Tag: DC Films

Posted on in Film News

Marvel’s ‘Blade’ Reboot & WB’s Next ‘Superman’ Movie Courting The Same Directors

Disney and Warner Bros. are reportedly courting the same black filmmakers for their upcoming superhero projects as mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter. As both Blade and the next Superman film produced by J.J. Abrams are expected to be shot by experienced black directors. An exciting era of inclusion given the budgets expected for the two comic book movies.

Apparently, screenwriter Ta-Nehisi Coates’ black Superman project is expected to have a non-contemporary setting, which sounds similar to the studio’s original plans for Supergirl (1980s). However, it’s unclear when in the 1900s they’ll be aiming for. Instead, Supergirl will appear in The Flash movie (filming in the United Kingdom) played by actress Sasha Calle ushering her directly into the DCEU but the Superman movie doesn’t seem to be joining that corner of the cinematic universe.

The Superman film appears to be moving onto its own track and won’t be part of the universe, as of now. Sources tell THR that Coates is crafting a Kal-El in the vein of the original Superman comics and will have the protagonist hail from Krypton and come to Earth. While the story is currently being crafted and many details could change, one option under consideration is for the film to be a 20th century period piece.

THR is claiming that there is a group candidates that have been looked for both movies.

The names mentioned in the report are Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II), J.D. Dillard (Sleight, Sweetheart), Regina King (One Night In Miami, and Shaka King (Judas & The Black Messiah). It’s certainly an excellent group of contenders but it’s unclear if these names are simply suggestions by the outlet or actually in the running.

The former list can include Creed II’s Steven Caple Jr., J.D. Dillard, Regina King — who got raves for her drama One Night in Miami — and Shaka King, who is popular at Warners thanks to best picture Oscar nominee Judas and the Black Messiah. Some potential directors have met with both studios for both films, even as one agent said the process was “phenomenally early.” 

You might remember that Steven is currently busy with Paramount’s latest Transformers movie about to shoot over in Montreal and Dillard had been previously tasked to co-write a Star Wars project for Lucasfilm.

They also mentioned that Blade’s shoot was bumped from September 2021 to July 2022, giving folks over a full year to complete any outstanding projects before jumping to the MCU. Coates is said not to be delivering his script until mid-December suggesting both projects won’t be shooting until 2022.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Warner Bros. Reportedly Still Pursuing ‘Green Lantern Corps.’ & ‘Supergirl’ Movies

It’s been a while since we’ve had any real concrete updates on multiple DC Comics films in development at Warner Bros. and it was revealed yesterday that the studio’s plans still include Green Lantern Corps. and Supergirl movies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Other projects on the slate due out in 2022-23 include Warners’ and New Line’s Black Adam (July 29, 2022) and Shazam! Fury of the Gods (June 2, 2023), as well as Warners’ Blue Beetle, Batgirl, Supergirl, Green Lantern Corps and Static Shock.

We really shouldn’t be too shocked that a new Supergirl movie is still being considered. The solo project has had screenwriter Oren Uziel working on a script and the studio has cast actress Sasha Calle as the character for their upcoming Flash movie that will introduce DC’s multiverse. All they’re missing is a director and a release date at this point.

However, there hasn’t been much movement on a Green Lantern Corps. film since the announcement of a live-action Green Lantern series heading to HBO Max. Geoff Johns, David Goyer, and Justin Rhodes had been previously tasked to write. A series could do heavy lifting to introduce a heap of Lanterns before a feature film and we’ve seen with Peacemaker and Gotham PD that the studio is open to linking the films to the HBO Max shows. It’s been established that the Green Lantern series will feature Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, Alan Scott, Sinestro, and Kilowog.

Other films in the works include a Zatanna movie written by Promising Young Woman’s Emerald Fennell and a Superman reboot from writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, both will be produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

‘New Gods’ & ‘Trench’ Movies Given The Ax By Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. and DC Films have been developing a heap of feature films based on DC Comics characters along with a few spinoffs of existing projects set within the DCEU. There was a time when announcing projects felt like they’d never follow through with the volume of press releases.

Yesterday, it made huge waves when The Hollywood Reporter announced that Warner Bros. won’t be moving with Ava DuVernay’s New Gods movie she was writing with comic book writer Tom King, featuring the cosmic characters created by Jack Kirby. Some appeared in the Justice League (Granny Goodness & Darkseid) and were expected to play a bigger role in Zack Snyder’s never-made sequels.

It’s not the only project getting the boot.

Aquaman’s James Wan was working to develop a horror spinoff from his Aquaman film with Trench, a horror flick that was penned by Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald. Wan and Peter Safran (Black Adam, Shazam!) were producers on the project that was expected to have a much smaller budget than it’s superhero counterparts. It’s also not moving forward as well.

Wan is about to shoot Aquaman 2 and produced the Mortal Kombat reboot set to be released later this month. Ava is also working on a CW series Naomi and a DMZ series for HBO Max. So their working relationships with WarnerMedia don’t seem to be tarnished over this decision.

This what the studio had to say in a statement suggesting they might consider circling back in the future.

“As part of our DC slate, some legacy development titles including New Gods and The Trench will not be moving forward. We thank our partners Ava DuVernay, Tom King, James Wan and Peter Safran for their time and collaboration during this process and look forward to our continued partnership with them on other DC stories. The projects will remain in their skillful hands if they were to move forward in the future.”

Ava posted on Twitter her reaction to the news praising co-writer Tom King.

This news comes after WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff revealed to Variety last month they weren’t interested in restoring the Snyderverse and hoped to continue moving forward with new projects instead.

I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if the studio started announcing other things they won’t be making, officially. Projects like Steven Spielberg’s WWII flick Blackhawk I suspect will go the way of Sgt. Rock, Joker & Harley Quinn, Lobo, and the purposed Cyborg movie.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

WarnerMedia’s Ann Sarnoff Joins Zack Snyder In Denouncing Toxic Fandom – Too Little Too Late?

Yesterday, WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff spoke with Variety in a lengthy interview and suggested that Zack Snyder’s era has ended with his version of Justice League completing his trilogy. Hopefully, fans can respectfully accept that WarnerMedia is focusing on new projects and won’t be returning to the Snyderverse anytime soon.

I say this because there is vocal group of toxic fans that have embedded themselves into The Snyder Cut movement and even getting on the radar of Snyder himself. This made waves last week in the blogging community with a charity Zoom event where Zack Snyder had to distance himself from the Alt-Right leaning Geeks+Gamers YouTube channel. The Zoom happened to include three people linked to G+G along with a couple other YouTubers in the Zoom that are equally questionable.

After Snyder’s statement, the G+G channel seemed to be outraged that he would distance himself on their live-stream reaction and this led to one of their cohorts, Ethan Van Sciver, essentially wig-out over it and you can see his comment during the stream below as ComicArtistPro Secrets.

Ethan is actually mentioned by name in the “thank you” section of the credits for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, so he’s not unknown to the filmmaker or The Snyder Cut group. He went even further on his own stream with a horrifying rant about calling upon people to kill Chinese people (this coming soon after the shooting in Atlanta that targeted Asian women) with a machine gun on his own YouTube channel with other people linked to G+G in the chat and one other person agreeing with the violent call-to-arms.

It certainly begs the question why didn’t anyone vet these people as most of them have public personas/channels that could have been looked over by other people if Zack was too busy. Snyder had previously dismissed the “toxic fan” question recently citing the money they had raised for suicide prevention. These are the same people he eventually denounced last week as G+G and Ethan thought raising donations gave them cover to keep being horribly toxic because Snyder had embraced them for the charity stuff.

Well, Sarnoff in the interview with Variety took the opportunity to denounce toxicity in the fandom.

SARNOFF: “We’re not tolerating any of that. That behavior is reprehensible no matter what franchise you’re talking about or what business you’re talking about. It’s completely unacceptable. I’m very disappointed in the fans that have chosen to go to that negative place with regard to DC, with regard to some of our executives. It’s just disappointing because we want this to be a safe place to be. We want DC to be a fandom that feels safe and inclusive. We want people to be able to speak up for the things they love, but we don’t want it to be a culture of cancelling things that any small faction isn’t happy with. We are not about that. We are about positivity and celebration.”

There are already butt-hurt people from yesterday’s news about moving on from the Snyderverse trying to coax fans into boycotting the HBO Max release of Godzilla vs. Kong later this month to send a message to WarnerMedia, which is only going to hurt the people involved with that film including Legendary, who has nothing to do with the current wave of DC Comics projects. It feels like this is only going to get worse now that there won’t be months of speculation about when WarnerMedia announces the next DC project from Snyder.

Boycotts have been a huge thing in both DC and Star Wars fandom from a small minority of people thinking depriving views on streaming services or box office money will lead studios to reconsider certain choices they’ve made as massive corporations.

While most of my own interactions with DC fans has been mostly positive including from those that are keen for the Snyderverse to make a return and have been championing The Snyder Cut. The ones that do stand-out are the people who gang-up and upload targeted harassment from mostly anonymous Twitter accounts. When that toxicity it’s brought-up there are plenty of people quick to dismiss any of that and jump directly into whataboutism instead of sticking to the topic-at-hand.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

WarnerMedia Moving On From The Zack Snyder Era & Unlikely Restoring The Snyderverse

Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally debuted last week on HBO Max and embolden fans to push their next phase of their Snyder campaign with #RestoreTheSnyderverse, however, that doesn’t seem to be really in the cards despite over a year of hucksters pushing bogus scoops that Zack was coming back to make more films and oversee the franchise again.

Variety spoke with WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff, who poured cold water all over that fan speculation as she states that Zack has now completed his trilogy with his original version of Justice League and seem to be more focused on the other things they’re currently working on with their other DC Comics films. Ann also reiterates they never actually planned on releasing Zack Snyder’s Justice League until about a year ago and doesn’t sound like it’s release has inspired them to reconsider having him return to make more films.

SARNOFF: “We wanted to give Zack the opportunity to complete his vision in a four-hour movie, which is impossible to do in theaters. We’re happy that we have HBO Max to let the rope out as it were and allow the fans to see all four-hours of Zack’s vision.”

“I appreciate that they love Zack’s work and we are very thankful for his many contributions to DC. We’re just so happy that he could bring his cut of the Justice League to life because that wasn’t in the plan until about a year ago. With that comes the completion of his trilogy. We’re very happy we’ve done this, but we’re very excited about the plans we have for all the multi-dimensional DC characters that are being developed right now.”

Some fans have been hopeful that Zack would at the very least be able to finish the films he planned to make after Justice League. That seems far-fetched given the vast amount of money spent on Justice League alone and there is a big difference between an extra $70 million to complete an unfinished cut and WarnerMedia spending another $200-300 million a pop for more films that only small portion of people are asking for. The latter seems to be a stretch even more so with the comments from Sarnoff.

As Zack’s relationship with Netflix grows after releasing Army of The Dead, I wouldn’t be shocked if he ended up pursuing bigger projects with them in the future and maybe even superhero stuff since as they have plenty of comic book adaptations.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

‘Promising Young Woman’s Emerald Fennell To Write ‘Zatanna’ Movie With J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Producing

Screenwriter and director Emerald Fennell is coming off a very successful year for her rape-revenge film Promising Young Woman as it landed an impressive five Oscar nominations, three for Fennell. Those include Best Original Screenplay, Best Picture, and Best Director there is a good chance she’ll end up with multiple awards come April 25th.

Studios are already circling the talented filmmaker as Variety reports that Warner Bros. has tapped Fennell to write a DC Comics film focused on the heroine Zatanna for them with DC Films and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot producing it.

Zatanna, created by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, is a magician and considered one of the most powerful sorcerers in the DC universe. Her magical abilities are genetic, as her dad Giovanni Zatara was also an alchemist.

There had been an expectation that the Zatanna character would be part of the Justice League Dark series on HBO Max that Abrams is also involved with. However, Variety states the feature film will this incarnations first appearance.

Abrams is also developing a “dark” Constantine reboot series for HBO Max.

It’s quite interesting to see DC Films recruiting from Oscar contenders.

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN – Nothing in Cassie’s life is what it appears to be — she’s wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs from the past.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

‘Blue Beetle’: Warner Bros. Hires Angel Manuel Soto To Direct The DC Comics Film With A Possible Fall Production Start

A new report from The Wrap has revealed that a director Angel Manuel Soto has been hired for the upcoming Blue Beetle movie from Warner Bros. and DC Films. Filming is also said to be aiming for the fall.

Charm City Kings director Angel Manuel Soto is set to direct Blue Beetle, DC Films and Warner Bros.’ first superhero movie starring a Latino character, individuals with knowledge of the project exclusively tells TheWrap.

The big step will be finding an actor to play Jaime Reyes aka Blue Beetle.

Blue Beetle won’t be the only Latinx superhero Warner Bros. is introducing as Sasha Calle was recently cast as Supergirl for their Flash film, there is an expectation that Sasha could end up leading the solo film they’ve been developing at the studio with screenwriter Oren Uziel working on a script. We’ll likely see Sasha’s Supergirl make her big screen debut before Blue Beetle.

SOURCE: THE WRAP

Posted on in Television News

Joe Barton Becomes New Showrunner of ‘The Batman’ Spinoff Series At HBO Max

It was announced by WarnerMedia, via press release circulated to trades such as Deadline, that they’ve just hired Joe Barton to become the new showrunner on their Gotham PD-centric series on HBO Max that is produced by The Batman director Matt Reeves, taking place years prior to the events of the upcoming film starring Robert Pattinson.

Barton replaces Boardwalk Empire‘s Terence Winter, who had exited over creative differences and is no stranger to gritty underbellies of crime as he was creator of the Yakuza series Giri/Haji.

Here is what Matt Reeves had to say about the DC Comics series when promoting it over the summer at DC FanDome.

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.”

This was the original press release for the project before Winter’s exit.

HBO Max announced today that it has given a series commitment to an original DC drama set in the Gotham City police department from The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves, Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter, The Batman producer Dylan Clark, and Warner Bros. Television. The groundbreaking television series to be written by Winter is set in the world Reeves is creating for The Batman feature film and will build upon the motion picture’s examination of the anatomy of corruption in Gotham City, ultimately launching a new Batman universe across multiple platforms. The series provides an unprecedented opportunity to extend the world established in the movie and further explore the myriad of compelling and complex characters of Gotham. This marks the first television project for Reeves under his recently announced overall deal with the Warner Bros. Television Group.

The Batman is reportedly still shooting in the United Kingdom despite new lockdown restrictions due to a new variant of COVID-19 that is rapidly spreading there. Warner Bros. had pushed the film’s release date from October 1st, 2021 to Mach 4th, 2022 because of previous production delays. Pattinson himself had tested positive for the virus at one point.

Reeves has previously stated this would be the first in a new trilogy with the film introducing us to Batman’s rogues gallery which will include The Riddler, Catwoman, Carmine Falcone, and The Penguin.

This version of Batman according to DC Films takes place within Earth 2 and the show takes place during Bruce Wayne’s first year operating as the Caped Crusader.

From Warner Bros. Pictures comes “The Batman,” with director Matt Reeves (the “Planet of the Apes” films) at the helm and with Robert Pattinson (“Tenet,” “The Lighthouse,” “Good Time”) starring as Gotham City’s vigilante detective, Batman, and billionaire Bruce Wayne.

Also in the star-studded ensemble as Gotham’s famous and infamous cast of characters are Zoë Kravitz (“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” “Mad Max: Fury Road”) as Selina Kyle; Paul Dano (“Love & Mercy,” “12 Years a Slave”) as Edward Nashton; Jeffrey Wright (the “Hunger Games” films) as the GCPD’s James Gordon; John Turturro (the “Transformers” films) as Carmine Falcone; Peter Sarsgaard (“The Magnificent Seven,” “Black Mass”) as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson; Barry Keoghan (“Dunkirk”) as Officer Stanley Merkel; Jayme Lawson (“Farewell Amor”) as mayoral candidate Bella Reál; with Andy Serkis (the “Planet of the Apes” films, “Black Panther”) as Alfred; and Colin Farrell (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” “Dumbo”) as Oswald Cobblepot.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘The Flash’: Ray Fisher’s Cyborg Cameo Reportedly Written Out – Role Won’t Be Recast

It’s starting to look like Ray Fisher and his character Cyborg won’t be appearing in The Flash after all.

The Wrap is supporting a tweet from Forbes writer Mark Hughes that Cyborg’s cameo in the film has been removed and they will not be recasting the part. This news would debunk unreliable online rumors that the studio and director was recasting the Cyborg role specifically for The Flash.

Justice League actor Ray Fisher, who was offered a cameo role last June to appear as Cyborg in The Flash solo movie, has been written out of the screenplay and will not be recast, according to insiders with knowledge of the situation.

However, we aren’t terribly shocked by this news as the Justice League actor seemed to telegraph this update on his character. Ray Fisher made the following statement on Twitter last month signaling he wouldn’t be working with DC Films or Walter Hamada in the future, possibly getting ahead of the reports of his cameo being nixed by the studio. Essentially announcing his exit from the franchise.

DC Films had previously announced a solo Cyborg movie that never materialized as neither a screenwriter or director were ever announced as developing it. The character is also being used in the live-action realm with the series Doom Patrol, played by Jovian Wade.

Andy Muschietti (IT, Mama) is directing from a script penned by Christina Hodson (Batgirl, Birds of Prey) with a cast said to include Ezra Miller, Ben Affleck, and Michael Keaton using a different version of The Flashpoint storyline that will usher-in DC Comics’ own Multiverse.

Filming on The Flash is expected to begin this April at Warner Bros. Leavesden Studios in Watford, England. The facility is currently being used for Fantastic Beasts 3 as it’s been the homestead production stages for the Harry Potter franchise and was used for previous DC Comics movies such as The Batman, Justice League, and Wonder Woman.

It’s release date has been set for November 4th, 2022.

SOURCE: THE WRAP

Posted on in Film News

Walter Hamada To Continue His Role As President of DC Films Into 2023

Variety is reporting that DC Films President Walter Hamada has re-upped with extension that will last through 2023. This means Hamada will be around long enough to execute a heap of projects for both the big screen and WarnerMedia’s domestic streaming service HBO Max that he’s been developing for the last couple of years.

There are plenty of upcoming feature film projects on the horizon including films expected to begin shooting this year such as The Flash, Black Adam, Shazam!: Fury of The Gods, and Aquaman 2. James Gunn is also set to begin shooting his Peacemaker series starring John Cena this month in Vancouver, a mature spinoff series of The Suicide Squad exclusively or HBO Max.

Other things in the fire are Wonder Woman 3, Batgirl, Static Shock, The Trench, Plastic Man, a Green Lantern series at HBO Max, and development on a Supergirl movie before things stalled.

Hamada joined DC Films back in 2018 coming from New Line Cinema.

James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad is expected to be the next big DC release on August 6th, 2021 as Matt Reeves‘ The Batman had been bumped from October 1st, 2021 to March 4th, 2022 giving the production a bit of breathing room as they attempting to complete filming during the pandemic as there is increased strain in the United Kingdom.

SOURCE: VARIETY