Justice League Dark Adds New Writer As Director Search Continues

Warner Bros. has selected Gerard Johnstone to do the latest polish on the script for Justice League Dark. With so many projects in development, it would be easy for one to get lost in the shuffle, but Justice League Dark refuses to be that film. Despite several changes in the director’s chair, WB is still determined to make a film based on some of their lesser known and magical characters. The latest shakeup for the team up comes in the aftermath of Doug Liman departing and the newer offerings have not been as impressive as the studio hoped.


With Liman out of the picture, WB targeted a number of lower profile directors to tackle Justice League Dark, including the director of the impending IT remake. The search was apparently underwhelming and resulted in WB ordering a rewrite of the script (based on one by Doctor Strange‘s Jon Spaihts), one that will now be done by Gerard Johnstone.

Deadline is reporting that Johnstone will polish the script for Warner Bros. following a director search that left them wanting more. Johnstone was put in this position following a presentation that reportedly left an impression on the studio. He wrote and directed his directorial feature debut in 2014, Housebound, which is what led to him getting such a meeting.


Even though Johnstone has only been hired on to polish the script at this point, it sounds as though he will do so based on the presentation he made. With him being a rather unknown director, WB could look to grant him a big feature like this if the script turns out as good as they hope. Plus, with him already meeting with the studio for the job to begin with, getting a trial period of reworking the script to his vision and showing he has a handle on the project could ultimately lead to Johnstone finding himself in the director’s chair when everything is said and done.


That said, Johnstone could simply polish the script only for WB to find someone else to direct. If that is the case, the names they have looked at most recently are not ones that will draw a crowd based on their inclusion alone. Should Johnstone remain interested in directing the feature once the script is complete, he could once again be part of the director search. In either instance, it appears the studio is determined to find an up and coming director, rather than a known one. Which approach they ultimately decide to take is unclear, but Johnstone’s polish of the script is the next step in that process.