https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gglkYMGRYlE
Another trailer in the wake of San Diego Comic Con.
Printable View
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gglkYMGRYlE
Another trailer in the wake of San Diego Comic Con.
Just a rumor, but it would be pretty cool.
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#TheBatman
We Could Be Getting Our First Asian Robin / Nightwing, And That Is Perfectly OK
October 07, 2016 at 09:04AM
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Posted by Kristy Anderson
Be prepared for more Batfleck. Since Warner Bros. revealed plans to prioritize work on a Batman solo film following Justice League, the web has been flooded with news, casting rumors, and theories surrounding the film.
The most persistent among these rumors is that Walking Dead star #StevenYeun is in talks for the role of #Nightwing, the adult incarnation of the first Robin, **** Grayson.
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Many fans were excited by this rumor, but others have shown concern regarding staying true to the history of the character. In all previous comic and animated appearances, Grayson has been portrayed as white.
As it turns out, there is little basis for the rumors, aside from Yeun being a top choice for many "fan casts" of the film. But, should the rumors turn out to be true, it shouldn't be a problem. It is well past time we stopped crying foul whenever a character is cast outside of their original race.
In The Case Of Nightwing, Race Isn't All That Relevant To The Character
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Now, I am not saying it would have been OK to cast a white guy as Black Panther, or an Asian woman as Storm. For them, racial identity forms a core part of the character. For Nightwing, though, it doesn't really matter what race he is.
**** Grayson, who became the first Robin (and later Nightwing), was introduced in Detective Comics #38, in April 1940. And yes, he was white. All the major superheroes at the time were white. Any other choice was entirely unheard of.
Aside from the fact that white was the default race for superheroes at the time of his introduction, no aspect of **** Grayson's character screams that he absolutely has to be white. Racial identity has never been a major part of his character development. It was just what was expected, and there is no reason that can't change.
A Change In Race Could Add New Depth To The Character
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Casting Yeun, or any other racially diverse actor (and therefore giving Nightwing a new culture and racial identity) can only be a good thing. It adds a depth to the character that was not there before, leaving much more for the DCEU to explore should Nightwing become popular enough to appear in future films, or even headline a film of his own.
Taking into account the character's previous history, introducing an Asian background for him could make a lot of sense. Prior to taking on the mantle of Robin following the tragic deaths of his parents, **** performed with them as a member of acrobatic trio, The Flying Graysons.
Even now, as Nightwing, acrobatic ability remains one of the character's key talents. Asian countries have produced some of the best gymnasts and acrobats in the world, making it easy to incorporate one of those countries or cultures into Nightwing's background.
The MCU Has Already Race-Swapped One Major Character To Brilliant Effect
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In all of Nick Fury's pre- #MCU comic book appearances, the character was portrayed as white. He was once played by a white actor, David Hasselhoff, in the TV movie Nick Fury: Agent Of SHIELD. However, when the character made his first MCU appearance (in the post-credits scene of Iron Man), popular Black actor Samuel L. Jackson had been cast in the role.
Jackson elevated Fury from a second or third tier character in the comics, to a major player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His portrayal has become so synonymous with the character that many of the comic incarnations of Nick Fury have been altered to reflect this.
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The #DCEU has a chance to follow this success with their choice of Nightwing, breaking some new ground of their own. **** Grayson as Robin has appeared on the big screen before. **** Grayson as Nightwing has not.
Whoever is ultimately chosen has a good chance of giving us the definitive portrayal of the character, blazing a trail that any potential future Nightwing's will have to follow.
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At the end of the day, what really matters is choosing the very best actor for the role, no matter what race they may be. I look forward to a day when we can all be a little more colorblind when it comes to casting decisions.
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[L-R] Batman, Flash, Cyborg & Wonder Woman
Although I confess I'm a huge fan of Nicole - me and Wang Jianlin. She started out as a ninjette in Nightmaster (1987) and I cannot believe we don't have a thread about that here. :o
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JANUARY 31, 2017 1:25pm PT by Borys Kit
Nicole Kidman in Talks to Join 'Aquaman' (Exclusive)
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Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Nicole Kidman
The actress is in early negotiations to play Aquaman’s mother.
Nicole Kidman may be joining the DC Cinematic Universe.
The actress, who is in the Oscar mix this awards season for her work in Lion, is in early talks to play Aquaman’s mother in Aquaman, the big-screen take of the underwater-breathing comic book superhero.
Jason Momoa is playing the title character in the Warner Bros/DC Entertainment production that James Wan is directing. The studio is cruising towards an April production start in Australia and is starting to round out key members of its cast.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who starred on Netflix’s Baz Lurhmann show The Get Down, is in early talks to play the villain known as Black Manta.
Amber Heard is on board as Mera, Aquaman's royal love interest, and Willem Dafoe will portray Aquaman’s advisor, scientist Dr. Vulko. Patrick Wilson, who starred in Wan’s Conjuring movies, will play Orm, a villain who happens to be Aquaman’s half-brother.
In traditional Aquaman lore, the hero’s mother is Atlanna, who hails from royalty in the underwater kingdom of Atlantis. She escapes her kingdom and falls in love with a lighthouse keeper, giving birth to the boy who will one day grow up to be a bridge between two worlds.
If a deal is made — and it looks optimistic, as Kidman has been Wan's top choice for weeks, with an official offer finally going out on Monday — it will not be the actress' first swim in the DC superhero waters. Kidman starred opposite Val Kilmer in 1995's Batman Forever as Bruce Wayne's love interest, Dr. Chase Meridian.
Kidman currently is on the awards circuit for her role in Lion, the Weinstein Co. drama about an adopted man looking for his family. She also is one of the stars and executive producers of Big Little Lies, HBO’s dramatic miniseries that is set to premiere in February.
Kidman is repped by CAA, Shanahan Management and Media Talent Group.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: SUPER FRIENDS TO SUPER FRANCHISE?
by Patrick Lugo and Gene Ching
Topics covered
- The casting of the Wonder Twins
- Wonder Woman's sword technique
- Aquaman's favorite booze
- Drawing the connections between Marvel heroes and D.C. Villains
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DAWN OF JUST US
Is Warner Bros. Really Burying the Justice League?
Yes, the Flash movie is getting delayed yet again—but DC has good reason for finally slowing down.
by JOANNA ROBINSON
OCTOBER 16, 2018 5:12 PM
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Courtesy of Warner Bros.
With Batman and Superman actors Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill reportedly out of the franchise, W.B.’s Justice League has lost its two traditional leaders. There’s still Wonder Woman, of course; Gal Gadot’s critically beloved and box office-boosting Amazon will soon return in a highly anticipated sequel. But with early word that Jason Momoa’s Aquaman is testing as “[good but not great,” complete silence about the future of Ray Fisher’s Cyborg, and new reports that Ezra Miller’s Flash film is being delayed yet again, the future looks grim for the heroes who were meant to rival Marvel’s unstoppable Avengers. What, exactly, is going on at DC Films?
According to a report published Monday, the Flash film—a long-in-the-works project that has already cycled through several directors and writers—is being delayed yet again. The official word is that the script, now being revised by directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, isn’t done—and because Miller is already committed to a third Fantastic Beasts film, if they don’t start filming the Flash movie now, production will have to wait until late 2019. That means the movie, which was originally scheduled for a 2018 release date, likely will not hit theaters until 2021.
Read between the lines, though, and you’ll see that this is actually a positive development. Rather than hastily rushing into production, Warner Bros. is apparently content to take its time on the Flash film, and make sure it gets the tone on this project exactly right.
That’s in line with the greater philosophy of DC Films right now. For years, the studio has struggled to find the right tone for its superhero tentpoles—but now, it seems to be on a clear path towards something both coherent and fun. Maybe it’s aping the positivity of Marvel; maybe it’s just trying to make more movies like Wonder Woman. Either way, the upcoming DC slate seems encouraging: the Big-esque film Shazam!, a zany Harley Quinn-Joker romance project, a different Joker film that has The Hangover and Old School director Todd Phillips joining forces with Joaquin Phoenix. Even David Ayer’s twisted, violent, critically reviled take on the Suicide Squad is getting a total makeover from Marvel refugee and lighthearted antihero expert James Gunn. In other words: DC Films might seem like a mess right now, but the franchise could also be on the road to salvation.
In a post–Christopher Nolan/Dark Knight world, DC Entertainment was chiefly in the hands of three people: producer-turned-Vice President Jon Berg, comic-book writer-turned-Chief Content Officer Geoff Johns, and director-visionary Zack Snyder. This trio established a grimdark tone for their comic-book films that not only aligned the movies with the DC books, but also served as counter-programming for the zippy, fun, Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe. Their aesthetic and reign reached their apex in early August 2016 at the Suicide Squad premiere, when Ayer shouted a memorable jab at DC’s chief rival: “**** Marvel!”
But the DC Films team, already on shaky ground after the critically lambasted Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, was about to unravel. Despite die-hard Snyder acolytes, impressive box-office returns, and, yes, even an Oscar for Suicide Squad, the underperforming, incoherent mess that was Justice League sent Warner Bros. C.E.O. Kevin Tsujihara scrambling for new DC leadership. Johns, Berg, and Snyder were out; horror phenom Walter Hamada as DC Films president, merchandising expert Pam Lifford as Warner Bros. global brands and experiences president, DC publisher Jim Lee as chief creative officer, and publisher Dan DiDio were in. These leaders have already proven themselves able to offer far more diverse perspectives than their predecessors—there’s only one white man among them!—and they’re also well positioned to inject fun back into DC Films.
Warner Bros. is also now being overseen by Warner Media C.E.O. John Stankey, who assumed a leadership position at the start of the summer, when AT&T acquired Time Warner. Stankey made headlines earlier this year thanks to a speech he gave his new HBO employees about ramping up content output—one that seemed to portend a new era that would value quantity over quality. But Stankey gave his Warner Bros. employees a much different message during a visit to the studio lot in June, emphasizing the importance of the legacy of the brand. Tsujihara also chimed in: “The assets of Warner Bros. are the people. It all begins and ends with the quality of the content we create,” he said.
Quality-wise, Warner Bros. at large is currently on a bit of a roll; its recent box-office hits, Crazy Rich Asians and A Star Is Born, have been landing with critics as well. Why not keep the streak going as long as possible—and have it extend into the even more lucrative world of superhero movies? Years ago, DC Films rushed to crash together a Justice League that could rival the Avengers, and its effort was largely greeted with a skeptical eyebrow. The new regime may have its eye on a similar prize—but this time, not even the Flash is in a rush to get there unless the product itself is just right.
Birds of Prey
Wonder Woman 1984
Shazam
This is just a comic, not the DCEU. In our review JUSTICE LEAGUE: Super Friends to Super Franchise? we postulated: "Alas, who might have played the Wonder Twins? Chloë Grace Moretz as Jayna? Taylor Lautner as Zan?" :p
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FEBRUARY 12, 2019 1:16pm PT by Graeme McMillan
How 'Wonder Twins' Writer Is Rebooting DC Sidekicks for a New Generation
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Stephen Byrne/DC
Mark Russell is bringing Zan and Jayna back.
Shape of a reboot! Form of a relaunch!
After years as nostalgic punchlines, former 1970s cartoon sidekicks Zan and Jayna are back in a big way, with DC this week launching a new Wonder Twins comic book series as part of the high profile Wonder Comics imprint led by Brian Michael Bendis.
The new series sees creators Mark Russell (The Flintstones, Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles) and Stephen Byrne (Justice League/Power Rangers) re-imagine the Super Friends duo as teens trying to come to terms with both the superhero world and the regular high school experience, with equal (lack of) success in both.
Heat Vision talked to Russell about the series.
Wonder Twins marks your first ongoing series in the core DC Universe, after successful runs on titles like The Flintstones and Exit Stage Left. How did you get involved with the book?
Brian Michael Bendis asked me to write it as part of his Wonder Comics line. We met for the first time at Emerald City Comic Con last year, which was weird because we both live in Portland and that was in Seattle; we did a panel together and he said really nice, wonderful things about The Flintstones, and then afterwards he said, "Actually, I’m doing this new line of comics about teenage heroes and I’d really love it if you would consider writing the Wonder Twins." That blew me away, not only because he was thinking of me, but because I’ve always been a big fan of the Wonder Twins. So, immediately, I said yes.
Okay, now I have to ask: Why are you a fan of the Wonder Twins? They’re not a particularly well-regarded couple of characters, traditionally.
No, they’re not! The thing I really liked about the Wonder Twins as a kid, and it still resonates with me, is that they’re young and imperfect enough that they’re allowed to get into trouble and make bad decisions, whereas Superman and Batman are kind of godlike in how righteous they were. The Wonder Twins were given more freedom to not only make errors in moral judgment, but also be the ones who don’t have to come up with a solution for every crisis. They became more experimental characters.
That, and they have a pet monkey. I mean, that helps a lot.
I wonder how much the experimental characters angle plays into what you’re intending to do with the series. Based on the first issue, you’re exploring the idea that these are characters who get to make mistakes, but it’s not in a cruel way. For characters who have been seen as the butt of the joke for most of their existence, it’s a surprisingly heartfelt book, not a sarcastic one.
I think that most of us would relate more to the Wonder Twins than we would Superman or Batman. There’s more of the Wonder Twins in us than anyone else, which is really what resonates with me, that they’re so human — even though they’ve only been on the planet for a few months. They come here with genuine humanity and passion and, looking at the world through their eyes, they’re the ones who see how messed up things are because they’re not used to it yet. That’s really what I want to do; I want the Wonder Twins to be the prism through which I view the world, and I want other people who are reading Wonder Twins to see the world through their eyes as well.
I did not want to write them at all as these clowns, or as these objects, at all. I want them to be the subjects of the story.
One thing that’s clear from the first issue is that you have a clear idea about who the characters are. Zan and Jayna both have clear personalities, and very recognizable personalities. It’s not just that they seem believable, it’s also that, chances are, the reader knows someone like them, or is someone like them.
The way I like to view the Wonder Twins is, they’re one really well-adjusted person tragically split in half. [Laughs] Jayna is witty and well-spoken, but painfully shy, whereas Zan is kind of an oaf and always saying the wrong thing, but he’s inexplicably confident.
Neither of them seems to be content with themselves, though. Both of them want to change, in different ways. Is that because they’re aware of what they’re lacking?
I think this is what you go through as a teenager. A teenager is someone who, by their very nature, is still developing who they are. I thought that could relate to the characters more if they’re doing the same thing themselves.
I think one of the major themes of the series is that everyone deserves to be taken seriously. The series is about these newcomers to Earth, Zan and Jayna, these teenagers who are still trying to find their way and bungling through, learning how to become superheroes. But they make points and they do things that have much bigger implications than that.
For me, I really was thinking about how the post-Millennial generation, all these teens and young adults, are being handed this world that’s burning with global warming, the financial structure is screwed and we’re reverting to 1930s-style fascism all across the world, and this is the world we’re handing to them and expecting these newcomers to fix it all. This is what the Wonder Twins are experiencing; they’ve come to this planet that has all these problems and no-one has noticed because we’re all used to it. They’re able to look at it with fresh eyes and see that it’s really messed up. They’re really the ones that we should be listening to more, because they are able to look at these things with fresh eyes.
It’s all about taking people seriously, because they have different insights than we do, and those are the insights that could end up saving us.
Are you writing towards a specific audience with this series? Wonder Comics as a line focuses on teenage characters, and I’m wondering if you were purposefully writing towards a younger audience. The first issue felt like something that any teenager struggling with embarrassment would have appreciated, I felt like.
I wasn’t really writing with an audience in mind, but I was hoping for that sort of reaction — somebody would read this, who is going through an intense period of humiliation in their lives, or doubting their abilities, and will find it resonates with them, and makes them feel like they’re not alone. I think that’s what I want people to feel when they read this, whatever age they are; that they are part of a bigger group, a network of human beings who share the pain and challenges with everyone.
You mentioned Superman and the other Justice League members as being godlike beings, but you also manage to humanize them in the first issue. They’re still these hyper-capable heroes who can do anything, but they also bicker and make fun of each other, and Batman has a surprisingly sensitive side, it turns out. Is that something you’re hoping to do more of?
Yeah. I definitely want to sort of give the impression that the challenges that you face, you don’t just share them with people like you, but with everyone — even characters like Batman and Superman. Even the greatest person you can imagine has gone through something like that in their life, so you’re not alone.
In terms of the godlike characters, bringing them down to earth is definitely something I want to do, because I think that you can revere somebody, or you can love them, but you can’t really do both. I want people to feel a personal connection to these characters — that Superman and Wonder Woman are big brothers and big sisters, as opposed to these icons of Greek mythology that you could never approach or get close to.
It seems a very kind series, which is something that I’ve noticed in your work since Flintstones. There’s never an explicit request to the reader to be kinder and more open to each other, but it’s something that that’s always there.
I think that, in the end, empathy is the only superpower that matters. Very few of the world’s problems can be solved with super strength, x-ray visions or throwing someone through a plate glass window. The other 99.9 percent of the problems will be solved by human empathy.
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Stephen Byrne/DC
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Stephen Byrne/DC
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Stephen Byrne/DC
Wonder Twins No. 1 is available digitally and in comic book stores Wednesday. Above, preview art from the debut issue by Stephen Byrne.
#ReleasetheSnyderCut workedhttps://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...-thing-1295102
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"It Will Be an Entirely New Thing": Zack Snyder's $20M-Plus 'Justice League' Cut Plans Revealed
May 20, 2020 11:06am by Borys Kit
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Getty; Warner Bros.
HBO Max will debut the project in 2021 — possibly in a four-hour director's cut or in six TV-style "chapters" — as the helmer gets the gang back together with the original postproduction crew to score, cut and finish visual effects.
It was very early on a Monday morning in November when director Zack Snyder and his wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder, received a call from their agent. Let’s be a bit more precise. It was 7 a.m. But more importantly, it was the day after the second anniversary of the release of Justice League, the DC superhero movie that Snyder was forced to exit due to a family emergency, which was then substantially reshot and retooled by replacement director Joss Whedon.
In the time since its release, something unusual happened: A growing movement of fans, rallied by the hashtag #ReleasetheSnyderCut, had called, agitated, petitioned — even bought a Times Square billboard and chartered a plane to fly a banner over Comic-Con — for Snyder’s version to be released. And on the film's second anniversary, the hashtag had its biggest day ever — with even the movie's stars Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck adding their voices on Twitter.
So here, the morning after, was their agent saying that Toby Emmerich, chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures, was acknowledging the movement, and more importantly, was willing to accede. "This is real. People out there want it. Would you guys ever consider doing something?" was what Emmerich was asking, Zack Snyder recalls.
The answer to Emmerich's question, a whispered-about secret for months, was revealed Wednesday when Zack Snyder confirmed, at the end of an online screening of his 2013 movie, Man of Steel, that his version of Justice League was indeed real. And that it will be coming to HBO Max, the WarnerMedia digital streaming service launching May 27, and is expected to debut in 2021.
It is currently unclear what form Snyder’s Justice League will take. Whether it will be released as an almost four-hour director’s cut or split into six "chapters" has yet to be decided, but the Snyders are now in the midst of reassembling much of their original postproduction crew to score, cut, add new and finish old visual effects, and, yes, maybe bring back many of the actors to record additional dialogue.
Also unclear is the cost of the endeavor. One source has pegged the effort in the $20 million range, although another source says that figure could be closer to $30 million. The parties involved had no comment.
"It will be an entirely new thing, and, especially talking to those who have seen the released movie, a new experience apart from that movie," Zack Snyder tells The Hollywood Reporter, noting that, to this day, he has not watched the version released in theaters.
"You probably saw one-fourth of what I did," the director notes, basing his judgment on what has been shared with him of Whedon's version.
Before Emmerich came calling, adds Snyder, "I always thought it was a thing that in 20 years, maybe somebody would do a documentary and I could lend them the footage, little snippets of a cut no one has ever seen."
But, adds Deborah Snyder, "With the new platform and streaming services, you can have something like this. You can’t release something like this theatrically, but you could with a streaming service. It’s an opportunity that wasn’t there two years ago, to be honest."
It is a very unlikely development, and the latest twist for a movie that has, like the Man of Steel himself, seen death and rebirth.
Snyder was in a unique position when he shot Justice League in 2016. Warner Bros. had entrusted its universe of DC characters to one filmmaker — him — and he had been building toward a great onscreen team-up, though not without some bumps in the road. He began with Man of Steel, which grossed $668 million worldwide, then followed up with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the 2016 blockbuster that polarized fans with its dark take on the iconic titular heroes and took in $873 million globally.
In January 2017, he had what he considered his optimal version of Justice League, almost four hours long, although he knew it was something the studio would not release. Warners wanted a cut in the two-hour range, and he delivered a rough version with an approximate two-hour, 20-minute running time. That was the first cut the studio saw. Both sides agreed that there was much work still to be done before the November release, but tragedy struck the Snyders when their daughter, Autumn, died by suicide. A month and a half later, Zack officially stepped away and Whedon was brought in.
League opened Nov. 17 to weak reviews and sluggish box office, eventually taking in $658 million worldwide. However, almost immediately a movement was born. Fans unhappy with the film created the now-infamous hashtag. A Change.org petition for Warners to release Snyder’s version had already garnered over 100,000 signatures less than five days after the movie’s release.
Forget that the version that fans wanted technically didn’t exist. What did exist was a semi-unfinished work, with no visual effects, no postproduction. One person who had seen that version described it like a car with no panels, just a drivetrain and some seats. And it sat on a hard drive in the Snyders' house. "When we left the movie, I just took the drive of the cut on it," says Zack Snyder. "I honestly never thought it would be anything."
In the year following their daughter's death, the Snyders closed circles around their family as they tried to heal from the tragedy. "The first year was about the milestones and the holidays," recalls Deborah Snyder. "Now, it’s not those but other moments, like songs that trigger memories, that hit me unexpectedly."
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Adds Zack: "As a family, as a couple, I think we have grown in a way that has made us stronger. We’re doing our best. You really can’t hope for more."
The duo also became involved in suicide-prevention charity work and plotted a return to movies with Army of the Dead. Meanwhile, #ReleasetheSnyderCut became more organized and visible, gaining mainstream media attention. Zack Snyder fed into the movement by occasionally teasing images from his movie or storyboards on social media, in some ways only stoking the hot embers. And he saw some of the seeds he planted in his movies, especially in his castings of Gadot as Wonder Woman and Momoa as Aquaman, grow into gardens as the spinoffs became pop culture phenomenons and billion-dollar hits.
It was on the two-year anniversary, however, that the zenith hit and the hashtag became a top worldwide trend. "#ReleasetheSnyderCut is the most-tweeted hashtag about a movie that WB has ever made, but it’s a movie they’ve never released," says Snyder. "It’s a weird stat but it’s cool."
After the Saturday morning phone call, the Snyders began to move puzzle pieces into place. "We had to figure out what it meant to finish it, and how do you pull it off?" recalls Deborah.
The Snyders put together a presentation and, in early February, invited a select group of executives from Warner Bros., HBO Max and DC to their house in Pasadena to screen Zack's little-seen version that was shown in black and white. The number of executives in the room — there were more than a dozen in attendance, ranging from Warners' Emmerich, Carolyn Blackwood, and Walter Hamada to HBO Max's Kevin Reilly, Sarah Aubrey and Sandra Dewey to DC's Jim Lee — showed the importance of the potentially extensive undertaking. Heads of physical production and business affairs were there to assess what needed to be done and how much it would cost. At his presentation after the screening, Snyder outlined ideas for not just releasing the cut but the concept of episodes and cliffhangers.
The executives left the meeting pumped. The Snyder Cut was real. Except then it almost wasn’t.
The novel coronavirus struck, and Hollywood all but shut down in mid-March. Says Deborah, "People thought, 'It won’t be possible to ramp up, and that maybe this should go on the back burner.' But we said, 'No, this is the right time' because our visual effects houses that rely on so much are running out of work, so now is the time to be doing this." It also helped that many of those post facilities had held on to the original assets.
Snyder also spent April and May reaching out to the sizable cast, giving a heads-up on the new development and letting them know their services may be needed. (The first person called: Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg. "He was like, 'You’re kidding me, right?'" recalls Zack.)
There is no schedule going forward at this stage for the project as talks are now beginning with postproduction houses, which also gives HBO Max plenty of time to find the best way to present this version of Justice League. Snyder is at the same time in post on Army of the Dead, his zombie thriller for Netflix that also will debut in 2021.
For the Snyders, the chance to revisit the movie also brings the prospect for closure on a project they were forced to let go. "This movie was the culmination of a hero’s journey that all these characters went on," says Deborah Snyder. "And the idea was always to build them up to be the heroes people expected them to be."
And while the cut will contain the many elements Zack has teased over time (yes, expect Darkseid), the duo also relish adding a fair amount of character development. "What’s so lovely about this is that we get to explore these characters in ways that you’re not able to in a shorter theatrical version."
The Snyders know that fan power is what led to the Snyder Cut becoming a reality. "Clearly this wouldn’t be happening without them," says Zack. He also credits Warners for living up to its old reputation as the filmmaker’s studio.
Adds Zack, "This return to that pedigree and to let my singular vision of my movie be realized, in this format, in this length, is unprecedented and a brave move."
Borys Kit
@borys_kit
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James Gunn reassures DC fans amid rumors about future movies: 'We're still just beginning'
"Building the next 10 years of story takes time," the new co-chair of DC Films tweeted following reports that projects like Wonder Woman 3 or a Black Adam sequel could be dead.
By Christian Holub
December 08, 2022 at 04:48 PM EST
James Gunn wants to reassure fans about his plans for future DC movies.
The Suicide Squad director was recently named co-chair of DC Films alongside producer Peter Safran, and though they won't present their plans to Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav until next week, The Hollywood Reporter reports that big changes could be in store, including the potential end of Gal Gadot's time as Wonder Woman.
Representatives for WBD have not responded to EW's request for comment on THR's report, but Gunn himself posted a thread to Twitter on Thursday directly referencing it. Although he didn't confirm or deny specifics, he communicated that he and Safran are prioritizing DC's stories and characters.
"As for the story yesterday in the Hollywood Reporter, some of it is true, some of it is half-true, some of it is not true, & some of it we haven't decided yet whether it's true or not," Gunn wrote in the first tweet, without elaborating which was which.
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James Gunn reassured DC fans on Twitter after reports emerged that future films like 'Wonder Woman 3' could be in trouble. | CREDIT: KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES; CLAY ENOS/ WARNER BROS.
In another tweet, Gunn continued, "Although this first month at DC has been fruitful, building the next ten years of story takes time & we're still just beginning."
WB representatives did not respond to EW's request for additional comment on Gunn's tweets.
Gunn first made his name as a superhero director at Marvel with the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. He recently oversaw the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and the new trailer for next year's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 teases one last adventure for the space-faring misfits as the director dedicates his full attention to DC (where he has already overseen the Peacemaker show for HBO Max, featuring John Cena's character from The Suicide Squad).
According to the aforementioned THR report, which was based entirely on unnamed sources, DC is not moving ahead with Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman 3. A long-awaited Man of Steel sequel starring Henry Cavill's Superman may also be dead in the water, even though Cavill recently reprised the role in the post-credits scene for Black Adam. Shortly afterward, he ended his other big franchise commitment by departing Netflix's The Witcher.
Speaking of Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam, a sequel is also said to be "unlikely" given the film's middling box office performance. Tweets this week from Johnson and Gadot — the former asserting that Black Adam actually will turn a profit, and the latter saying she "can't wait to share [Wonder Woman's] next chapter with you" — could be indicative of ongoing debates within the studio.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and the long-delayed The Flash starring Ezra Miller are still on track to hit theaters next year, but how they connect to other films remains unclear.
"As for more answers about the future of the DCU, I will sadly have to ask you to wait," Gunn wrote in the final tweet in his thread. "We are giving these characters & the stories the time & attention they deserve & we ourselves still have a lot more questions to ask & answer."
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