Warner Brothers rightly gets a lot of credit for being the most progressive of the major studios, routinely supporting visionary filmmakers, and unconventional blockbusters. Is all that going to change when production head Alan Horn splits from the company and is replaced by his protege, Jeff Robinov? That’s a scary question, and the answer to which we’ll only really know after a few months or years of his decisions filtering into the momentum of the WB production cycle. That said, he’s already making waves by declaring that the Justice League will form by 2013 and be produced by Warner Brother’s favorite son, Christopher Nolan.
Coming from a profile of Robinov in the LA Times, the information was first casually dropped amidst discussion of the Batman and Superman films set to be released in 2012…
He’s then aiming to release new “Batman” and “Superman” films in 2012 and “Justice League,” a teaming of DC’s top heroes, in 2013.
The wave of “how the fuck could that work?” began and then shortly thereafter the Times’ Hero Complex managed some clarification from Robinov…
“But Robinov said a new Justice League script is in the works. Also being written for Warner are scripts featuring the Flash and Wonder Woman, who could be spun off into their own movies after Justice League…
Batman will continue to be a centerpiece property beyond next year’s “The Dark Knight Rises” and Nolan’s departure from the franchise… ‘Chris Nolan and Emma Thomas will be producing it, so it will be a conversation with them about what the next phase is. [says Robinov]’…”
Apparently the way he sees it is that after Batman ends he’ll be quickly be rebooted, with Nolan’s input, in a Justice League film. Scripts are apparently in the works for the Flash and Wonder Woman, with the latter being separate from the upcoming network show.
So it sounds as if Cavill’s Superman and Reynold’s Green Lantern will anchor an event film that will set-up a fresh Batman, along with Flash and Wonder woman, who would presumably follow up with individual films soon after. Looks like Robinov is ditching the WB policy of not following the Marvel mold. That said, it would be a different approach to start all of these franchises with the team-up event film, and then branch them off. The timing works much better than the original pre-writer’s strike attempt to do a JLA film (which was finally tabled in 2008), when Batman was still mid-franchise and Superman Returns was still a fresh failure.
It’s not hard to see Robinov’s (theoretical) logic at work here…
The massively successful Batman trilogy definitively ends, sealing up that particular interpretation. At the same time, Nolan’s brand continues with a clean-slate Superman reboot, which along with Green Lantern will give the JLA film two solid, freshly introduced cinematic superheroes to give it momentum. Within this newly forged universe you get to reboot Batman without waiting very long, and in a new context that doesn’t combat with Nolan’s beloved world. Follow up the next year or two with Flash and Wonder Woman, and then start a new cycle of sequels from there. Sounds exactly like a plan cooked up by an ambitious new studio-head feeling the pressure to fill the void left by the most money-making franchise in history. Of course, that’s also filtered through my OCD perception of how blockbuster puzzle pieces should cleanly line up, and studio logic often disregards the cleanly-laid-out needs of my sensibilities.
There you have it- big news from a little statement. Sure, the Nolan/Thomas-produced JLA thing is news as well, but of course Nolan’s name will be going on virtually every future WB superhero endeavor for as long as they can mange it. He’s a directorial brand now, and until something majorly flops, they’re not going to be hesitant to use it when they can.
So what do you think? Any of this make sense? Just a cynical copycatting of Marvel’s plan? Does it make sense to reboot Batman in a larger team-up film? Excited to see legitimate energy behind new heroes from DC towards the big screen? I want to know your take, and there’s plenty of space in the comments to voice it. Also hop over to the message boards and get into the conversation there…
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9 comments
Oh God, no! A Justice League film would be a fucking disaster, with or without Nolan. Also, I hope Nolan doesn’t lend his name to everything just for the moolah. That would be disappointing. He’s a geek god right now and he shouldn’t blow it just because WB are throwing a lot of money at him.
They are dangling the idea out there while waiting to see how ‘Thor’ and ‘Captain America’ and their integrated universe business work out.
Not to mention that Warner’s has a leg up on Marvel in regards to ownership to the film rights. Warner’s owns everything DC from Batman on down to Booster Gold. The Marvel/Disney mess is a little more convoluted. Paramount is making the Avengers series of films, but Disney will take over after that. So it’s going to be a whole new way of perceiving the Marvel movie Universe which I’m sure will differ greatly from the Paramount model. However Disney doesn’t have the film rights to Spider-Man (Sony), X-Men (Fox), Ghostrider (Columbia), the Fantastic Four (Fox again) so we just may never get that Secret Wars movie. A big old mess. What I’m saying is DC is poised to blow Marvel out of the Cineplex (full disclosure — I make mine Marvel) and not mention the weirdly awesome DC animated movies that Warner’s is putting out….maybe the Marvel model will work better at DC. I just don’t want to see Bruce Wayne, drunk at his birthday party, wearing the batman suit and playing with turntables.
Renn Brown, I am all for a…Justice League film. Interesting that WB would…Begin with the JL film, and spin off other solo efforts from it. Green Lantern could be in JL, and be a…Different Green Lantern, as there are many to choose from if, Ryan Reynolds isn’t available. Green Arrow, would also be a good addition to JL. I would…Love, to see individual Flash and Wonder Woman, films. I will also be curious to see how…Batman gets Re-booted, and who is next to play the caped crusader.
If they are going to reboot Batman (and they will), then a Justice League project is probably the most sensible way to do so. It would definitely lessen the heat it will take for not being a new installment in the Nolan series. The question is………………will they try to loosely include the Nolan trilogy in their “DC Filmverse” and cast an age appropriate Batman? Or will they full-on reboot? I’m guessing the former. They will cast someone similar in age or a little younger than Christian Bale. There won’t be any direct references, but no outright contradictions either. This is assuming that Nolan doesn’t kill or unmask Batman at the end of TDKR (which I doubt Warner would allow anyway).
I’m thinking that the situation is quite the opposite. DC will always be Warner’s bitch, while I’m sure that Marvel will be allowed to operate a bit more independently, at least in their own dealings under the Disney umbrella, once the Paramount deal is done. “If it ain’t broke…”, right? As far as Warner Brothers goes, the DC properties are only going to be as good as the people running things allow them to be. The DC filmscape was a dark, dark place before Nolan’s arrival. Remember, it wasn’t long ago that WB allowed “Batman & Robin” to happen (Jesus, and who thought that “Steel” was a good idea?), fucking themselves out of the Bat-business for quite a while. Merchandising makes more money than the films ever will, so Schumacher was more or less forced to make toy commercials. It could always go back to that, should WB’s relationship with Nolan ever go south, or if they decide that EVERY DC film franchise needs to be grim and gritty. You can’t really blame Marvel for their film properties being scattered between studios, as those deals were made way back when, but that may help their success in the long run, as it seems that the handlers of the non-Marvel/Disney-owened rights are being forced to think outside the box a little, because they know that regardless of how they fare, Disney will find a way to make money. If FOx had just given up, we may have just had an X-Men 4 from Disney, not First Class, which regardless of how it does will be an interesting approach, even if it is just essentially a reboot. I’m also pretty interested in seeing what happens with Fox’s new Daredevil, not to mention Spider-Man over at Sony. Also, by having various different approaches to the different characters, they will be allowed to fail on their own merits and won’t sink the entire Marvel Universe, which could very well happen with the DC properties if people ever turn on Nolan and anything he touches, which could be EVERYTHING under this new deal, or if Warner Brothers decides to focus their efforts on just selling toys again.
Sorry, I was responding to Stiglet’s post. I thought that my post would fall in after that, but I guess it didn’t.
I’d be really surprised to see any serious forward momentum on a JLA movie until after (at the very least) Thor and Captain America, and maybe not even until after Avengers is proven to either be a very good idea or a disaster.
yeah, this wont work. i feel like the whole comic book movie thing has run its course for this cycle, much like Batman and Robin killed it last time…the JL movie and avengers will probably destroy it again…
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