego?

Timm: We're hoping. Probably.

The Continuum: Where will the League be based?

Timm: It's the Watchtower, which is modern mythos, but it's also the Satellite. To me, it just didn't make sense to put them all the way out on the moon. It's just a little bit too far away. They're supposed to be Earth's protectors. Why are they millions of miles away? So we compromised and so we put the Watchtower in space, so it's a combination of the Watchtower and the Satellite.

The Continuum: The Justice League is already formed when the show starts?

Timm: No, the first story arc is actually the forming of the JLA.

GIVE'EM A CLICK

The Continuum: Was doing the Justice League Unlimited in Batman Beyond helpful for this show?

Timm: To a degree. We learned a lot about staging scenes with a lot of characters in them. We especially learned a lot of what not to do. It drove us crazy in the editing room because a lot of times you look at something on the storyboard and you think it works fine, and then you get the film back and you're going, "Oh my God, we're panning all over the place trying to keep all these characters in motion at the same time." So that was a good learning experience.

It was a good dry run. But, the tricky thing about this show, if the Batman Beyond JLU episodes are, just in terms of a scale, a 5, this is an 11. This show is so big. It's just crazy.

The Continuum: Not every character will be in every episode?

Timm: That's correct. The entire seven will probably not be in very many episodes at all. It's hard when you get that many characters in a show to give everybody their due. It's really hard. You have to focus on a smaller group of characters to really make it play.

Even though we have an hour-long format to play with, it's not enough. A lot of times, we'll get to the end of a script and say, "Gosh, we didn't give anything for Manhunter or Wonder Woman to do. Why are they even in this show?" So, for the most part, we're breaking the team into smaller groups.

But they're all in the pilot. And they're all in the Injustice Gang show. And there will be other stories where we have to get all of them together, but for the most part, it's not something we do.

The Continuum: Will Aquaman be in the show?

Timm: He will definitely be in the show. He's not going to be a member of the team. In fact, the Aquaman two-parter that we've already done, he's almost more of a villain in it.

The Continuum: Kind of picking up from the Superman episode?

Timm: Kind of. We've redesigned him completely. Yeah, but it's along the same line.

The Continuum: Atom?

Timm: We don't have any plans for the Atom at the moment, although he might show up in the JSA crossover. We might do the Earth-2 Atom. We're thinking about it.

The Continuum: You're doing a JSA crossover?

Timm: Of course, we have to. You've go to do that. There are just certain things that you have to do, and that's one of them.

The Continuum: That will be for this season?

Timm: We just started talking about it. It's a long way from being written. It might not make it this season, but we're hoping. (Look for more on Justice League soon here in The Continuum)