…We come to DC Extended Universe now and as usual, it’s time for a negative rumour! This week it concerns Justice League, with Batman-on-Film claiming that the reason for the current reshoots are down to an early cut of the movie being “unwatchable”, with Warner Bros. execs ordering the film to be overhauled in an effort to save it. Actor Joe Morton – who plays Cyborg’s father Dr. Silas Stone in the upcoming film – has also said that a big component of the reshoots is “adjusting” Ray Fisher’s Cyborg and lightening up the tone, while Ben Affleck also shared a few comments on the reshoots and Joss Whedon coming in as a replacement for Zack Snyder: “It’s a little bit unorthodox. Zack had a family tragedy, and stepped off, which was horrible. For the movie, the best person we could’ve possibly found was Joss. We got really lucky that he stepped in. [It’s] an interesting product of two directors, both with kind of unique visions, both with really strong takes. I’ve never had that experience before making a movie. I have to say, I really love working with Zack, and I really love the stuff we’ve done with Joss. I’ve never worked on a movie that didn’t do reshoots. Argo, we did reshoots for a week and a half! Four days on Gone Baby Gone! This is a really nice time to work in DC. They’re hitting their stride. They’re getting it right. It’s starting to feel like it’s really working…”
…On the Justice League promotional front, this week has brought us some concept art of Batman’s Flying Fox [see here] as well as our best look yet at the villainous Steppenwolf [see here] and some promo art from the 2018 calendar including Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel [see here]. We’ve also had a new look at Amber Heard’s Mera on some toy packaging [see here], as well as a Mera action figure [see here], and Icon Heroes Batman collectible statue [see here]…
..Some new set photos from Aquaman have arrived online which appear to show Mera on the run from Atlantean soldiers, who are presumably working for the film’s villain Ocean Master (Patrick Wilson), the half-brother of Jason Momoa’s Arthur Curry [check them out here]. Meanwhile, director James Wan has also spoken about overcoming the stigma of the Aquaman character: “Momoa is not a guy that you would go up to and make fun of. I really think you immediately remove any of the stigma of the character from the cartoons that we are familiar with. Having said that, I’m not completely unaware of the stigma. If anything, I embrace it and being able to laugh at yourself and have fun at yourself is important and that’s something I am aware of as I make Aquaman right now.” You can read the rest of Wan’s comments about casting Dolph Lundgren and the technical challenges of the underwater sequences here…
…Having passed $400 million at the domestic box office – making it the third highest grossing Warner Bros. release behind Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises – Wonder Woman is now gearing up for its home-entertainment release, and the studio has announced that it will hit digitally on August 29th before getting a 4K Ultra HD, 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray and standard DVD release on September 19th; watch a short trailer and check out the special features for the release here, and take a look at Funko’s latest Wonder Woman Dorbz and Pop! Vinyl figures here…
…Around a decade before Gal Gadot was cast as Diana Prince, Warner Bros. was keen for Kate Beckinsale to take on the role of the Amazon Princess for Joss Whedon’s ultimately abandoned Wonder Woman movie, only for the Underworld star to pass on the opportunity. This week, she revealed why: “The incarnations that I was seeing were… They weren’t this one [the 2017 film]. Also, I don’t know if I was desperate to be in a leotard. I’d already done the rubber trousers. You have to take in that you have a child at some point and how much could you possibly embarrass them.” However, it seems that Beckinsale isn’t fully ruling out a DC role, adding that: “There’s a very big alternate universe where I’m Catwoman…”
…In other DCEU news, Kiersey Clemons has revealed that she only discovered Warner’s plans for a Flashpoint movie immediately before the San Diego Comic-Con panel, while some new fan art surfaced showing Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Thomas Wayne as Batman alongside Ezra Miller’s Flash; Doug Liman explained why he exited the director’s chair on Justice League Dark; and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice production designer Patrick Tatopoulos has shared his concept art for the film’s Parademons…
…Turning to the small screen and UK fans will soon be able to watch the third season of Gotham, although it won’t be thanks to Channel 5, as Warner Bros. has announced that season three will hit Blu-ray and DVD on August 28th. Meanwhile, executive producer John Stephens has been speaking about Bruce Wayne’s journey this coming fourth season, stating that they are drawing inspiration from the comic book Batman: Year One: “He will wear body armor and grappling hooks, but he will not be Batman. It’s a little more of a Batman: Year One in a different setting… I’d say visually, when you look at what Bruce is going to be doing this season, it’s gonna look far closer to what our conception of Batman is definitely gonna be. You’re also going to get to see him do very specific things, certain elements like when you watch Bruce Wayne acting like a playboy, we sort of ask the question, how did he learn to do that so well? Well, maybe there’s a time that he wasn’t pretending to be that. And we actually play with a little bit of Bruce having a teenage spiral, where he enjoys the elements of being a billionaire with no parents in Gotham, that he can draw from later on to become the fake playboy…”
…The CW has dropped a couple of pieces of casting news this week, with Sugar Lyn Beard set to play Rebecca Sharpe, a.k.a. Hazard, in the fourth season of The Flash [check out a set photo of Beard in costume here], while rapper Krondon has been cast as the main villain Tobias Whale in the upcoming series Black Lightning. “I was excited about Krondon when I saw his audition. He’s going to make a great Tobias,” executive producer Salim Akil said. “His authentic street sensibility along with an insightful intelligence is perfect for the Tobias character arc. Not to mention his regal physical bearing will be additive to making our show exciting and different…”
…Tom Welling has been chatting about the series finale of Smallville, and why he opted against donning the Superman suit: “It was literally something that the entire series was behind in not doing that. We did things on that show where we didn’t call them powers, we called them abilities — you weren’t allowed to say powers; you just weren’t because Clark didn’t know they were powers, he just knew he had those abilities, so little things like kept us grounded and kept us faced onto the story we were telling about this character, not what he could do with these abilities. Our series finale was supposed to be, in the first act, Clark puts on the suit and flies around, saves Lois on a plane, and does this other stuff. It was a call that I had with Peter Roth, who is the head of Warner Bros. Television, who’s a good friend of mine and we have a great relationship. I said, ‘That’s not our show, Peter.’ He’s like, ‘No, it’s going to be great,” and I go, ‘Yeah, but just think about what we’ve been doing. If we just jump into that, we haven’t earned it.’” You can read the rest of Welling’s comments here…
…It’s been announced this week that Adam West’s final outing as Batman will be with us this October with the home-entertainment release of the Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders sequel Batman vs. Two-Face, which sees West joined by Burt Ward as Robin, Julie Newmar as Catwoman, and William Shatner as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. And that’s not all, as the first trailer also arrived online, and you can watch it here…
…In other animated Batman-related news, legendary voice actor Kevin Conroy appeared on Talkin’ Toons with Rob Paulsen this week, during which he offered his spin on the Caped Crusader’s classic speech from the ending of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight; check it out here…
…Warner Bros. has also announced the upcoming Commemorative Edition Blu-ray and DVD release of the DC Universe Animated Original Movie Justice League: The New Frontier, which includes a brand new featurette spotlighting the late Darwyn Cooke. You can find the trailer and list of special features here…
…During a promotional interview for his new film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, filmmaker Luc Besson revealed that he’s become bored with the superhero genre, and feels like the likes of Captain America is just “propaganda”: “Totally tired of it. It was great 10 years ago when we see the first Spider-Man and Iron Man. But now, it’s like number five, six, seven; the superhero is working with another superhero, but it’s not the same family. I’m lost. But what bothers me most is it’s always here to show the supremacy of America and how they are great. I mean, which country in the world would have the guts to call a film ‘Captain Brazil’ or ‘Captain France?’ I mean, no one! We would be like so ashamed and say, ‘No, no, come on, we can’t do that.’ They can. They can call it ‘Captain America,’ and everybody think it normal. I’m not here for propaganda, I’m here to tell a story.”
…And finally, we’ve got a few Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen updates this week; firstly, the Rise of the Blood Queen subtitle has been dropped, with the reboot now just going by the title of Hellboy, while Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich has signed on to play the titular villain, the Queen of Blood. And, because everything has to be these days, creator Mike Mignola has said that he hopes the movie launches a shared cinematic universe: “It’s a very loose adaptation of one of the Hellboy graphic novels. When you have more books out there, you have a lot more to sift through. You can look around at how big the world is, and borrow pieces from here and there. You want to sell a larger world, but you have to pick and choose what goes in there. The challenge for us has been to not lose sight of the specific story, but suggest the elements of a larger story. My hope is that this introduces a lot of stuff that then expands into a Hellboy Cinematic Universe.”
Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.
