Another week, another superhero movie rumor…
Presented with the same swag and video format as the grand Hulk/Avengers bombshell that turned out to be deliberate misinformation by Marvel, a new bomb has been dropped by our Latin brothers-in-arms. This time around it concerns the DCU, where their track record is pretty strong. Also, it’s a hell of a scoop, and the sort of thing that will either prove definitively true, or spectacularly not at all true. While it involves some basic film ideas, this is all stuff that’s going to be out there and officially announced well before any films involved actually take shape, so don’t sweat it spoilerphobes.
So what’s the word?
Apparently all this hemming and hawing over a stalled Justice League production, tossed out scripts, etc. etc. has been obfuscating WB’s real plan:
Give It All To Nolan Forever™
Yep, apparently Nolan’s godfathering position on Man Of Steel has been expanded to WB’s handling of the entire DC universe, more specifically Justice League. It’s also likely Zach Snyder will follow him as an overseeing producer, and possible Justice League director.
Even bigger news? Bale might be back. El Mayimbe lays out the apparent grand strategy in Latino-Review’s video, but the jist is that WB is all about seeing Bale continue on in the cowl, and doing it alongside Cavill and the Justice League, conclusion of The Dark Knight Rises be damned.
I have only so much brain-power to expend on something that could prove to be so thoroughly not true, but I’ll say it all sounds right, it sounds like the way WB would think, and it sounds like as good a way to get good movies made with DC characters as any. I’ve never been a supporter of WB/DC following the Marvel mold- even if they dive into a shared universe, I think grounding them together and then allowing filmmakers to branch off with more singular franchises is the way to go. Being a mere branch of WB, DC is never going to have the same kind of independent studio think-tank setup that Marvel Studios started with and maintains, and thus the cohesion is never going to work the same way. Marvel has, for the most part, bent over backwards to maintain a consistent tone, sense of humor, visual pallete and momentum– all part of a grand design. In many ways their movies have suffered, have lacked some singular elements, but overall it’s worked for them (certainly financially). DC and WB just aren’t going to and shouldn’t work that way.
Being filmmaker-driven is what has worked for them, so if they want a shared universe, it will be much better to introduce a lot of these character together under wise story guidance from a figure like Nolan, establish the League heroes as compatible units, and then allow them to blossom in more distinctive separate franchises from there.
That’s pretty much the drum I’ve always beaten, but I think its rhythm matches what I’m hearing here. At the end of the day, I’m just glad to be hearing so much good buzz on Man Of Steel, and hearing rumblings that, at the very least, suggest someone is making plans somewhere.
Blast your thoughts on all this below!
15 comments
“Marvel has, for the most part, bent over backwards to maintain a consistent tone, sense of humor, visual pallete and momentum– all part of a grand design. In many ways their movies have suffered, have lacked some singular elements, but overall it’s worked for them (certainly financially). DC and WB just aren’t going to and shouldn’t work that way.”- So basically you are saying Marvel is a crummy TV series…at least now we are thinking on the same page.
To anyone complaining about where were the superheros… well, where were they in IRONMAN? It was clearly said to Tony Stark, ‘Do you think you’re the only one like you? There are others.’
Like they said in Thank you for smoking, all it takes is one line. ‘Since you started Bruce, others have appeared, there’s that man who can fly, that Super Man…’ Superheroes have to start somewhere. Just make it at the end of TDKR, everything was starting to go uber-comical in that one anyhow. Superman makes his appearance in Metropolis AFTER Gotham went to hell, Green Lantern pops up, Wonderwoman makes herself known, so Bruce sees a reason to come back. JGL can quite easily slot in there as Nightwing, easily.
I can count on one hand the pretty good (but flawed) Marvel films. X2: X-Men United, Spider-Man 2, Iron Man, and Avengers, only 2 which are part of the new Avengers storyline. Meanwhile, DC/WB has 3 of the best, and most critically acclaimed and award winning superhero films EVER MADE with their Batman Trilogy. So, based on that record I gotta give DC the edge.
A ” TV series ” that the rest of Hollywood is desperate to emulate.
Go back to sleep.
Well… allow me to retort.
First, all you’ve done there is point out that Marvel has far more viable characters.
You’ve just mention 3 separate franchises. Marvel has built up awareness out of nothing… everyone knows who the hell SUperman and Batman are.
DC has, Superman, Batman… that’s it.
Say what you like about how much you liked TDKR..
the Avengers handed Batman his ass on a platter.
So basically you’ve just said is, one of DC’s only two franchises, had a couple of good movies, the second of which didn’t do as well as the Avengers.
Meanwhile … Bale would be crazy to come back for JL
DC has -two- of the most critically acclaimed and award-winning superhero films ever made with their Batman trilogy. Batman Begins may be on the “good” end of the Superhero critical acclaim spectrum, but there are several other Superhero films from other studios that rated about the same amount of critical acclaim as Batman Begins. Spider-Man, X-Men: First Class, and the original X-Men off the top of my head.
You also fail to mention that DC/WB has one of the most high-profile flops of a major superhero film in recent memory with Green Lantern.
Please, please, please be true………..
Nolan godfathering JL guarantees a classy product. To run with the “TV series” analogy above, Nolan’s Bat franchise was Breaking Bad to The Avengers Big Bang Theory. Ok that’s an oversimplification, but nobody watches Iron Man films for deeper subtext or laud-worthy performances.
Nobody has ever followed up that line from Pulp Fiction with anything worth reading.
Ummmmm, actually Rober Downey Jr.’s performance in Iron Man was lauded – and so was Jeff Bridges’ come to think of it. You know, I liked Nolan’s first two Batman films (the third movie was a mess, sorry) but this belief that somehow they have deeper meaning because they’re “gritty” and “realistic” is bullshit. They present the world they create well – but not without flaws – in the same way the Marvel movies present THEIR world well. They’re going for different effects. Personally I prefer the Marvel films because I prefer my superhero movies to be fun and have the heroes doing – oh I don’t know – heroic things. If you prefer Nolan’s vision, fine. But to suggest that his films are more important or have deeper subtext is ridiculous.
Ummmmmm no. If you can’t appreciate the subtle-yet-effective 9/11 subtexts of TDK, if you fail to acknowledge Heath Ledgers (OSCAR WINNING) performance is far beyond RDJ’s trademark “lauded” tomfoolery, you need to back out of this discussion right now or risk total humiliation.
Whatever you think of RDJ’s performance, it doesn’t change the fact that it was lauded. And yes, Heath Ledger’s performance was great but there are also some bad performances in the Nolan trilogy, like Katie Holmes, and Bale just got worse as the series went on. And there was nothing subtle about the 9/11 subtexts. Sorry, not a fan of Nolan. And not saying that you being a fan is wrong. What I am saying is I don’t like people thinking non-Nolan superhero films are crap simply because they take a different approach. PS. OSCAR WINNING means shit – way too many untalented people have won Oscars. Roberto Benigni.
I like The Dark Knight as much as the next guy, but Nolan is ultimately too devoted to the “gritty realism” shtick to actually flesh out a whole Batman universe, much less a DC Universe. Really, aside from TDK, his selections from the Rogue Gallery were relatively weak. How is he gonna make Martian Manhunter realistic? I hope he’ll adapt and just go way the fuck out there instead of forcing it into his realism box.
As done to death as some people think the Marvel Avengers films or just the Marvel films in general are, it’s nowhere near as bad of a case of putting all your eggs in one basket as DC might be trying to do here. The Marvel franchises, even the franchises WITHIN the franchises, all have different feels to them, so if you don’t like one, there’s still the chance that you might dig one of the other ones. If they all felt like Iron Man though, and Iron Man’s popularity took a dive for some reason, there would be less of a chance of the rest of the other series supporting themselves, and such a situation could very well occur over at WB/DC if there ends up being some kind of Nolan backlash. Yes, “Dark Knight Rises” made a shit ton of money, but it can certainly attribute much of it’s success to the series as a whole, and it left a bad taste for a lot of folks, which could get ugly if people get fed up with the “He’s done with Batman/on with Batman again/not coming back for more/being put in charge of everything” drama. Granted, it’s not entirely his fault, but the longer this drags out, the less this whole Justice League endeavor might be taken seriously as something that’s supposed to be great.
Well, wait for the damn Man of Steel movie first. I’m not too excited about any of this news, I really liked the first half of Batman Begins, all of The Dark Knight and all but the 3rd act of The Avengers. These movies aren’t that damn good, I’d prefer a disaster as I love massive bombs but all you can ask from Nolan is too keep it interesting. Marvel will be bright and colorful, DC in horrid need of Zoloft? I’m sorta down for that, but I’d rather have a Dredd 2 or new Tarantino Subway shopped down the shoot quickly. The best I could hope for is someone is trying to figure out how to make the best 4 hour movie of all time with superheroes, I hope they try to make them bigger and more ambitious and I really await the one that collapses the whole fucking thing, that’ll be hilarious.
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