let's see if i can do this without pissing anyone off unduly....fingers crossed!
yep, CO2E basically IS the old WORLDS COLLIDE script -- it's like 95% or more intact -- major difference being the swapping of john stewart for hal jordan -- and since john didn't have a very big part in the original script anyhow, it didn't impact the overall story in any important way (we'd just come off "Starcrossed", remember, where he'd gotten some major face-time, so we felt it'd be good to let him take a bit of a breather)
WORLDS COLLIDE was always intended to be "Continuity Lite", to appeal to the broadest audience possible, to be comprehensible to people who hadn't necessarily seen every episode of JL or people who didn't even get Cartoon Network -- (remember, at the time, the season set dvd's were still a ways off) -- so there never were very many overt continuity callbacks in the script to get rid of
as to why we didn't just make it a straight-up "DCAU" film? simple answer : ZERO interest from the folks at Home Video in re-visting the old continuity -- they've invested several million dollars in establishing the new "DCU" dvd line as its own thing, so why muddy the issue by bringing back the old continuity?
putting it bluntly, getting a "DCAU" version of WORLDS COLLIDE green-lit just plain wasn't gonna happen at this time -- PERIOD.
so -- i could've just waited another five years to see if anybody at Home Video changed their minds (and run the risk that they might NEVER do so) -- or i could grab this opportunity as my last best hope of getting WC on the screen practically intact (but with new designs and new voices), and obviously that's what i chose to do
and by the way, regardless of what gregory says in that video clip, it was totally my idea to dust off and tweak the WC script for the DCU series -- he's blameless here -- any effigies that get burned will have blonde hair, glasses and very tall foreheads, okay?
and as for whether or not the DCAU continuity is "dead" or not -- believe me, i very much appreciate that so many of you guys have so much love for the old series, from BTAS through JLU (i do too) -- but frankly, i doubt that we'll be formally, "officially" doing another movie or tv series set in that continuity -- but i suppose anything's possible -- i just hate to see you guys getting your hopes up for DCAU Ressurrection Day, every time we cast kevin conroy as batman or whatever
at the moment, i'm thoroughly enjoying making these "one-off" DCU movies, and don't have any burning desire to re-visit the old continuity -- again, anything is possible, so concievably that could change someday -- instead of saying "THE DCAU IS DEAD", maybe we can just say it's in a state of suspended animation until further notice...?