In a brief exchange with a fan on Vero, it looks like director Zack Snyder has revealed that his version of Justice League heading to HBO Max next year will be coming out sometime in March.
SOURCE: ZACK SNYDER/VERO
Tag: DC Comics
Ben Affleck’s ‘Batman’ Movie Would Have Been Similar To David Fincher’s ‘The Game’ According To Joe Manganiello – “Deathstroke Was Like A Shark or Horror Movie Villain”
Before Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson’s The Batman, there had been plans for Ben Affleck to co-write, star, and direct a solo Batman film. Creative differences and Affleck’s apparent frustration eventually led to him first exiting the project as director then later leaving the Bruce Wayne/Batman role altogether.
We don’t know a lot of about the unmade project but there had been confirmation from cinematographer Robert Richardson (Live By Night, Kill Bill, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Inglourious Basterds), who had been once attached to the Affleck film, that the film would involved the infamous Arkham Asylum.
RICHARDSON: “I wanted to shoot Batman with Ben [Affleck] cause that was the next film we had. There was a script, but not a loved script. There was a lot of work he was doing to it to change it. Well, he was going into the more insanity aspects. He was entering more into the Arkham, he’s going into where everyone was bad.“
Deathstroke actor Joe Manganiello had been expected to reprise the Slade Wilson part for Ben’s Batman solo project allowing him to later get a meatier role than his small cameo in Justice League. While speaking with Yahoo Entertainment, Joe compared the purposed Affleck project to David Fincher’s underrated Michael Douglas thriller The Game and gave some details about the tone they were attempting to go for.
MANGANIELLO: “There were similarities to The Game…It was a really dark story in which Deathstroke was like a shark or a horror movie villain that was dismantling Bruce’s life from the inside out. It was this systemic thing: He killed everyone close to Bruce and destroyed his life to try and make him suffer because he felt that Bruce was responsible for something that happened to him…It was really cool, really dark and really hard. I was very excited for it.”
Joe confirmed his return to the Deathstroke role in Zack Snyder’s extended version of Justice League for HBO Max on social media, but remains to be seen if he’ll ever play the role again.
THE GAME (1997) – Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) is a successful banker who keeps mostly to himself. When his estranged brother Conrad (Sean Penn) returns on his birthday with an odd gift — participation in a personalized, real-life game — Nicholas reluctantly accepts. Initially harmless, the game grows increasingly personal, and Orton begins to fear for his life as he eludes agents from the mysterious game’s organizers. With no one left to trust and his money gone, Orton must find answers for himself.
The David Fincher connection isn’t shocking given that Ben Affleck had recently worked with the director on the thriller Gone Girl and Matt Reeves incarnation is essentially taking cues from Fincher’s entire movie library. I’ve spotted multiple homages or nods to Zodaic, Seven, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Panic Room, and even the aforementioned film The Game in the teaser trailer.
Matt’s movie seems to be taking a similar dark tone and might be picking up on what Affleck wanted to do.
SOURCE: YAHOO ENTERTAINMENT
‘Plastic Man’: Screenwriter Cat Vasko Tackling A Female-Led Version
I guess it should be called Plastic Woman as there is word from The Hollywood Reporter that Warner Bros. has tasked newcomer Cat Vasko to write a female take on the DC Comics hero Plastic Man. The project said to be more in the comedic realm and had a script previously worked on by Amanda Idoko.
Sources tell THR that the project, which is in the earliest stages of development, will now become a female-leading vehicle. It is unclear if that means a title change or not.
Sonic The Hedgehog actor Ben Schwartz had been actively campaigning to play Plastic Man on social media but that campaign seemingly is now over.
Neither a star or a director is mentioned for the project but joins a laundry list of DC Comics films in various stages of development at the studio. It remains to be seen if they ultimately make the project but hiring a new writer is a good sign along.
I’ll be curious to see how DC fans will react to the idea that the studio is tinkering with the hero like this, but really hasn’t had a feature film adaptation which gives Warner Bros. some wiggle-room to do their own thing with the character.
SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
James Gunn May Start Filming ‘Guardians of The Galaxy 3’ In Atlanta Before The End of 2021
A tiny tidbit mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter suggests that James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy 3 could begin before the end of 2021, as it had been set to shoot in Atlanta, Georgia before Gunn’s firing/rehiring. He’s a busy bee lately as he’s in post with The Suicide Squad and will begin shooting Peacemaker early in the new year.
The studio will have Peyton Reed back for a new Ant-Man movie in 2021 and is ending the year with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 shooting with a returning James Gunn.
James Gunn’s HBO Max series Peacemaker will be shooting from January to June in Vancouver and if all things come together will release The Suicide on August 6th alongside a promotional tour for the film (most likely virtual) before jumping into shooting Guardians 3 in the fall/winter.
The Guardians cast are expected to show up in Thor: Love & Thunder after the announcement Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill will have a role in the Thor sequel which is being considered somewhat of an Avengers-level project (Doctor Strange 2 and Ant-Man 3 will be considered too once more characters are revealed officially).
Other Marvel films said to begin shooting in the 2021 include Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man 3 in London, Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel 2 in London, and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther 2 in Atlanta.
Unlike most of the Marvel slate the sequel doesn’t have an official release date.
SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Heading To HBO Max For Free Likely Means Warner Bros. Will Struggle To Turn A Profit
Yesterday, it was officially announced that the last big studio blockbuster of 2020 would be releasing December 25th on both HBO Max (free to subscribers) and in limited theatrical markets (unclear how many screens they’ll have), the latter still seems like a bonkers move considering the U.S. is on the brink of another hospital disaster as COVID-19 cases skyrocket. A home option is great but this puts Warner Bros. in position to take another loss as it’ll be extremely tough for the pricey film to recoup costs or even turn a profit at this point.
Obviously, WarnerMedia just wants to get the movie out there in the world and stop gobbling-up prime release dates in 2021 for 2020 movies collecting dust after already bouncing both Godzilla vs Kong and Dune out of the 2020 schedule. 2021’s lineup is already going to see multiple films bumped to 2022 and taking one more piece of the board will likely save them a bit money from a marketing standpoint.
It’s easy to assume that offering up Wonder Woman 1984 for free to subscribers is meant to avoid the bungled streaming release of Disney’s Mulan that had access only to Disney+ subscribers but they had to spend an extra $29.99 on top of their sub fees and only wait until December to get the film for free. Mulan had been hailed as a “success” early on by folks trying to do imaginary math, putting the cart before the horse, only later to be revealed as a bit of disaster for the studio and Disney took a massive loss then pivoted to allow larger access to purchase it digitally, a sign the Disney+ only access wasn’t terribly profitable.
Streaming doesn’t have a box office tally and the only real gauge will be how many subscribers HBO Max was able to keep and add in the weeks after Wonder Woman 1984 is added to the service. I don’t really imagine WarnerMedia is going share the drop-off numbers.
The problem is that HBO Max is mostly a U.S. based streaming service and there is a good chance that in countries where WarnerMedia has made deals with foreign media companies to distribute their content. To me, it feels like the company believes that offering the free for free will lead to a mass drive in new domestic subscriptions, sure, but that number could look inflated (streaming data is sketchy as it is) as we’ll likely won’t know how many people dropped their new subscriptions in the following months.
While adding more access in the United States is great they’re still limited on how many subscribers they could likely add by not being a bigger international player along with not really being able to compete with Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+ on the scale.
In my own case, I’m located in Canada and HBO Max isn’t here because WarnerMedia has had a longstanding deal with Bell Media’s Crave to distribute their HBO content along with the new HBO Max stuff as well. This means that people like myself with Crave might be getting Wonder Woman 1984 with zero dollars going to HBO Max directly, it’s not just Canada as these sort of foreign content deals have kept the streaming service out of multiple countries.
I wouldn’t be shocked if they eventually announce a third PVOD option because I don’t really see how they’re going to earn any money at the box office in late December and throughout early 2021. It’s worth reminding people that Warner Bros. only earned a poultry $56.3 million domestically from the release of their Christopher Nolan blockbuster Tenet and theaters are expected to be in rougher shape over the winter, not just domestically but globally. December and throughout January it doesn’t seem likely that the U.S., Canada, UK, Europe, and other markets will be in the kind of shape due to rising COVID-19 cases to even give the studio the international box office that Tenet saw months back which wasn’t great to begin with.
I’m not sure how many more box office hits Warner Bros. can take before something drastic happens concerning employees as WarnerMedia/AT&T is tinkering with their distribution of massive films (WW84’s budget is said to be in the $200 million range) leading to limited/zero profit on films that should be earning $600 million to a billion dollars is only going to lead to more damage to the studio side and could only get worse in 2021. They’ve already cut a bunch of jobs from the marketing department.
We don’t really know how consumers are going to ultimately react to Wonder Woman 1984 being added to the service outside of loyal fans of the franchise who likely already have HBO Max subscriptions, as do most die-hard DC Comics fans. It’s a single film and hardly comparable to something like an exclusive original ongoing series like The Mandalorian.
I also think it’ll be difficult for them to keep Wonder Woman 1984 from digital and PVOD given that access to HBO Max is limited internationally. I’m not even going to get into the obvious issue of having a pristine HD copy of a massive studio film hitting torrenting sites on the same day as it’s drop date, although, being free on HBO Max might cut down on domestic downloading but not on the international side.
This just feels like a short-term win for fans but at the expense of Warner Bros. ability to actually make money from the film and could add to the harm to the studio if 2021 doesn’t improve in a big bad way.
Margot Robbie Is Curious To See The Ayer Cut of ‘Suicide Squad’
On the heels of Zack Snyder’s Justice League coming to HBO Max as an extended miniseries there have been multiple calls from fans for Warner Bros. to release the original cut of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad. The director has confirmed there was plenty of tinkering and many scenes removed from the theatrical cut.
Harley Quinn actress Margot Robbie has now revealed on The Happy Sad Confused podcast that while she never saw this cut of the film she would like to.
ROBBIE: “I never saw the Ayer Cut. I know we shot a lot of stuff that didn’t make it into the movie. I would be very curious myself.”
Earlier this month, David Ayer took to Twitter to debunk a rumor that the Ayer Cut was coming to HBO Max replying with “not true”. There really hasn’t been any official signs that it is coming anytime soon.
Robbie has since moved on as Harley Quinn with Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey and James Gunn’s The Suicide Sqaud set to be released on August 6th, 2021. It’s possible we could see more of her as the character that’s if Harley survives the Suicide Squad sequel.
SOURCE: HAPPY SAD CONFUSED PODCAST
‘The Batman’ Spinoff Series At HBO Max Loses Showrunner Terence Winter Over Creative Differences
The Gotham PD series aka Gotham Central at HBO Max from Matt Reeves has reportedly lost writer and showrunner Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire, Sopranos) according to The Hollywood Reporter. Terence Winter is apparently exiting the DC Comics series due to creative differences with Matt Reeves and producers.
The Boardwalk Empire creator, who was poised to write and serve as showrunner on Matt Reeves’ TV spinoff of The Batman has departed the HBO Max series. Sources say creative differences are to blame for the split as Winter’s vision for the drama did not match what Reeves and other producers had in mind. A search is under way for a new showrunner for the untitled drama.
Winter is keeping busy developing a new mob series for HBO and an anthology series titled Dail M For Murder.
The report doesn’t mention who will be replacing him as showrunner.
Gotham Central isn’t the only DC Comics series in the works at HBO Max as James Gunn is expected to begin shooting Peacemaker early next year and there is also a Green Lantern show featuring multiple lanterns is also coming together.
Matt Reeves is currently busy with the production of The Batman in the United Kingdom.
Here is what Matt had to say about the series at DC FanDome back in August.
REEVES: “The idea of this story was a story in which Gotham, which has this depth of corruption, and the idea that we could do a series that is going deeper into an aspect of it, which in this case is the corrupt police department, the corrupt inner workings of the city. And the way we’re gonna do this series. Terence Winter is just an incredible writer, so the idea that we got him to do this, just is literally a dream. The idea is, we go back to year one, and year one is the beginning of the first emergence, the first appearance of this masked vigilante that starts to unsettle the city, and you start to see the story through the POV of these corrupt cops, and one in particular. And the story is actually a battle for his soul.”
“He’s a cop over generations and the history of corruption in Gotham is enormous and goes back many years, and the story is like, as you realize that there’s this myth-building in the background, you’re actually in a new place where you’ve never seen these characters before – some of them we’ll touch on that you may have seen in the comics, but others are totally new. Then you can go down an avenue and go into detail that you couldn’t do in a movie, and to go into these rich places and meet entirely new characters that Terence is going to create.”
SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
Sly Stallone Officially Joins James Gunn’s ‘The Suicide Squad’ In Mystery Role
Today, Sly Stallone has announced via Instagram that he’ll be part of the cast of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad in an undisclosed role. Which could be voice work for a CGI character like King Shark, villain Starro is another option, or possibly he’s just doing some ADR for whatever the cameo is.
STALLONE: “I’m on my way to do a little work with a great director, James Gunn, on Suicide Squad 2 and I think it’s going to be a spectacular effort. I saw it and it’s unbelievable so I’m very proud to be included but I can’t tell you anything more about it because you’ll have to wait and see but it will be well worth the wait.”
Stallone last weekend wrapped on his superhero film Samaritan in Atlanta and his statement here would suggest that he’s only just joined the film after watching it which could suggest he’s recording some post/voice work for the film. It’s worth mentioning that James Gunn is currently in Canada quarantining and would suggest Sly will be interacting with the director via Zoom/Skype further supporting the idea it’s voice recording.
This news shouldn’t be confused with the Peacemaker series aka Scriptures that doesn’t begin to shoot until January of next year in Vancouver.
The Suicide Squad is set to be released on August 6th, 2021 barring any studio hiccups.
SOURCE: SLY STALLONE
Amber Heard Says She’ll Be Returning For ‘Aquaman 2’ and They’ll Begin Filming In 2021
Despite multiple fan-petitions to remove actress Amber Heard from the role of Mera in Aquaman 2, she has now confirmed her return to Entertainment Weekly with production expected to begin sometime in 2021.
HEARD: “I’m super excited about the amount of fan love and the amount of fan appreciation that Aquaman has acquired and that it has garnered so much excitement for Aquaman and Mera that it means we’ll be coming back. I’m so excited to film that.”
There had been an assumption that filming could return to Australia at Village Roadshow Studios with director James Wan attached.
It’s worth noting that studios normally ignore most online petitions with either positive or negative demands and there had been plenty of calls to remove other actors in Warner Bros. franchises that never went anywhere.
Aquaman 2 has a release date of December 16th, 2022.
SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
James Gunn’s ‘Peacemaker’ Series Officially Adds Robert Patrick, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, and Chris Conrad As Vigilante
Today, HBO Max has officially announce more cast members have joined the new DC Comics series Peacemaker starring John Cena as his character Christopher Smith from The Suicide Squad. The 8-episode series will be written and directed by James Gunn with it’s shoot set to begin this January in Vancouver under the working title The Scriptures and wrap in June.
In an official press release, they announced that Danielle Brooks is playing Leota Adebayo, Robert Patrick is playing Aggie Smith, Jennifer Holland is reprising her role as Emilia Harcourt, and Chris Conrad will play Adrian Chase aka Vigilante.
HBO Max announces new stars for original DC action-comedy series “Peacemaker” from “The Suicide Squad” writer / director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran. Danielle Brooks (“Orange Is the New Black;” “The Color Purple” on Broadway) will star as Leota Adebayo, along with Robert Patrick (“Terminator 2: Judgment Day;” HBO’s “Perry Mason”) as Auggie Smith, Jennifer Holland (“Brightburn;” “American Horror Story”), who will reprise her role of Emilia Harcourt from “The Suicide Squad” film and Chris Conrad (“Perpetual Grace, LTD.;” “Patriot”) as Vigilante/Adrian Chase. They join previously announced stars John Cena in the title role and Steve Agee as John Economos. Cena and Agee also reprise their roles from “The Suicide Squad” movie.
While details about “Peacemaker” are being kept under wraps, the series will explore the origins of the character that Cena will play in the upcoming film, a man who believes in peace at any cost — no matter how many people he has to kill to get it. The series will extend the world that Gunn is creating for “The Suicide Squad” movie, which is scheduled to be released in theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures on August 6, 2021.
The Suicide Squad is set to be released on August 6th, 2021.
SOURCE: HBO MAX
THE RONIN 