We figured yesterday’s colossal D.C. Comics-related news, that the former D.C. Comics brand would now become D.C. Entertainment, developing new material as well as adaptations in-house (comic books and their various adaptations — TV, movies, videogames, etc.), needs to be looked at a bit more thoroughly. So that’s what we’re doing right now.
The Good: First off, the big plus is that the woman that is usurping former President and Publisher of DC Comics, Diane Nelson, in running D.C. Entertainment, is totally right for the job. First off, she’s responsible for the recent Warner Premiere D.C. animated movies that have debuted direct-to-video.
While people were initially skeptical, they have turned out wonderfully, bringing the spirit of classic D.C. characters like the Green Lantern and Wonder Woman in ways that would rival any big budget studio adaptation. Additionally, she has done some riskier things with these projects, like bringing Batman and anime together with the razor sharp “Batman: Gotham Knight” project and adapting writer-artist Darwyn Cooke’s retro “New Frontier” comic book with utter reverence and respect. Considering she will be reporting directly to Jeff Robinov, president of Warner Bros., there should be a minimum of interference, too.
If there’s anyone who can see these characters through to their big screen iterations, it’s her. And with her background in marketing, you can better believe that these characters will have larger platforms than ever before to get a new audience.
Don’t Even Underestimate: While everyone is hung up on the big characters (like, why isn’t there a live action “Flash” movie, etc.?), Warner Bros. has an amazing library attached to its imprints, that has (bafflingly) been left unexploited. Vertigo is home to Bill Willingham and Marc Buckingham’s irrepressible “Fables” (imagine Disney’s “Enchanted” but, um, good), Wildstorm has Warren Ellis and John Cassady’s wonderful cable-series-ready “Planetary” and the now-defunct Minx had a line of graphic novels aimed at teenage girls. (While, again, this line is no longer in print, when it was around it delivered a couple dozen outstanding titles that would be ripe for the tween/”Twilight” market.)
People also forget that Mad Magazine is still one of the D.C. Comics crown jewels. Now would be a perfect time to do some kind of adaptation of the magazine while making sure no one ever, ever connects it to “Mad TV,” which ran from 1995 to 2009. (That show just licensed the name and some of the characters but was otherwise totally unaffiliated with the influential humor magazine.) Is it too early to suggest Joe Dante to tackle a live action/animated movie version of “Mad?”
For whatever reason Warner Bros. rarely chose to capitalize on these amazing properties, but now, with the creative process streamlined, maybe that will actually happen. (If Neil Gaiman isn’t getting an anxious phone call about a “Sandman” or “Death” movie right now, we’ll eat our hat.)
Uniting The Universe? The other thing that no one seems to be talking about is the idea that D.C. Entertainment could scoop up the development of projects that aren’t that far along in the pipeline. By reacquiring these projects, under their own creative control, they could do much to unify the “D.C. Universe” (much like Marvel did when they had Robert Downey Jr. waltz through the closing moments of “The Incredible Hulk”) and wrangle them away from producers who have too much control and who take way too fucking long.
Getting Rid Of The Hosebag Producers: Chief amongst these producers: Joel Silver. His “Lobo” movie with Guy Ritchie was announced last week (and seems to still be moving forward, according to the press release yesterday), but he also holds the rights to “Swamp Thing,” “Plastic Man” (with a script by “Matrix” masterminds The Wachowski Brothers), “Wonder Woman,” and “Sgt. Rock” (this was rumored to be another Guy Ritchie project). With the D.C. Entertainment brand now looking to bring its own projects back, not only does this save us the embarrassment of that potential Guy Ritchie “Sgt. Rock” movie but it could also mean resurrection for projects Silver himself had put the brakes on.
Could Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman Return? Remember that “Wonder Woman” movie Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Dollhouse,” was supposed to write and direct? Yeah, well, Silver fired him from the project, but we’re guessing that the new D.C. Entertainment bigwig might be taking another look at what Whedon had cooked up for the flagship character. (This is pure speculation but we’re guessing that an announcement about a Whedon-led “Wonder Woman” project could come around the first of the year, when the heat for Whedon’s horror movie “Cabin in the Fever” reaches a boiling point and, sadly, “Dollhouse” is canceled, freeing up his schedule.)
It’s unknown where the “Y: The Last Man” movie, overseen by “Eagle Eye” helmer D.J. Caruso, will fit into all this. Last we heard, Shia LaBeouf was still somewhat interested and a new draft of the script by co-creator Brian K Vaughn was being developed. Let’s just hope it’s about 100 billion times better in quality than the Caruso/LaBeouf joke that was “Disturbia.”
Nelson could also dip into the pile of awesome unused scripts in the vault, like the “Batman Beyond” live action film, based on the influential futuristic cartoon series, which had a script co-written by genius sci-fi author Neal Stephenson. After all, there is a new comic book miniseries set in the “Batman Beyond” universe scheduled for release next year and the parallel continuity wouldn’t monkey with Christopher Nolan’s already-established “Batman Begins”/”Dark Knight” continuity.
At this point the only real downside of the D.C. Entertainment moniker is that, factoring in all the restructuring that has to go on, it could be a while before we actually see some promising-sounding D.C. adaptations in the works. (Yes, we agree, “Green Lantern” does sound pretty neat.) It’s absolutely mind-boggling to think that we’re going to get a “Jonah Hex” movie, a horror-western based on an intriguing but marginal canon player, before we get a successor to “Superman Returns” (or, for that matter, a “Justice League” movie or an “Ex Machina” movie or a …) Hopefully, the formation of D.C. Entertainment will remedy this, and they’ll give interesting projects to interesting directors, to create some truly great pop entertainment. Just remember as usual, “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight” set the bar really friggin’ high. Let’s aim for that quality. — Drew Taylor