The DC Extended Universe: To Thanagar and Beyond!

[starri]

7 hours ago, MarkHB said:

I've never read most of it, but I heard about DC printing an omnibus edition when it was announced that they were recalling it for messed-up pages.  I have an order in for the corrected edition at my friendly comics store.. I guess it has all the stuff from the 70's runs right up through The Hunger Dogs.

And, because someone has to go there, at its heart, the main story behind New Gods is about a powerful space being in search of a magical MacGuffin that will allow him to become all-power and control the universe.  Stop me if you've heard that one before.

[slowpoked]

On 3/15/2018 at 4:09 PM, JessePinkman said:

Also it’s nice to see a woman failing upwards like all the white dudes who get to direct bomb after bomb.

THIS. I'm glad to see that, while AWIT was a disappointment, that it didn't banish Ava into directors' purgatory like it did so many female directors before her. She's a double whammy, if you think about it. Female AND minority director. One failure and it's off to nowhereland for you. While the likes of Brett Ratner, Michael Bay, Judd Apatow, etc., get a third chance, after a second chance, etc. 

I'm not familiar with this part of DC but I'm excited to see what Ava can do. She was in line to direct Black Panther anyway, so it's nice to see her get a superhero movie. Be like Patty Jenkins, Ava!

[MarkHB]

9 hours ago, starri said:

And, because someone has to go there, at its heart, the main story behind New Gods is about a powerful space being in search of a magical MacGuffin that will allow him to become all-power and control the universe.  Stop me if you've heard that one before.

Yeah, Darkseid and his quest for the Anti-Life Equation is the looming evil in the background, but there's so much more to the story: Orion and Scott Free, the Forever People ( literally a bunch of hippies with godlike powers riding around in a vw bus), and the climax of the story, aiui, doesn't even revolve around Darkseid getting the equation or superheroes punching him. The hardcover omnibus I'm buying costs over $100; I'm thinking there's plenty to work with.

Plus, it's my understanding that Asgard got pretty much wiped out in Thor: Ragnarok. If that's that case,  then this is really fitting,  because Kirby's whole idea was that the New Gods arose when the Old ( Marvel) Gods died.

[Bruinsfan]

On 3/15/2018 at 6:04 PM, Dee said:

That's gonna be one huge hot mess.

So, pretty true to the source material.

[starri]

14 hours ago, MarkHB said:

Yeah, Darkseid and his quest for the Anti-Life Equation is the looming evil in the background, but there's so much more to the story: Orion and Scott Free, the Forever People ( literally a bunch of hippies with godlike powers riding around in a vw bus), and the climax of the story, aiui, doesn't even revolve around Darkseid getting the equation or superheroes punching him.

But then you get into the whole Darkseid = Thanos, Anti-Life Equation = Infinity Stones thing.  Plus you need to get the fairly abstract concept of New Genesis and Apokolips.  I just don't know if there's enough time in a single movie to make that understandable.

There's a great movie in Mister Miracle.  You don't need to make it too big, and you have two great parts in Scott and Barda, and someone somewhere suggested Helen Mirren as Granny Goodness, and now I want that more than anything.  I just think trying to do a bigger Fourth World story is a bit much for a mass audience.

[MarkHB]

16 hours ago, starri said:

But then you get into the whole Darkseid = Thanos, Anti-Life Equation = Infinity Stones thing.  Plus you need to get the fairly abstract concept of New Genesis and Apokolips.  I just don't know if there's enough time in a single movie to make that understandable.

I'll admit that the Darkseid/Thanos comparison is inevitable.  I've ordered the corrected edition of the Omnibus edition (which collects something like 36 issues plus The Hunger Dogs graphic novel that wrapped up the original story) at my friendly neighborhood comics store; once I've finally read it I'll come back with my ideas on how to break a movie out of it (and since I am very sure that Ava is waiting on my every word, I'll try to make it a priority :) ).

[MarkHB]

The Shazam! thread is now open...

[MarkHB]

I just want to point out that I maintain the first post of this thread as an index of all the DCEU movies and movie proposals, with links to all the individual movie threads that have been opened.

[Captain Carrot]

I just had a thought regarding the possibility of DC and Warner Brothers being sold to separate companies. Does WB own the movie rights to DC's characters? Or does DC have the rights, and 'let' WB make the movies since they're both owned by Time Warner? I don't know if anyone here would know that, but I'm thinking the value of DC is dependent on the buyer getting the movie rights.

[starri]

I imagine it's similar to the situation with Star Trek.  CBS owns the rights to Star Trek, so Paramount is required to pay them a licensing fee, even though they're both owned by the same company.  I'm assuming the Star Wars comics Marvel publishes are the same.

[MarkHB]

10 hours ago, Captain Carrot said:

I just had a thought regarding the possibility of DC and Warner Brothers being sold to separate companies. Does WB own the movie rights to DC's characters? Or does DC have the rights, and 'let' WB make the movies since they're both owned by Time Warner? I don't know if anyone here would know that, but I'm thinking the value of DC is dependent on the buyer getting the movie rights.

DC Entertainment is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Warner Bros. Pictures.  If you look at Diane Nelson's resume on the DCE website (she's the president of the company), she's basically the Vice President for Putting Batman on Lunchboxes.  TimeWarner's annual reports talk a lot about how successful DC is in marketing their IP (and don't even mention the comics-publishing business).  As @starri said, the movie studios (as well as Warner Bros. Television) pay DC for the rights to the characters even though they're both part of the same division.  (BTW, Paramount and CBS aren't the same company; Paramount is part of Viacom which is a separate corporation with its own public stockholders.  It "just so happens" that both Viacom and CBS are heavily owned by Sumner Redstone's shell corp.)

My gut feeling is that DC stays with Warner Bros. Pictures in the chance there's a breakup of TW.

[Matt K]

I highly doubt that DC will be sold off.  Superman and Batman are two of the top 5 (I think it's actually top 3)  most lucrative merchandising earners worldwide.  So I doubt WB would want to lose out on that revenue.  That said, I do think it's a real possibility that they might license off the movie/tv rights to a lot of their properties.  At this point WB has to see that while DC can earn money, they've taken a lot of risk with little reward.  So I've heard rumor that they might mitigate that and just let other studios make the DC movies and WB can just get money with little risk.  

 

Of course this all depends on the AT&T merger not going through.  While I'm personally opposed to the deal (I don't like media providers having a financial interest in the media itself) I think there's a possibility that the courts might allow the deal.

[Captain Carrot]

Thanks for the feedback. I don't think it's likely that WB and DC would be separated, but some of the speculation had me curious about the possibility.

[starri]

12 minutes ago, Captain Carrot said:

Thanks for the feedback. I don't think it's likely that WB and DC would be separated, but some of the speculation had me curious about the possibility.

I can blow your mind even further.  In the early 80s, DC's sales hit a rough patch, and the then parent company, Warner Communications, almost sold off the entire DC universe to Marvel.  One of the only reasons it didn't happen was the comics distributors were grumbling that it would give Marvel too much market share and would then violate anti-trust laws.

[Captain Carrot]

I actually remember hearing about that, but have to admit that I wasn't into comics (other than the Hama GI Joe series) at the time.

[xaxat]

Justice League Is Officially the Lowest-Grossing DC Universe Movie

Quote

The $229,024,295 gross puts Justice League over $60 million behind Man of Steel, which is in fourth place, almost $100 million behind Suicide Squad(third place), a little over $100 million behind Batman v Superman (second place), and about $183 million behind DC’s number one film, Wonder Woman.

Internationally, it’s more of the same. While the film is likely still playing a few places across the globe, its international total is currently at $657,924,295 which, again, puts it fifth out of the five DC movies with about $10 million between it and Man of Steel (so it may still top that). Batman v Superman is number one in this category, with $873 million over Wonder Woman’s $821 million.

[HunterHunted]

1 hour ago, xaxat said:

Justice League Is Officially the Lowest-Grossing DC Universe Movie

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." Many people internalized this lesson. Unfortunately, Justice League was much better than offerings like Suicide Squad. However, viewers had already learned their lesson by then.

[Dee]

When will these studios learn that you can't rush a shared universe?

[Captain Carrot]

7 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." Many people internalized this lesson. Unfortunately, Justice League was much better than offerings like Suicide Squad. However, viewers had already learned their lesson by then.

Which is why I don't agree with the people saying that simply rebooting the movies will fix the problem. Marvel has built up a certain amount of goodwill, so people will check out a space opera with a talking racoon in it. DC/WB has built up the...opposite of goodwill. (Is there a word for that)?

Reboot or no, they need to start making better movies. But even then, there's people that aren't going to give the movies a chance, at least not right away. So, they probably need to make movies with smaller budgets until they've developed an audience that will support more expensive movies. 

[BetterButter]

‘Narcos’ Star Pedro Pascal Lands Key Role in ‘Wonder Woman’ Sequel

[BetterButter]

Bumblebee writer Christina Hodson takes over the Batgirl movie

[darkestboy]

I think they're better off taking Batgirl, the Sirens and Birds of Prey and doing one movie with these characters with a recognisable antagonist/s as well.

[starri]

23 hours ago, darkestboy said:

I think they're better off taking Batgirl, the Sirens and Birds of Prey and doing one movie with these characters with a recognisable antagonist/s as well.

I think a big cast like that is way too messy.  We've seen that DC has a few problems with team-ups.

[MarkHB]

On 4/16/2018 at 10:09 AM, darkestboy said:

I think they're better off taking Batgirl, the Sirens and Birds of Prey and doing one movie with these characters with a recognisable antagonist/s as well.

 

3 hours ago, starri said:

I think a big cast like that is way too messy.  We've seen that DC has a few problems with team-ups.

Well, someone is going to be making (or cleaning up) the mess: Birds of Prey (title TBD) apparently is close to a green light, written by Christina Hodson (also writing Batgirl, so nice synergy there), produced by and starring Margot Robbie, and directed by Cathy Yan.  Per the article, the goal is to start production late this year or early next year.

[MarkHB]

More news : Speilberg is going to make Blackhawk. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/steven-spielberg-tackling-dc-comics-movie-blackhawk-1103534

[VCRTracking]

Even though the Blackhawks aren't superheroes, they're a World War II era squadron of in  fighter pilots from each of the Allied countries, it's still cool that Spielberg is directing a " DC comic book" movie.

[Bruinsfan]

Also, 1941 convinces me that he can at least manage the logistics of the WWII set pieces. Especially if there's a comedic dance fight.

[starri]

Lady Blackhawk or GTFO.

[Silver Raven]

A list of all of the superhero movies scheduled through 2020

http://ew.com/movies/2018/05/03/superhero-movie-release-dates-marvel-dc/

[cambridgeguy]

Best of luck to DC.  Unfortunately for them most of the public has already decided that Marvel = awesome and fun while DC (except for WW) = crappy and depressing. 

[PepSinger]

I ask this question with all honesty: What the fuck is DC doing? Is *anyone* actually planning anything? Can any of this be fixed?

At this point, I'm not sure what they should do. They shouldn't be moving on to second-tier heroes because even the main ones, except Wonder Woman, need to be fixed. Yikes.

Edited May 4, 2018 by PepSinger

[stealinghome]

At this point, I would stop doing movies for anyone except Wonder Woman for 2-3 years. Let the stank of BvS and Justice League dissipate for a bit, and then relaunch the franchise with a clear vision that understands and honors the characters. It should be centered around Wonder Woman, of course....

[MarkHB]

On 5/3/2018 at 8:33 PM, PepSinger said:

I ask this question with all honesty: What the fuck is DC doing? Is *anyone* actually planning anything? Can any of this be fixed?

I still believe that, a) the whole point of the DCEU is to leverage the main characters to open up the lesser-known characters for movies, and b) now that Justice League is done they are largely following through with that plan.  I don't believe they ever wanted an Infinity War at the end of the rainbow, there was never going to be a real through-line other than Zack Snyder's five-part Superman saga (originally MoS, BvS, JL1, JL 2, and a fifth one that hasn't been named but which became known recently).  If the movies they're planning need a Superman it will be Henry Cavill, if they need Batman it will be Ben Affleck unless and until Matt Reeves replaces him, but in general they'll do their own thing and simply acknowledge that they're in the same world as the existing films.

[darkestboy]

It seems that Harley Quinn/Birds Of Prey/Gotham City Sirens movie is being filmed in January 2019 ....

http://comicbook.com/dc/2018/05/14/birds-of-prey-filming-2019-all-female-crew/

[MarkHB]

If you wish to discuss gender, race, ethnicity, and LGBT issues in the DC Movie Universe, we have a new Social Analysis thread for the Superhero genre of films in Everything Else Movies. Thanks!

[MarkHB]

Geoff Johns and Patty Jenkins are now teasing a logo that hints at the Wonder Woman sequel being titled "Wonder Woman 1984".  The domain wonderwoman1984.com was recently registered by Warner Bros.

[MarkHB]

More news: a conceptual Jared Leto Joker movie is in very early development (as in, they don't even have a writer yet).  It would tie into what was referred to as the "Suicide Squad world," whether that means the DCEU as a whole or if they're subdividing even further I have no idea.

[cambridgeguy]

I feel sorry for everyone involved if they start filming a Joker film with Leto.  Maybe that's not a role you want to fill with a dedicated method actor.

[HunterHunted]

59 minutes ago, cambridgeguy said:

I feel sorry for everyone involved if they start filming a Joker film with Leto.  Maybe that's not a role you want to fill with a dedicated method actor.

I can't even call it method acting because he fundamentally misunderstands the character. We should just call it what it is--dickery with excuses.

[afterbite]

16 hours ago, MarkHB said:

More news: a conceptual Jared Leto Joker movie is in very early development (as in, they don't even have a writer yet).  It would tie into what was referred to as the "Suicide Squad world," whether that means the DCEU as a whole or if they're subdividing even further I have no idea.

I'm sure there are movies I'd be less interested in seeing, but I can't really think of any right now.

4 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

I feel sorry for everyone involved if they start filming a Joker film with Leto.  Maybe that's not a role you want to fill with a dedicated method actor.

For real. All costars should get a free tetanus shot as a signing "bonus".

[tennisgurl]

I know I've made this joke before with this franchise, but I feel like this needs repeating. Stop trying to make Leto Joker happen, DC! Its not going to happen!

They should just rename Leto Joker "wants attention really badly" and get it over with.

[JustaPerson]

I read that before Leto, they actually sought out Ryan Gosling to play the Joker. I think one of the reasons he didn't want to sign on was because he balked at the multiple film contract, but I wonder what it would have been like? I mean after the mess SS turned out to be, he dodged a bullet but he did channel a similar-ish character for laughs in an SNL skit.

[MarkHB]

Geoff Johns is leaving his executive role at DC Entertainment, instead he has formed his own production company at WB and will concentrate on writing and producing movies, TV shows and comics.  It seems that his first full-time creative film project will be Green Lantern Corps.  Jim Lee is stepping up as Chief Creative Officer in addition to his role as co-publisher.  Last week, Diane Nelson announced that she was permanently leaving her role as President of DCE; she has been replaced on an interim basis by WB's Chief DIgital Officer Thomas Gewecke.  "Chief Creative Officer" was a role created so that DCE would have someone whose job was to be at the table in the film and TV development discussions and to represent the comics division there.

All of this, of course, is in the shadow of tomorrow's anticipated ruling in the TimeWarner / AT&T merger trial.

[HunterHunted]

While I can recall liking some of his artwork, I don't recall ever being impressed by Lee's writing or plotting.

Really this is all an effort to keep Geoff Johns free and unshackled from what eventually goes down at WB, Time Warner, and AT&T.

[Matt K]

The funny thing is, this'll be Johns second Green Lantern movie.  He was a writer and producer for the original (and I believe he was fairly involved with that movie).  I can't see this one going much better with him at the helm.

[JessePinkman]

First images from WW84

'

Loving this aesthetic!

Spoiler

[MarkHB]

And per Patty, it's officially "Wonder Woman 1984"!  And I'm loving the shot of JR.

[VCRTracking]

Loooooooove it!

[Spartan Girl]

2 hours ago, JessePinkman said:

First images from WW84

'

Loving this aesthetic!

  Reveal hidden contents

Diana going to the 80s?!  I am so there!

And while part of me is sure that

Steve being there is either a fakeout or somehow setting him up to be killed off again

I'm still loving it!

[MarkHB]

Why does it seem like a lot of info is coming out just after the judge ruled in the AT&T case?

Big article from THR.  Highlights:

• The Joachin Phoenix Joker movie, which is distinct from the DCEU, is still on with possible filming this fall, and they might start a new label like "DC Dark" for the out-of-continuity films.
• The Flash will start production in early 2019 and they're looking for a "Back to the Future" vibe
• Matt Reeves's script for The Batman will focus on a younger version of the character and they think it's unlikely it'll be Ben Affleck.