The strange case of the “Justice League” movie gets even stranger.

Dark Horizons posted recently that director George Miller, of “Mad Max” and “Happy Feet” fame, had told a Sydney TV show that he was off the “Justice League” movie. But when I went looking for the original item on that site, nothing came up. Now, it’s come out that some of Miller’s reps have contacted Coming Soon.net and said Miller never appeared on the show and there’s no truth to his being off the movie.

Even with Miller still on the project, things don’t look good for this project with constant delays, and casting controversies galore making it less likely every day that it will see the light of day unless something big happens to push it forward.

And without some kind of progress or encouraging plans, it’s only going to get worse. Now, not having read a script or having any idea how this movie is envisioned, it’s impossible to say whether it’s any good or not. It may be absolutely terrific. But the public perception remains that DC/WB don’t know how to make a good superhero movie that isn’t a Batman flick.

The same problem doesn’t afflict Marvel Studios, where their string of successes (and even the less than successful pics they’ve made) and ability to turn characters like Blade and Iron Man into hits gives folks confidence that we’ll see their schedule roll out on time with “Iron Man 2,” “Thor” and “Captain America” all leading up to “Avengers” in 2011.

That’s also a strategy that works for fans, because it’s how the comics were done — with each character being established in his or her own title before the big team up. Right now, confidence is low that WB can make characters like Wonder Woman, Green Lantern or Flash work on the big screen, making fans even less likely to think a Justice League movie with all of them will do justice to the characters.

On the other hand, putting “Justice League” on hold may not be the best idea if WB can’t find a way to get these characters to the screen any other way. If fans have to wait too much longer for more DC movies, there’s always a danger that the interest in superhero movies could cool and they may never get their shot. And in that case, nobody wins.