Today's rumor about the Justice League of America movie is that it's going to be that funky CGI/motion-capture format.  IESB got a tip, which has been bolstered by insiders at ILM.  The casting for the film is starting next week, but it might not matter whose face gets cast.  From their site:

But the real interesting thing about this is that the contract is for an all-cgi "photo-real" motion capture movie, much like the upcoming Beowulf.

This is unsurprising, given George Miller's recent track record with the likes of Happy Feet and motion capture cgi would certainly account for the casting sessions that are supposedly starting next week, meaning that Miller can cast actors rather than faces for the roles, use their performances and tweak things as he sees fit.

Now a real-looking cgi JLA does seem likely, but I wonder what will become of Man of Steel given that Imageworks won't be returning for that project. I know there were some rumblings within the company that Singer wasn't satisfied with their work on Returns and is looking elsewhere for the sequel (ILM would be my preferred choice...but can Singer afford them?) and with Spider-Man 4 on hold (another Imageworks project), a mo-cap JLA would become their only major project for the next few years.

I just wonder if JLA might end up being pushed back....these cgi films take a long time to make, and a photo-real cgi JLA movie is quite a big project.

The "actors rather than faces" aspect would explain yesterday's confirmation that Christian Bale won't be the Dark Knight.  A superhero flick would be a really decent test of the technology, especially to keep characters in varying sizes.  Plus, it might make the transformations of the Martian Manhunter more fluid than they otherwise would be from an actor to CGI and back again.

But the faces always give me the creeps.