There have been several times when I have commented on the battle between Marvel and DC at the theatre, and the former’s dominance compared to the latter’s lackluster attempts to compete. I’ve said it time and time again: Marvel’s model is working; build up your individual heroes and then do a blockbuster team movie.
And just maybe DC and their parent company Warner Bros., are beginning to get the message.
I’ve held off writing this story for a few days now, despite a pair of stories cropping up in the trades over the weekend. But Anne Thompson, deputy editor at Variety, forced me in to action with a small note on her personal blog regarding the future of the Superman franchise.
Today I was told that it is a priority at the studio to find the right direction and if Bryan Singer is willing to do that, fine, but if he gets in the way, he may not stay on the project. There are no writers working on a Superman script now. The studio wants to figure it out. “It might be better to start from scratch,” one exec admitted.
This shows a perspective that, until recently, I didn’t believe DC and WB held. Their almost obsessive desire to get a Justice League movie out the door had me very concerned. It was equally confusing, given the relative success of Christopher Nolan‘s reboot of the Batman franchise, and the possibilities of a rebooted Superman franchise.
“We’re not off the notion of a Justice League,” says Jeff Robinov of WB. “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.”
This quote continues providing me with a measure of peace of mind, definitely, but in the way that a shark fin heading away from me in the water would; “yeah, sure, good, that shark is disappearing, where’s the other one?”
With rumors circulating about a Green Lantern movie, and movies for The Flash and Wonder Woman perpetually left on the backburner to a point where I feel they’re just going to eventually evaporate, one would hope that maybe, maybe, DC and WB are beginning to realize what needs to happen. Of course, that would be the optimist in me, and there’s a reason that he never gets too much airtime.
There have been several times when I have commented on the battle between Marvel and DC at the theatre, and the former’s dominance compared to the latter’s lackluster attempts to compete. I’ve said it time and time again: Marvel’s model is working; build up your individual heroes and then do a blockbuster team movie.
I’m not sure I understand why you feel it would not be judicious to do a Justice League movie…
Comment by Jason — August 20, 2008 @ 1:18 am
The suits might be counting on Watchmen to get casual movie audiences into the concept of seeing superheroes onscreen for whom they have no frame of reference whatsoever. Still, having a nice introduction to all the characters and their respective actors before they start collaborating would be ideal.
Comment by copacetic — August 20, 2008 @ 4:05 am
It’s alright, we don’t need a Superman film. We have Superman “lite” in the Iron Man films. Predictable and boring.
Comment by sir jorge — August 20, 2008 @ 12:20 pm
they didn’t individual flicks for the x-men characters before they made 3 x-team flicks so why the blather about a jla flick? superman returns was a total snooze fest, lets retool that idea and make a real superman flick with him throwing down with mongul or dark side.
Comment by KOROLLOCKE — August 21, 2008 @ 11:47 am
Maybe superman returns was just a foot in the door instead of an in your face kick ass movie … warming up to a new crowd. To see if people accept a new superman. It would be awesome to see more depth though. As for JLA, i doubt they wanna screw it up is all. Intros would be cool but it would take up too much of the teamed movie.
Comment by JoJo — August 21, 2008 @ 4:57 pm