DC ENTERTAINMENT Announcements Coming Very Soon
by: the Moleman source: SuperHeroHype
It’s about damn time!
Little by little Warner Bros. has been taking steps to organize their DC Comics film division so that something can actually be done with all those properties they green lit about 5 years ago. If there’s one thing that galvanized them it was Marvel’s branching off which created Marvel Studios (specifically to handle the film adaptations of their comic properties). As a response to this Warner Bros. had held a week long summit shortly after the forming of Marvel Studios where they very likely discussed how they could get these DC film projects off the ground that they had announced (but had done nothing with). Then last year the announcement hits the interweb that DC Comics is no more, they are now known as DC Entertainment. Okay Warner Bros., taking a page out of the Marvel play book seems like the right thing to do. Hell, at least you guys FINALLY did something.
Since that announcement not too much else has really happened. Green Lantern is FINALLY under way, but the other projects seem to be MIA for the most part.
- Wonder Woman- Joss Whedon had written a script WB hired him to do only to have it thrown out with no real notice. Whedon had to find out via some internet fanboy website that he was fired from that job and that the studio was going with another script they had apparently solicited from another writer. Aside from that nothing has happened. They have a script but no director, budget or release date.
- The Flash- After several back and forths with WB, director David Goyer was all set to take the job. The only condition was that he wanted Ryan Reynolds to play the part of Wally West. It seemed like a perfect fit. The director had a good working history with the actor, and both seemed to be ready to take on this fun and potentially awesome comic book property. One snag though, WB didn’t feel Reynolds was write for the part of a DC Hero so they told the director to find another “Wally West”. Unfortunately that was the dealbreaker for director David Goyer. Funny thing is cut to a few years later and all of a sudden WB feels Reynolds is write to play the role of a DC Hero (Green Lantern). As of this writing they have no script, no director, no budget or release date.
- The Atom- It has been green lit but that’s about it. As of this writing they have no script, no director, no budget or release date.
- Superman: The Man of Steel- Completely dead in the water. The last real news to surface about this was that director Bryan Singer would return and take part in writing the script. Brandon Routh would resume his role as the Man of Steel. This sequel was supposedly going to deliver on every level the first one (Superman Returns) failed on. That news was about 3 years ago. As of late there has been nothing new. The latest rumor that surfaced this week is that Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) is stepping in to oversee the project (not direct) in order to get it ready for whomever steps in to direct. Nolan will be acting as a guidance counselor if you will. I know Warner Bros. is anxious to get this done because they are about to lose the rights to the Superman film franchise. As of this writing they have no script, no director and no budget. They are hoping for a 2012 release date though.
- Justice league- Completely dead in the water! All I can say to this is THANK XENU! The way this project was shaping up it looked like it would be 100x worse than Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. If there was truly a horrible horrible project that was born of the writer’s strike, this was it. I mean, for Xenu’s sake they had a bunch of twenty-somethings playing the parts of the heroes. If that was the direction they truly wanted to go in then why not just make a Teen Titans movie.
- Lobo- All set and ready to go with director Guy Ritchie at the helm. This was to be his first major studio project. Then a little movie came out this past Christmas called Sherlock Holmes. With this movie Ritchie showed that he could handle the high budget blockbusters and still deliver. Some thought he would be lost in the dump trucks of money and would make the mistake of not knowing what to do with a budget that high. Well Sherlock Holmes has derailed the train that was Lobo. Director Guy Ritchie will be stepping away from Lobo to focus on Sherlock Holmes 2 (and possibly 3). There is a script. In the meantime they have no director, no budget or release date.
- Batman III- Although there have been several rumors floating around the internet over the last year nothing is really confirmed on this project except that Christopher Nolan will be returning to direct. Last week David Goyer (who penned the Dark Knight) stepped away from the reigns of his show Flash Forward to devote more time to film projects. That by itself means nothing, but you put it together with the rumors floating around this week that Jonathan Nolan has begun writing the script for the next Batman film and all of a sudden you can see the puzzle pieces coming together.
- Jonah Hex- For the most part it is finished. It is in post production right now. Release date is set for June 2010.
After all this time we FINALLY heard from someone at Warners as to what is going on with these properties. Hell at this point I was beginning to think they had all but forgotten about them and the DC Comics film division altogether.
Time Warner Inc. Chairman & CEO Jeff Bewkes revealed during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday that announcements are coming soon from DC Entertainment.
“We are going to have a fairly interesting set of announcements and presentations pretty soon like in a matter of weeks, I think, about our plans for DC,” Bewkes said. “And basically if you look across the title of the whole band of hits whether its Batman, The Dark Knight, Green Lantern coming up, Superman, there have been a huge number of franchised films that have been part of the Warner [tent pole] strategy that’s been the reason for Warner’s unparallel high and consistent earnings advantage over the other studios and DC has already been a part of that and we are now going to outline an even more expansive plan for that in the coming months.”
Earlier in the call, he said:
“hear more about our plans to mine more aggressively the deep catalogue of DC Comics characters across Warner Brothers’ theatrical, home video, TV and games divisions and across our other divisions as well.”
We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for some incredibly awesome announcements. Xenu willing someone or something is over at DC Entertainment lighting a fire under someone’s ass.
Related posts:
- DC Entertainment Names Executive Management Team
- Chris Nolan Talks BATMAN 3 & SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL
- DC Entertaiment movie updates… finally!
- Christopher Nolan gives updates on Batman & Superman
- DC Entertainment aims to take the crown from Marvel Studios
Tags: Batman, bruce wayne, clark kent, Dark Knight, dc, dc comics, dc entertainment, green lantern, hal jordan, Superman, the atom, The Flash, wally west, wonder woman