|
David Bullock
Director of Justice League: The New Frontier
 The
World's Finest had a chance to chat with director Dave Bullock about
his work on Justice League: The New Frontier, his early days, and a
hint or two at what's to come.
Please note this interview was performed before the release of Justice
League: The New Frontier.
Most readers know you from your work on Star
Wars: Clone Wars and Justice League Unlimited. Perhaps you
could be so kind as to fill in the blanks a bit and tell us more about
yourself?
Before we start, I'd like to say "Hi James and everyone at
Worlds Finest". I've enjoyed the website for some time now and am happy
to be a part of it.
Now to answer your question, I've been a long time comic book fan and
throughout my career I've always gravitated towards the animated
projects involving Super Jocks. While I enjoy the Looney Toons
Characters I haven't had the desire to work with the fuzzy animal side
of the business. I first worked at Warner Bros. Animation as a story
artist on The New Batman/Superman Adventures. Quite frankly at
the time I really wanted to draw comic books for a living, but became
aware of the fact that Bruce Timm was heading up a new Superman
cartoon.As a life long fan of the character, I had to get involved.
After seeing what Bruce and Paul Dini had done with Batman: The
Animated Series, I was a fan of not only the art direction, but of
the types of stories they were telling as well.
 From
The New Batman/Superman Adventures I then continued working as a
story artist on the Batman Beyond series. Batman Beyond
proved to be a bigger challenge as he was a new character, but was
incredibly rewarding because were able to take more liberties with the
characterizations. Stylistically the film work also evolved from what we
had done in the past to something much more in the vain of a big budget
action movie. From that point on I jumped around quite a bit working as
a story artist at most of the animation studios in town (Kim
Possible for Disney, Van Helsing at Universal, development
for Nickelodeon, just to name a few). I've also been fortunate enough to
do work for DC comics creating advertisement art (Batman Begins)
and comic book covers (Action Comics/Superman and Teen
Titans Go!). From there I did some story art on the Teen Titans
animated series as well as Justice League Unlimited. Just prior
to Justice League: The New Frontier I directed on Lucas Film
Animations' upcoming CGI series Star Wars: Clone Wars. Most
recently I directed on the first season of Sony TV Animations' soon to
be released The Spectacular Spiderman series.
What attracted you to this project? Did you read the actual comic
before helming this new movie? If not, what caught your eye about Justice
League: The New Frontier?
Well, let me first say that Darwyn and I became pals while we were
both story artists at WB nearly ten years ago. During that time I was
privy to his earliest notions and sketches of what would become the DC
: The New Frontier comic book. I was attracted to this project for a
few reasons. First off, Darwyn and I have similar tastes in both story
and art direction. As a visual story teller I try to honor the integrity
of the characters and the attributes that make them our heroes, but also
communicate those ideas in a clear and visually appealing way. And if
it's done in a graphic way with heavily spotted blacks, all the better.
Knowing that Darwyn was very hands on with the script, I felt that I
could rest easy knowing that the essence of the comic would be preserved
and that I would have a solid character driven story to work with. Once
I learned that talented fellows Butch Lucik, Adam Van Wyk, Paul Rivoche,
Glen Wong, Robert Haverland and Rick Morales were interested in helping
out, I knew I had the makings of a directors "dream team". The truth is
those guys were just the tip of the iceberg. The production was blessed
with amazing talent all the way around. As for the comic, I had read the
first few issues as it was initially being released, but then read the
story in its entirety once it was collected in the two TPB's. Aside from
a great story, Jay Bones' splashy inks and Dave Stewarts vibrant color
work enhance the experience.
Is there any pressure in adapting such a beloved story such as this
one? How so?
 I'm not sure that pressure is the right word, I think that concern
is more like it. Not only was I a fan of the source material, but it was
also a good friends "baby" that he had been closely attached to for some
time. So right off the bat I wanted to make something that we both could
be proud of. The book has a devoted following and has earned a long list
of awards, so I felt obligated to the fans to not only bring Justice
League: The New Frontier to the screen in a faithful and compelling
way, but to also surpass their expectations. The DCU characters have had
several generations of creators working with them, so we did have the
benefit of "standing on the shoulders of greatness" to help us achieve
our goal.
Going in, it was obvious this would be more than just an action
flick, but a movie with some stirring political and social intrigue. On
top of that, New Frontier didn't blink when it came to showing some of
the black marks on America's past. How did you approach this topic?
This story takes a very realistic look at how DCs characters would
fit into 1950's America, from a 50's point of view. Here we had an
opportunity to make a PG-13 animated movie, so that afforded us the
venue to address a more adult audience. I thought the idea of overlaying
the history of the DCU with Americas' own was an interesting one. The Justice
League: The New Frontier's greatest strength is that it does not
gloss over or rewrite our nations great and sometimes tragic history ,
but rather ties our beloved heroes to it, giving them "human" situations
to respond to. Having super jocks discuss political agendas and racial
issues shows that there is some thinking going on behind their hand
drawn eyes. That's the thing that I relate to as an audience, and makes
me want to invest in a character.
Aside from that, the hero character arcs have them learn who they are
and who they want to be.
Is there anything we can expect to see cut or edited out, either for
content or time?
 The story is initially streamlined at the script stage and then as
the director, I come in and try to visually restore much of what has
been taken out, without interrupting the through line of the story. I
certainly think that a few great story beats had to be omitted due to
the seventy some minute time frame, but in a way that only helped to
create a more focused and efficient story. We spent the time and footage
where we absolutely had to. It literally came down to, if you want to
keep certain beats something else would have to go.
That said, the Losers lose again.
You'll also be working on the March released Justice League: The New
Frontier Special comic book. Any tidbits on what we can expect with that
title?
I'm really looking forward to taking a crack at a Justice League:
The New Frontier comic story. It's a six page shortie starring The
Boy Wonder and spotlights five inch cuffs, hot rods and fast chicks.
Nice!!!
And, to wrap this up, can you tell us about some of your future
projects?
At the moment I am pitching in on another WB DVD movie, and am in
negotiations to be back in the director's chair soon.
In closing I had a great time working with the Justice League: The
New Frontier and hope you all enjoy it as well!
|
|
|
