…As Warner Bros. prepares for its big DC Cinematic Universe panel at Comic-Con, it’s been a fairly quiet week on the DC front too, although Jesse Eisenberg did take a moment to share some thoughts on his role as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and some praise for screenwriter Chris Terrio: “It’s a really great character. It was written by this guy, Chris Terrio, he’s a phenomenal writer. He comes from a place of character. He loves my character in the same way I love my character. He put a lot of work into it. It’s a great character. There’s an emotional core to character. It’s not a silly villainous character. It is an entirely different thing [to Gene Hackman’s portrayal]. Also, the tone of that movies is so different, like that movie wouldn’t be made now. Like the way we expect movies to be now is to have some kind of – I mean, it’s probably for the best – there’s some kind of psychological accuracy. That the person is coming from a place probably diagnosable in some way…”
…In between regurgitating old Wolverine 3 rumours on podcasts and posting more fake concept art, Heroic Hollywood’s El Mayimbe dropped another DC “scoop” this week, claiming that Jason Momoa’s Aquaman will be seen in Suicide Squad, where he’ll be held prisoner by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) – who also has his trident on display – and that the King of Atlantis was captured after a fight with King Shark, who is rumoured to be portrayed by Ray Olubowale. He also claimed that Scott Eastwood is playing Deathstroke, which it should be noted is around his seventeenth attempt at guessing who’ll be playing Slade Wilson, and his second attempt at guessing Scott Eastwood’s character. Of course this is all “unconfirmed” at the minute. Why not get it confirmed before posting? Ah, who cares! It’s all links to his site at the end of the day! And he’s got to guess correctly sooner or later, right? With all the speculation he’s throwing out there, this guy really needs his own dedicated Week in Bullshit section…
…Before Christopher Nolan successfully rebooted the Batman franchise with Batman Begins, Warner Bros. tossed around a few ideas as it attempted to relaunch the series post-Batman & Robin. One of those ideas was a Batman Beyond movie, which would have been helmed by Boaz Yakin (Remember the Titans), and the director has spoken about the aborted project this week: “It was almost like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man but a little bit darker — a teenage, kind of futuristic, cyberpunk Batman thing. [I] very quickly got the feeling that I would be in the zone, the madness, and I didn’t really have the heart for it at the time and I basically bailed after one draft. I just went, ‘I can’t do this.’ It might have really hurt my career. I went off and wrote the best script I ever wrote that never got made. But it was just one of those moments in time where you think you want to do something, and then you realize you don’t really want to do it, and for some reason it’s on your IMDb page for the rest of your life…”
…Warner Bros. has this week released the cover art and details for the home-entertainment releases of Arrow: The Complete Third Season and The Flash: The Complete First Season (both of which are set to arrive on shelves on September 22nd), while we’ve also got an exclusive interview with Arrow star Willa Holland, which you can watch here…
…A few weeks ago, Mark Millar hinted that a Hit Girl movie could be in the works, and now Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn has confirmed plans for a prequel based around the young assassin, which he hopes will make amends for anyone disappointed by Kick-Ass 2, as well as paving the way for Kick-Ass 3: “[I’m] not happily done with the franchise. We’re working on an idea for a prequel of how did Hit Girl and Big Daddy become Hit Girl and Big Daddy. If we make that, hopefully that will be the sorbet for the people that didn’t like Kick-Ass 2 and then we can go off and make Kick-Ass 3. I think we’ve got to do this prequel to regain the love that we had with Kick-Ass.
…And finally, if you were excited that Relativity’s long-gestating remake of The Crow finally looked to be moving towards production, then I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed to hear that the project is once again in need of a leading man, with Jack Huston (Boardwalk Empire) following in Luke Evans’ (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies) footsteps by vacacting the role of Eric Draven. However, all may not be lost, as director Corin Hardy is reportedly eyeing Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road) and Jack O’Connell (Unbroken) as his replacement, where they’d join Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey) and Andrea Riseborough (Birdman).
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.
