DC Movie Universe

[batfan08]

At this point, WB/DC may have to do it in reverse... which is develop a JLA film first, then spin potential individual franchises from that depending on how well it does. And if it's done right it would be absolutely huge, as in AVENGERS huge or even bigger. You're talking about Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and The Flash. These are all elite, top-tier comic characters. And it doesn't get any bigger than Bats and Supes.

The problem is they have no cohesive vision. They need someone like Marvel has in Kevin Feige to take the reigns and shephard it all. Nolan is not that person, because he shows an open distance from true comic book sensibilities. And I hope it isn't someone like Geoff Johns or Jim Lee, either... That would set up a total cluster____.

WB/DC is in a weird place with this right now. The Nolan Batman films are clearly not meant to take place in any shared DC film universe, the GL movie completely underwhelmed, Flash & Wonder Woman (once a Joss Whedon project) languish in development hell, and they're about to launch a Superman reboot produced by Nolan with a 3-picture deal with no indication of whether or not that could be part of a bigger DCU. Obviously, a successful Supes film would be the perfect kick-off and jump starter, but it's all an unknown. Like some have said, they seem to have no plan when it comes to a consolidated DC movie universe. And that's a damn shame, because unlike Marvel, DC controls the rights to ALL of their comic characters via WB.

What if DC worked Marvel's angle, but backwards? One advantage that DC has is recognition; everyone knows the origins of Batman and Superman, so why give them yet another formulaic origin story? As far as the others are concerned, I see no reason why they couldn't fit the basic origins into a montage/credits sequence at the beginning of the film (Green Lantern: Test pilot finds alien ring that's powered by wiil, The Flash: Police Crime Lab technician gains super speed from lightning/chemicals, etc.). With a Justice League movie, they have built a foundation, from which they can spin out into the solo movies and delve deeper into the mythologies of the individual characters.

What is it with you and I thinking on the same level, lately, Irish?

 

[IrishJedi]

What is it with you and I thinking on the same level, lately, Irish?

This isn't really the original Irish. He's on vacation... I'm from Earth-2 and just filling in.

 

[batfan08]

This isn't really the original Irish. He's on vacation... I'm from Earth-2 and just filling in.

Wait, are you talking Pre-reboot? If you say no, then we aren't as alike as I thought...

 

[intothevoid]

My thoughts:

Give MoS everything and the kitchen sink, use some of those Nolan $$$ from TDK and (hopefully) TDKR and market the hell out of MoS and ensure it's CGI and effects are the best of the best.

If MoS can take-off box office wise, it could lay some serious groundwork. I think MoS SHOULD have some reference to Gotham (though it will be tricky as the audience may confuse it with Nolan's Gotham).

When Batman reboot comes along (2014 possibly), it should cut to the chase and skip the whole origin rehash, and explore a Gotham where both humans and meta-humans exist, and it should probably include a cameo from Supes/post-credit sequence to link them somehow.

The problem is going to be Flash, GL and Wonder Woman. I think the best way to tackle that is to just jump into a JLA film after MoS and Batman reboot - introduce the audience to GL, Flash, WW + any others directly.

Following that, depending on audience response to the characters, individual movies can be pursued for Flash, WW and GL, while sequels for rebooted Batman and MoS can take shape concurrently.

That's how I would do it.

 

[thenammagazine]

My thoughts:

Give MoS everything and the kitchen sink, use some of those Nolan $$$ from TDK and (hopefully) TDKR and market the hell out of MoS and ensure it's CGI and effects are the best of the best.

If MoS can take-off box office wise, it could lay some serious groundwork. I think MoS SHOULD have some reference to Gotham (though it will be tricky as the audience may confuse it with Nolan's Gotham).

When Batman reboot comes along (2014 possibly), it should cut to the chase and skip the whole origin rehash, and explore a Gotham where both humans and meta-humans exist, and it should probably include a cameo from Supes/post-credit sequence to link them somehow.

The problem is going to be Flash, GL and Wonder Woman. I think the best way to tackle that is to just jump into a JLA film after MoS and Batman reboot - introduce the audience to GL, Flash, WW + any others directly.

Following that, depending on audience response to the characters, individual movies can be pursued for Flash, WW and GL, while sequels for rebooted Batman and MoS can take shape concurrently.

That's how I would do it.

I think they could do a GL sequel with Sinestro heading the Sinestro Corps as the antagonist and that would generate enough interest for that character. As I said in the GL thread, whether or not the film made it's budget back, it made over $200,000,000 at the box office. Hardly a bomb as far as ticket sales are concerned and completely unnecessary to just toss in the trash.

 

[intothevoid]

I think they could do a GL sequel with Sinestro heading the Sinestro Corps as the antagonist and that would generate enough interest for that character. As I said in the GL thread, whether or not the film made it's budget back, it made over $200,000,000 at the box office. Hardly a bomb as far as ticket sales are concerned and completely unnecessary to just toss in the trash.

I agree that it's worth pursuing a sequel. Mentally i've written it off though because the 'general audience' considers it a flop so not sure WB would take the risk of making a sequel?

In any case, the plan I described can work with or without existing GL.

 

[IrishJedi]

Actually, I was on a WB shareholders call a month or two back and it was disclosed that GL was ultimately profitable after DVD/Blu-ray revenue clocked in. And that's not even counting toys & merchandising. Just straight International box office and home video to date.

And that's not a bad plan, Void.

 

[Bardoon]

I think one thing that DC has working against it is that it is too "top-heavy". They're owned by Warner Bros. and a lot of those executives have wanted to either be too hands-on or too hands-off when it comes to all the superhero movie projects.

Those same execs are also the ones who guide the direction of these movies. At a time when the Batman series was doing well under Burton, some executives may have been the one who pushed it into the campy, family-friendly, rainbow bright direction that was Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, while in other circumstances DC/WB have just had extremely bad luck with talented filmmakers (Bryan Singer & Superman Returns). At the end of the day, Warner Bros. executives call the shots and DC creators/writers can object all they want, but the decisions made are not in their hands.

Those "layers of the cake" make for a mess when it comes to DC films. I'm sure DC executives get frustrated with their Warner Bros. management and in likewise fashion the WB suits get frustrated when they see a DC movie come out and it blows. Take Green Lantern for example. While a visually cool movie, overall it was bland and sub-par compared to all the other superhero movies coming out and trust me on this, some people both in DC comics and Warner Bros. probably got smashed because of it.

And what happens there is that it leaves a "sour taste" in everyone's mouth and in the film industry you just can't erase that and do over. A "do-over" won't be "accepted" for at least several years out! Superman has a reboot coming, Green Lantern has been soiled for the near future unless DC can pull a "Wrath of Khan" with it, and Nolan wants to keep his Batman out of any "Dc Cinematic Universe".

The sad thing is, ideally, DC Comics has all the tools to succeed (Warner Bros., experienced movie studio producers, lots o' money, etc.) but none of those tools are in the hands of the right people or they just aren't working right with the parts available.

If DC does get its act together and tries to do a whole "Justice League" tie-in movie a la Marvel with "The Avengers", it's a minimum at least five years away. And I'll even go out on a limb and say that Batman WILL NOT be part of it.

 

[thenammagazine]

I think one thing that DC has working against it is that it is too "top-heavy". They're owned by Warner Bros. and a lot of those executives have wanted to either be too hands-on or too hands-off when it comes to all the superhero movie projects.

Those same execs are also the ones who guide the direction of these movies. At a time when the Batman series was doing well under Burton, some executives may have been the one who pushed it into the campy, family-friendly, rainbow bright direction that was Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, while in other circumstances DC/WB have just had extremely bad luck with talented filmmakers (Bryan Singer & Superman Returns). At the end of the day, Warner Bros. executives call the shots and DC creators/writers can object all they want, but the decisions made are not in their hands.

Those "layers of the cake" make for a mess when it comes to DC films. I'm sure DC executives get frustrated with their Warner Bros. management and in likewise fashion the WB suits get frustrated when they see a DC movie come out and it blows. Take Green Lantern for example. While a visually cool movie, overall it was bland and sub-par compared to all the other superhero movies coming out and trust me on this, some people both in DC comics and Warner Bros. probably got smashed because of it.

And what happens there is that it leaves a "sour taste" in everyone's mouth and in the film industry you just can't erase that and do over. A "do-over" won't be "accepted" for at least several years out! Superman has a reboot coming, Green Lantern has been soiled for the near future unless DC can pull a "Wrath of Khan" with it, and Nolan wants to keep his Batman out of any "Dc Cinematic Universe".

The sad thing is, ideally, DC Comics has all the tools to succeed (Warner Bros., experienced movie studio producers, lots o' money, etc.) but none of those tools are in the hands of the right people or they just aren't working right with the parts available.

If DC does get its act together and tries to do a whole "Justice League" tie-in movie a la Marvel with "The Avengers", it's a minimum at least five years away. And I'll even go out on a limb and say that Batman WILL NOT be part of it.

Marvel's owned by Disney.

 

[IrishJedi]

There is no way they'd do a JL movie without Batman. It won't be at all related to Nolan's Batman, but he'll absolutely be there if JL ever happens.

 

[IrishJedi]

Marvel's owned by Disney.

Yeah, but they pretty much give Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige free reign (as long as the films continue to succeed). DC desperately needs something like this in place for their films to be cohesive and without major disturbance from execs.

 

[intothevoid]

Actually, I was on a WB shareholders call a month or two back and it was disclosed that GL was ultimately profitable after DVD/Blu-ray revenue clocked in. And that's not even counting toys & merchandising. Just straight International box office and home video to date.

And that's not a bad plan, Void.

Well, that's encouraging about GL's profitability but still doesn't get over the general audience consensus which seems to categorize it in the 'flop' bucket.

Hopefully, WB can see past that
While GL's story could have been approached in a number of better ways, I think Reynolds and Mark Strong (especially) fit the bill quite well.

A sequel that focuses on the Sinestro Corps war as Nam suggests, could bring in a lot of people if done well.

Marvel's owned by Disney.

 

[thenammagazine]

Yeah, but they pretty much give Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige free reign (as long as the films continue to succeed). DC desperately needs something like this in place for their films to be cohesive and without major disturbance from execs.

Yeah, but as I said earlier, a JLA film without established heroes (film-wise) just wouldn't have the impact they're looking for. And the JLA can't fly on the success of Superman alone. I'm already worried that WB, in all their ignorance, is unrealistically expecting TDKR to pull in TDK money.

 

[NASEDO]

GL could have worked, but Ryan Reynolds sucks donkey balls. Now he wants to be Deadpool in a spinoff movie. That will flop with him in it.

 

[thenammagazine]

GL could have worked, but Ryan Reynolds sucks donkey balls. Now he wants to be Deadpool in a spinoff movie. That will flop with him in it.

Doubtful. If you know anything about Deadpool, you know that's a perfect casting.

 

[karamazov80]

In the words of Ron Burgandy. That doesn't make sense. Average is average.

Well, according to the laws of math. . .it does make sense. You've got a distribution of movies, and an average type of movie amongst them. If a movie is better than 50% or so of all movies, then it's better than average. Both of those movies fall into that category. You may only like a small % of movies out there, but that doesn't make anything you dislike average. Nothing is anything without a reference point. But whateva.

 

[intothevoid]

Well, according to the laws of math. . .it does make sense. You've got a distribution of movies, and an average type of movie amongst them. If a movie is better than 50% or so of all movies, then it's better than average. Both of those movies fall into that category. You may only like a small % of movies out there, but that doesn't make anything you dislike average. Nothing is anything without a reference point. But whateva.

Can't disagree with Math

 

[thenammagazine]

Well, according to the laws of math. . .it does make sense. You've got a distribution of movies, and an average type of movie amongst them. If a movie is better than 50% or so of all movies, then it's better than average. Both of those movies fall into that category. You may only like a small % of movies out there, but that doesn't make anything you dislike average. Nothing is anything without a reference point. But whateva.

Unless you're doing Wofford's math where 2 + 4 = 9

 

[LordAzrael]

no real reason MoS couldn't reference Gotham. Trick would be that MoS could only be active after the Dark knight movies. Maybe Batman is the older cynical veteran and Superman the newb idealist ? Not quite sure how you fit the other JLA into the mix.

 

[intothevoid]

no real reason MoS couldn't reference Gotham. Trick would be that MoS could only be active after the Dark knight movies. Maybe Batman is the older cynical veteran and Superman the newb idealist ? Not quite sure how you fit the other JLA into the mix.

Nolan's Batman will NOT be integrated into any future JLA, Nolan's pretty much point blank confirmed as much a number of times.