Fresh off the mega success with “The Dark Knight,” D.C. Comics is obviously looking to expand its film repertoire with more movies based on their characters. Variety has weighed in with a rather meaty piece on the D.C./Warners comic book properties struggle.
Warner Brothers and DC both realize that they are lagging behind Marvel, who seems to put out multiple projects each year, and recently held some meetings with the intention of assembling a strategy on releasing films based on their other popular characters like Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and the other members of the Justice League. WB President Alan Horn says they want to take their time and execute comic book properties, “into viable movie product in an intelligent way so that we introduce them like planes on a runway. They have to be setup the right way and lined up the right way and all take off one at a time and fly safe and fly straight.”
“To put it simply: the studio doesn’t want to piss off the Comic-Con contingent,” Variety writes.
“These are big, iconic characters, so when you make them into a movie, you’d better be shooting for a pretty high standard,” Horn said. “You’re not always going to reach it, but you have to be shooting for it. We’re going to make a Justice League movie, whether it’s now or 10 years from now. But we’re not going to do it and Warners is not going to do it until we know it’s right.”
WB production President Jeff Robinov is more to the point and basically says, “we can’t fuck around here” and rush out crap that the fans will rip to shred. He also admits their writers and producers need to do more homework on the characters’ lives and complex histories. “We’re not off the notion of a Justice League,” he told Variety. “There’s a massive interest and knowledge in the comicbook industry and it takes time to sort of catch up and understand the characters and the history, where they’ve intersected with each other and what their worlds are. That’s part of the education that we’re going through.”
Is it just us or does a post-Christopher Nolan superhero world seem way too mature for the concept of a DC Justice League? Doesn’t it take away everything he built with the new “Batman” films, in which the Dark Knight is the lone wolf who fights crime but is destined to face life alone. Honestly Warners, you might just be better off scraping any Justice League plans and just keep releasing “Batman” films until people stop showing up, which at this rate would be somewhere around 2145.
More D.C./Warner announcements are expected shortly, but then again, these “announcements” have been expected for a while now. What’s taking so long? Perhaps the two companies are on the same page yet? – Additional contributions by Mickey Pagels