Another week, another superhero movie rumor…
Presented with the same swag and video format as the grand Hulk/Avengers bombshell that turned out to be deliberate misinformation by Marvel, a new bomb has been dropped by our Latin brothers-in-arms. This time around it concerns the DCU, where their track record is pretty strong. Also, it’s a hell of a scoop, and the sort of thing that will either prove definitively true, or spectacularly not at all true. While it involves some basic film ideas, this is all stuff that’s going to be out there and officially announced well before any films involved actually take shape, so don’t sweat it spoilerphobes.
So what’s the word?
Apparently all this hemming and hawing over a stalled Justice League production, tossed out scripts, etc. etc. has been obfuscating WB’s real plan:
Give It All To Nolan Forever™
Yep, apparently Nolan’s godfathering position on Man Of Steel has been expanded to WB’s handling of the entire DC universe, more specifically Justice League. It’s also likely Zach Snyder will follow him as an overseeing producer, and possible Justice League director.
Even bigger news? Bale might be back. El Mayimbe lays out the apparent grand strategy in Latino-Review’s video, but the jist is that WB is all about seeing Bale continue on in the cowl, and doing it alongside Cavill and the Justice League, conclusion of The Dark Knight Rises be damned.
I have only so much brain-power to expend on something that could prove to be so thoroughly not true, but I’ll say it all sounds right, it sounds like the way WB would think, and it sounds like as good a way to get good movies made with DC characters as any. I’ve never been a supporter of WB/DC following the Marvel mold- even if they dive into a shared universe, I think grounding them together and then allowing filmmakers to branch off with more singular franchises is the way to go. Being a mere branch of WB, DC is never going to have the same kind of independent studio think-tank setup that Marvel Studios started with and maintains, and thus the cohesion is never going to work the same way. Marvel has, for the most part, bent over backwards to maintain a consistent tone, sense of humor, visual pallete and momentum– all part of a grand design. In many ways their movies have suffered, have lacked some singular elements, but overall it’s worked for them (certainly financially). DC and WB just aren’t going to and shouldn’t work that way.
Being filmmaker-driven is what has worked for them, so if they want a shared universe, it will be much better to introduce a lot of these character together under wise story guidance from a figure like Nolan, establish the League heroes as compatible units, and then allow them to blossom in more distinctive separate franchises from there.
That’s pretty much the drum I’ve always beaten, but I think its rhythm matches what I’m hearing here. At the end of the day, I’m just glad to be hearing so much good buzz on Man Of Steel, and hearing rumblings that, at the very least, suggest someone is making plans somewhere.
Blast your thoughts on all this below!