Warner Bros.’ DC Extended Universe got off to a rocky start. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad has given the vast majority the confidence the franchise needs to believe that it can compete with Marvel Studios. Still, early reactions to Wonder Woman have given us some assurance that there can be a decent DCEU film. James Wan is behind the lens for Aquaman. And despite some of the creative fallout, The Batman seems to be headed in the right direction now that Matt Reeves is the director.
Now there is word that Warner Bros. wants to start shooting a DC film this year. With The Batman set for a possible 2018 shoot, the rumor is that the studio has narrowed it down to five possible choices. Check out which film it could be here below.
Here is what Justin Kroll of Variety had to say about the five films that are being considered.
All five films — Gotham City Sirens, The Flash, Suicide Squad 2, The Green Lantern Corps, Dark Universe — have very long shots of starting lensing this year. That being said, we’ll give a little look into which one of these could get the green light.
Dark Universe has Doug Liman as director, while Guillermo del Toro and Scott Rudin will be producing, with Michael Gilio writing. Though there is a director, the film has no stars to play any of the characters. There is no one rumored or attached, and we haven’t heard much about the film since Liman jumped on board. Though we will keep you posted if there are any developments.
The Green Lantern Corps would be an interesting choice. We know that Green Lantern isn’t a part of Justice League, although there is a possibility that the character could make a cameo. David Goyer and Justin Rhodes have been tapped to write the script, while Goyer will producing with DC heads Geoff Johns and Jon Berg executive producing. The film is being described as Lethal Weapon in space, which makes plenty of sense since the Green Lantern Corps is an intergalactic police force in the DC universe. While there is no actor signed on yet to play one of the Lanterns, rumors are circulating that the studio is looking at Tom Cruise, Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal, Armie Hammer, Bradley Cooper, and Joel McHale. There’s also no director attached yet, so keep that in mind.
The Flash seems like a long shot. Let’s consider how there is no one on board this film yet. Both Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa cut ties with the studio citing creative differences. We know that The LEGO Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller penned a draft for the film, but it isn’t clear what was done with it after Grahame-Smith and Famuyiwa were on board. But it seems pretty clear that WB didn’t agree with the direction it was going. The last update anyone has heard of about the film was that Joby Harold was penning a script. Since then we haven’t heard much about the film, which gives us no hope that the film will be shot this year to make its 2018 release.
When it was announced that David Ayer would be directing Gotham City Sirens, it left somewhat of a void for Suicide Squad 2. But more on that a little later. The director would be joined by Suicide Squad star Margot Robbie, who played Harley Quinn. And just as the title suggests, the film would take place in Gotham City, with some of the femme fatales of Batman’s Rogues Gallery possibly being in the film. Geneva Robertson-Dworet will write the script, while Johns and Berg will produce.
That leaves us with Suicide Squad 2. It is expected that the cast will return to reprise their respective roles, with the possible exception of Robbie considering that she’ll be in Gotham City Sirens. But on the off chance that she will reprise her role for the sequel, it’s likely that we will see the team go on another black ops mission. The only problem is, there is no director yet. Mel Gibson is reportedly being courted to direct. The Legend of Tarzan scribe Adam Cozad has been hired to pen the script, which really doesn’t inspire much confidence, but who knows, maybe this script will be the one.
But Kroll mentioned something that does give us hope that the DCEU can be good. Kroll took to Twitter to say that the studio would not move forward with any of these movies unless the scripts “are ready to go.”
This is actually great to hear. For WB to take the necessary steps to steer the DCEU in the right direction can only mean that the films will be a reflection of that decision. But if none of the scripts are up to WB’s standards, then they are perfectly happy with just releasing Aquaman in 2018. This means that there would be only one DCEU film next year. As always, we will keep you posted on any developments should they come in.
While I welcome the possibility of more DC films, I think it would be a terrible idea to squeeze any of these additional movies in simply to meet a 2018 release. WB has certainly made some money on DCEU and there’s no doubt that there’s plenty of source material to explore, but the flip side is these movies so far haven’t been garnering critical favor. It’s a blessing and a curse that these might exist outside the DCEU but they will undoubtedly be associated with the core movie universe anyway. I’d hate for one of these to get made, completely bomb and drag down whatever is left of the DCEU with it when WB starts worrying about losses.
I never thought I’d be excited about Wonder Woman but I am and so are others from what I’ve read. WW needs to knock one out of the ball park financially AND critically. I have mixed opinions about Justice League but it’ll most likely make money, despite the Zach Snyder haters (myself included…his style is becoming tiresome). Then we have an entire year before Aquaman. He’s never been a favorite but I think he could be the underdog here and it’d be a devastating blow if one of these 5 movies tanked before Aquaman had a chance at success.
Comment by PAUL — March 20, 2017 @ 10:24 am