Couple days ago, Ben Fritz of Hero Complex (a geek feature in the Los Angeles Times) sat down with Warners Bros. executive head honcho Jeff Robinov for a profile piece and one of the interesting topics that came up was the future of DC comic movies. During the interview, a few things were mentioned.
1. After ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, the Batman franchise will get a reboot with Christopher Nolan as producer.
OF COURSE Batman will get a fucking reboot! So far, Batman has been the most profitable DC Comic based franchise for Warner Bros. and you would have to be stupid to let it die after Christopher Nolan leaves after ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ ends. It does make sense that Nolan would be brought in to oversee the direction of the new Batman films and considering what Nolan has done with it so far, I feel for the poor bastard that will have to come in and fill those giant billion dollar makin’ shoes. It will be interesting to see Nolan as producer and we will see what it might be like once Zack Snyder’s ‘Man of Steel’ is out. With Nolan as producer for that film as well, we will see if there is a big difference between him directing and producing. There might be a huge difference as Nolan most likely won’t be writing the new Batman films, unlike Man of Steel in which he did. Just because Nolan is producing doesn’t mean the movie will be any good. Even Tim Burton was a producer on Joel Schumacher’s ‘Batman Forever’ after finishing ‘Batman Returns’ and that shit was a hot mess.
2. A Justice League film is being planned for a 2013 release
This is not going to happen. Warner Bros. will keep a eye on how Marvel’s ‘Avengers’ movie does and try to follow. Unfortunately, DC is not Marvel. While Marvel has been doing everything and anything over the last decade to produce more and more films based on their properties, DC has not. While Marvel has been developing blockbuster hits such as ‘X-Men’, ‘Iron Man’, ‘Wolverine’ and soon ‘Thor’ and ‘Captain America’, WB has been riding on the coat tails of Nolan and the Batman franchise. WB’s attempt to reboot Superman with Bryan Singer was a bust and they are not even in the filming stages for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and ‘Man of ‘Steel’. With release dates tentative for both movies at 2012 or 2013, I just don’t see it happening. You can argue that DC has a ‘Green Lantern’ movie in the can and a Wonder Woman TV show in the works, but that doesn’t mean nothing. From what is being said around the web, the interest in Ryan Reynold’s Green Lantern flick is steadily declining and even hardcore Lantern fans think the movie will be crap. It doesn’t help that while DC and Warner is trying everything they can to promote Green Lantern, they are getting bombarded to non-existence by Marvel with ‘Thor’, ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, and ‘X-Men: First Class’. Using cameo appearances, smart marketing, and a bit of cleverness, Marvel has set up Avengers when released. I just don’t see Warner Bros. being able to do something Marvel has been doing for almost a decade in less than three years. We have a better chance of seeing a “World’s Finest” style crossover movie between Batman and Superman than Justice League. Marvel built up the individual members of the Avengers to be it’s own franchise, but Warner Bros. is planning and hoping that Justice League will create new ones. It doesn’t seem like a smart move. If Justice League fails, any chances of a movie for Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, etc. dies with it.
Warner Bros. needs to get smart and figure out a game plan to succeed in a market that Marvel is king. They have to be bold like Marvel and create movies to promote their properties regardless if it is a hit or miss. Even though it flopped, millions of movie goers now know who Elektra and Ghost Rider is. How sad is it that there are millions of people out there that doesn’t even know who the Flash is. Warner Bros. needs to find directors that have a great vision and writers that understands the properties they are writing for. WB has the use of DC Comic’s amazing writers who can create an awesome treatment for a movie that can work. If Batman and Superman is the only thing in Warner Bros. future (might only be Batman soon…), there is no hopes for Justice League. As scary as it may be, Warner Bros. needs to try to make great movies for these amazing characters without Christopher Nolan holding their hands.
