A while back, I wrote an obscenely long post about how Warner Brothers/DC Entertainment could do a Justice League film. This was predicated upon the understanding that a JL movie is now inevitable (however ill-conceived) and that since it's going to happen, they might as well try to do the project, erm... justice. My plan at the time was to return to the topic to discuss how the solo films could be built up to lead into JL. But as the chalk-slated 2015-16 release and the interest in signing Ben Affleck demonstrate--and aided by the speculation in Modern Myth Media's recent podcast--WB/DC may be more interested pushing for a JL movie first, capitalizing sooner rather than later and letting that film open the doors for the solo projects that, until now, have either fallen flat or failed to launch (the ones without Christopher Nolan, anyway).
Man Of Steel is due next summer--that much we know. And WB/DC seems to ready to move ahead with Wonder Woman. They may also dust off that old Flash project that was quietly canned after the dull thud of Green Lantern, a property they could try to reinvigorate (until further notice, I'm sticking with my character outlines from the first post, so I'd be hoping for a Jordan-Stewart team-up there). And a Batman reboot is inevitable, anyway. But this is a lot to do in a relatively short window, with little real news about any of it. Even WB seems content to merely speculate. I said in the previous post that not every character needs a solo film first, but there should be at least one or two. However, that's going to be harder for DC than it has been for Marvel.
Marvel Studios has the advantage of existing for the sole purpose of producing Marvel films (doesn't hurt to have Disney money, either). WB, on the other hand, has a whole lot of different things they want to be able to do. Harry Potter might be done and they might be in need of new tentpoles, but at least Harry Potter was a guaranteed property that could bankroll other projects. So on that level, it makes as much sense to go straight for JL now and see how that unfolds, rather than throw a bunch of smaller titles at the wall and hope something sticks. This means that MOS--still an unknown entity at this stage--may be our only glimpse at the DC Universe before going full-bore with the team-up.
Upon reflection, I was hasty in my initial opinion on the MOS teaser. From an artistic standpoint, it's actually a very good trailer that holds some promise about where this Superman story could be headed. We may finally have a team that understands that Clark is every bit as important as Superman. And I like that there were two different trailers out there, featuring different (and opposing) voiceovers from Kal-El's dual father figures. But I stand by my criticism that, from a business perspective, there's little to get the casual fan excited about Supes. And the business side will impact the artistic side if no one is interested in MOS; Green Lantern's quality was only part of the reason it tanked. So we'd go into the theoretical JL film with just one (admittedly very important) element established. That leaves a lot of work to do for the others.
Why not start with a World's Finest/Trinity film, featuring Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman? Structure the film around Diana as the audience-identification figure; we explore and learn about the larger DC Universe as she does. You then throw in Henry Cavill's established Superman, building on MOS's themes of heroism, etc. And everyone already knows Batman (he's the one who's better than all the others combined); Trinity could demonstrate how and why Batman gets to hang with superhumans. These three are the core of the League and letting them battle together paves the way for JL. It also gives WB time to launch another hero--or possibly rehabilitate Green Lantern--before delving into the larger team-up. This should also help stagger the schedule so that a relatively un-tested JL isn't sharing the summer with the Avengers sequel.
Just a thought, DC Entertainment.
No comments:
Post a Comment