James Gunn Unveils DC Slate with Batman, Superman and Extra – The Hollywood Reporter
A brand new Batman film with out Robert Pattinson (however that includes Bruce Wayne’s murderous son). A Superman movie on the discharge schedule (mark your calendars for July 11, 2025). A Sport of Thrones-style drama set on Surprise Lady’s residence island of Themyscira (Amazonian palace intrigue). And an animated sequence already in manufacturing (Creature Commandos … wait, what?).
That’s simply half of what’s going to be coming to theaters and TV screens as a part of DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new slate.
The pair have been busy within the three months since taking over and mixing the movie and tv slate of DC properties, together with live-action and animation in addition to gaming. They revamped the best way the film and TV sides do enterprise, slicing ties with projects and creators. A writers room was shaped to seek out an total story that can launch a unified DC Universe. Creators have been approached. And a plan — no less than a part of one for what’s being billed as Chapter 1: God and Monsters — was formulated, and a slate of initiatives put into growth.
Now, after ambitiously promising followers that they’d have one thing to indicate them by Feb. 1, Gunn and Safran have unveiled the primary a part of their slate. It’s a mix of massive, well-known heroes together with lesser-known characters — who could turn out to be massive, just like the once-obscure heroes of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies over at Marvel Studios. The duo shared their plans Monday with reporters in a petite and tidy screening room on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.
“One in every of our methods is to take our diamond characters — which is Batman, Superman, Surprise Lady — and we use them to prop up different characters that folks don’t know,” defined Gunn.
Added Safran, “To construct these lesser identified properties into the diamond properties of tomorrow.”
Whereas plans could but shift, cautioned the duo, right here is the preliminary slate of initiatives for Chapter 1, within the order they’re deliberate to look.
Creature Commandos: A seven-episode animated sequence, written by Gunn, that’s already in manufacturing. Initially a workforce of basic monsters assembled to battle Nazis, it is a trendy tackle the idea. The voice actors have but to be solid, however the executives need to discover individuals who can voice the animated characters and likewise painting the live-action variations when the antiheroes present up in motion pictures and sequence.
Waller: In a by-product of Gunn’s personal HBO Max hit sequence Peacemaker, Viola Davis will return because the ruthless and morally ambiguous head of a authorities job power. It’s being written by Christal Henry (Watchmen) and Jeremy Carver, the creator of the Doom Patrol TV sequence.
Superman: Legacy: The film that includes the Man of Metal that Gunn is writing and should direct, though no commitments on that finish have been made. Whereas the 2 earlier titles are supposed to be “aperitifs,” in Safran’s phrases, Superman is the true kick-off for the duo’s DCU plans. “It’s not an origin story,” Safran stated. “It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage along with his human upbringing. He’s the embodiment of reality, justice and the American approach. He’s kindness in a world that thinks that kindness is old style.” A launch date of July 11, 2025, has been penciled in.
Lanterns: Greg Berlanti’s long-in-the-works Inexperienced Lanterns TV sequence has been scrapped (and Gunn and Safran have parted methods with the longtime DC sequence steward). As a substitute can be a brand new tackle the area cops with energy rings. “Our imaginative and prescient for that is very a lot within the vein of True Detective,” Safran described. “It’s terrestrial-based.” It’ll function distinguished Lantern heroes Hal Jordan and John Stewart and is without doubt one of the most vital reveals they’ve in growth. “This performs a very massive position in main into the primary story we’re telling throughout movie and TV.”
The Authority: A film based mostly on a workforce of superheroes with relatively excessive strategies of defending the planet that first originated within the late Nineties underneath an influential imprint often called Wildstorm, run by artist and now head of DC publishing Jim Lee. “One of many issues of the DCU is that it’s not only a story of heroes and villains,” stated Gunn. “Not each movie and TV present goes to be about good man versus dangerous man, large issues from the sky come and good man wins. There are white hats, black hats and grey hats.” Added Safran: “They’re kinda like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Males. They know that you really want them on the wall. Or no less than they consider that.”
Paradise Misplaced: The duo describe this HBO Max sequence as a Sport of Thrones-style drama set on the all-female island that’s Surprise Lady’s birthplace, Themyscira, stuffed with political intrigue and scheming between energy gamers. It takes place earlier than the occasions of the Surprise Lady movies.
The Courageous and the Daring: “That is the introduction of the DCU Batman,” stated Gunn, “of Bruce Wayne, and likewise introduces our favourite Robin, Damian Wayne, who’s a bit son of a bitch.” The film will take inspiration from the now-classic Batman run written by Grant Morrison that launched Batman to a son he by no means knew existed: a murderous tween raised by assassins. “It’s a really unusual father-and-son story.”
And, importantly, it’ll function a Batman not performed by Robert Pattinson. Nevertheless, there may be additionally …
The Batman sequel: Pattinson will proceed to painting the Darkish Knight in no less than another crime saga film directed by Matt Reeves. That film, the executives revealed, can be launched Oct. 3, 2025, and is being titled The Batman Half II.
“2025 goes to be a really massive yr for DC,” crowed Safran. “Superman and Batman throughout the identical yr.”
Booster Gold: An HBO Max sequence based mostly on a novel, lesser-known hero created in 1986. Safran stated of the sequence, “It’s a few loser from the longer term who makes use of primary future know-how to come back again to immediately and fake to be a superhero.” Gunn described it as “imposter syndrome as superhero.”
Supergirl: Lady of Tomorrow: Taking its cues from the current Tom King-written miniseries, this film guarantees a special take than what most consider when Superman’s cousin involves thoughts. “We’ll see the distinction between Superman, who was despatched to Earth and raised by loving mother and father from the time he was an toddler, versus Supergirl, raised on a rock, a chip off of Krypton, and who watched everybody round her die and be killed in horrible methods for the primary 14 years of her life after which come to Earth. She is far more hard-core and never the Supergirl we’re used to.”
Swamp Factor: A horror movie that guarantees to shut out the primary a part of the primary chapter.
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Earlier than audiences get to these movies and sequence, nonetheless, there’s a matter of this yr’s crop of flicks, beginning with Shazam! Fury of the Gods, coming March 17, and persevering with with The Flash (June 16), Blue Beetle (Aug. 18) and Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom (Dec. 25).
Gunn and Safran are excessive on the quartet, made underneath the earlier movie regime and the aegis of DC Movies, run by former head Walter Hamada. Gunn calls The Flash, directed by Andy Muschietti, “in all probability one of many biggest superhero motion pictures ever made.”
He additionally stated the 4 leads of these movies might doubtlessly return to their roles in DCU initiatives down the road. “There’s nothing that prohibits that from taking place,” stated Gunn.
Amongst these actors is Ezra Miller, the troubled star of The Flash who has discovered themselves on the middle of a number of felony investigations (they pleaded guilty to trespassing earlier this month) and who, in August, introduced they were seeking treatment for “advanced psychological well being points.”
Safran stated the executives remained hopeful Miller is on a path to betterment. “Ezra is totally dedicated to their restoration. We’re absolutely supportive of that journey they’re on proper now. When the time is true, when they’re able to have that dialogue, we’ll all work out what’s the most effective path ahead. However proper now, they’re utterly centered on their restoration. And in our dialog with them, within the final couple of months, it seems like they’re making huge progress.”
The duo additionally mentioned their strategy to casting writ massive, whether or not it was returning or new actors. The TV sequence will look to solid actors who can even play the components on the large display. Simply as John Cena performed the violent determine Peacemaker in Gunn’s The Suicide Squad then within the Peacemaker sequence, anybody solid as Hal Jordan and John Stewart in Lanterns, for instance, will then cross over into the movies.
“We don’t need the sequence to really feel in any approach like step-children or lesser-than,” stated Gunn. “It’s simply one other approach to inform a narrative.” (They like having the ability to spend eight hours digging deep into sure characters.)
And so they took on the sensitive topic of Henry Cavill, tipped to return as Superman in a cameo in final yr’s Black Adam however who, in the long run, is not going to return as Superman, a lot to the chagrin of a vocal fan base.
“We didn’t fireplace Henry. Henry was by no means solid,” stated Gunn. “For me, it’s about, Who do I need to solid as Superman, and who do the filmmakers we have now need to solid? And for me, for this story, it isn’t Henry.”
He added: “I like Henry, I believe he’s an amazing man. I believe he’s getting dicked round by lots of people, together with the previous regime at this firm. However this Superman just isn’t Henry, for plenty of causes.”
The executives additionally tried to stroll the road of if and tips on how to cope with actors who step into controversy, with Shazam!’s Zachary Levi being the latest instance. Over the weekend, Levi tweeted phrases in opposition to pharmaceutical large Pfizer, identified for its COVID-19 vaccine, which many interpreted because the actor having anti-vaccine views.
“Actors, filmmakers that I work with are going to say issues that I agree with, and issues that I don’t agree with,” stated Gunn, who in 2018 was briefly fired by Disney as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as a consequence of outdated, offensive tweets. “I can’t be altering my plans on a regular basis as a result of an actor says one thing that I don’t agree with. On the identical token, if somebody is doing one thing that’s morally reprehensible, that’s a special story. And we have now to take that under consideration.”
Although Gunn and Safran are working in a single DC Universe, some tales will stand aside. Reeves’ Batman motion pictures and Todd Phillips’ sequel to Joker will fall underneath a banner titled DC Elseworlds, which is able to, simply as within the comics, fall exterior the bigger continuity of the DCU. The Black Superman mission, being written by Ta-Nehisi Coates underneath the earlier regime, stays in energetic growth and would additionally fall underneath that class. Teen Titans Go!, the favored and long-running cartoon sequence on Cartoon Community additionally falls underneath that banner, the duo stated.
“The bar goes to be very excessive for initiatives to be exterior the DCU, the Elseworlds initiatives,” defined Safran. “However every so often there can be one thing that lives as much as that.”
Gunn and Safran additionally pressured the significance of sturdy screenplays, saying a spotlight there would stop the dreaded feeling of “superhero fatigue” and likewise give the initiatives a tonal and thematic distinction from one another. Gunn known as out the degradation of screenwriters in Hollywood and likewise stated that the duo wished to be respectful of the voice of filmmakers they had been working with … up to some extent.
“It’s not the Gunnverse, it’s not,” Gunn stated. “It’s bought to be all these totally different feels from all these totally different tales. That’s what makes it so enjoyable. The tales are utterly totally different, and every has the person expression of the writers and the director which can be making these initiatives.”
However, he added, “We’re not silly. Not each filmmaker goes to be pleased. As a result of if somebody is doing one thing that isn’t working, we’re going to be sincere.”
Gunn and Safran’s hirings had been the end result of over a half yr quest by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to seek out somebody to steer a display division of DC. In his personal phrases, Zaslav was on the lookout for a ”Kevin Feige,” the storied and profitable head of rival Marvel Studios, who has led the Disney-owned firm a seemingly an limitless string of hits, all of the whereas telling a unified and interconnected story. Gunn grew to become an A-list filmmaker underneath Feige, who employed him to direct 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, however he was fast to notice this isn’t a Marvel redux: “Lots of people are considering that is Marvel 2.0. It’s not.”
“Zaslav had a imaginative and prescient in thoughts of a standalone studio that may have every part DC centralized,” stated Safran. “And that was the attraction for us, coming in and gaining access to any character, any story, and to inform the tales we wished to inform throughout all of the mediums.”
As Gunn stated, “the historical past of DC is fairly tousled,” referring to the turmoil and dysconnectivity that has roiled DC plans of Warner Bros. Footage for the final dozen or so years. There was filmmaker Zack Snyder’s multi-movie universe that sputtered half approach by means of. There was an tried course correction by Joss Whedon, that perhaps made issues worse. There the a number of adjustments in studio management and possession. And there was the Arrowverse, the profitable if area of interest TV aspect of DC that aired for over a decade on the CW.
“Nobody was minding the mint,” says Gunn. “They had been making a gift of IP like they had been celebration favors at any creator who smiled at them.”
For Gunn, being handed the keys to a comic book e-book universe are like one thing out of a childhood dream.
Rising up in St. Louis, Missouri, Gunn described himself as “a misplaced, screwed up child” who didn’t really feel like he belonged.
His father and mom had been so involved that they despatched him to a psychiatrist who suggested them to take curiosity in his pursuits. Which occurred to be studying, writing, and drawing comedian books. In a single try at connecting, Gunn’s father took him to Creation Comedian Con, a giant comedian conference in Chicago. It stays the most effective weekend he’s ever had, a time that solidified a magic and connection to the medium and its colourful characters.
Gunn now needs to carry that magic and connection to moviegoing and TV watching audiences by revamping DC Studios in a approach that hasn’t been completed earlier than.
“I’ve an extremely deep connection to those characters, to those tales, and to eager to create that sort of magic not solely within the child that I used to be, however within the connection that I had with my father, with mates afterward,” Gunn defined. “And eager to create a unified world in DC the place we inform tales.”
In the long run, each Gunn and Safran know not solely what’s at stake but in addition the big alternative being introduced to them. For Safran, it’s the prospect to affect and alter the tradition, be it the corporate tradition of the way it approaches storytelling to the broader popular culture.
Gunn lit up in giddiness on the pure magic of all of it.
“This can be a not solely a as soon as in a lifetime alternative, it’s a as soon as alternative. It’s me, now. Nobody has ever gotten to do that earlier than. And the way might I say no to that?”
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