…Moving on to the DC Cinematic Universe now and despite the fact that the film is still some fifteen months away from release, a rumour has emerged this week suggesting that the first ‘Batman heavy’ trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is ready, and that is should arrive before the year is out. It does of course seem very early for Warner Bros. to kick off the marketing campaign, but we did get a teaser for The Dark Knight Rises twelve months before its release so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility…
…Turning to Warner’s next DC offering and amid reports that Jesse Eisenberg is in talks to return as Lex Luthor in 2016’s Suicide Squad, Fury director David Ayer has spoken about his take on the project, describing it as “The Dirty Dozen with supervillains”, as well as discussing the appeal of the movie: “Fury whetted my appetite for a bigger canvas and this idea of world creation. You can do amazing things as a filmmaker if you have the proper tools, and those are time and money. I can say that it’s a Dirty Dozen with supervillains. Then I can ask the question, ‘Does a movie really need good guys?’ I love the passion [comic-book fans] have for these characters and these worlds. I think there’s something incredible about the comic genre and technology has finally caught up with pen and ink to render these fantastic worlds in a way that feels believable and visceral to audiences. It’s a secular religion in that regards. The mythology that these characters represent – the idea of them as fallen gods on Earth – is intriguing to me. I can’t wait to start exploring those corridors…”
…Amid reports that Warner Bros. is looking to hire a female director for Gal Gadot’s first solo outing as the Amazon Princess, Forbes got some inside information / listed every female director they could think of [delete as appropriate], claiming that the shortlist to direct 2017’s Wonder Woman standalone movie is lead by Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight), Mimi Leder (Deep Impact) and Karyn Kusama (Girlfight), with Julie Taymor (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), Michelle MacLaren (Game of Thrones) and Tricia Brook (The Walking Dead) also reportedly under consideration…
…Having denied his casting in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on numerous occasions, Jason Momoa has finally been confirmed in the role of Aquaman in the DC Cinematic Universe, and the former Game of Thrones star broke his silence this week, stating: ““I was asked to play it. You know, you audition and stuff like that, but the fact is you’ve just got to keep it quiet. You know what I mean, I was just trying to respect Warner Bros. and everyone’s wishes. I’m really, really happy that I don’t have to be quiet anymore, because that’s really hard for me… I don’t know the director [for the solo movie]. I know about as much as you guys know. I know the Justice League will come first. That’s really what we’re going to focus on. I’m not sure if it will be [set] prior to Justice League or post. I don’t know too much about it. It will probably be where he came from. It will probably be his whole origin story I would think… So I know we’re going to do Justice League first. I don’t even know when we’re shooting yet, but it will be like 2016 or 2017, so there’s plenty of time… I’m really excited to be with Warner Bros., and hopefully everyone likes it. And Zack Snyder’s a genius, so I’m really excited to be hanging out with him.” Read more from Momoa here…
…It seems that the news of a Cyborg solo movie in 2020 came as much of a surprise to Ray Fisher as it did to fans, with the newcomer revealing this week that he only found out about the standalone movie when Warner Bros. announced its DC slate: “I didn’t know the extent to which DC and WB had planned on taking my character, when I signed on, I just wanted to be part of this world. But that specific information, I found out then and there. I didn’t think I’d be getting my own stand-alone film…”
…Despite Warner having planned its DC universe through to 2020, the only films that we know have directors attached so far are Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad and Justice League, and a report has emerged this week suggesting that The Conjuring director James Wan is being eyed to helm one of the upcoming projects. No further details were provided, but with Wan directing Dwayne Johnson in Fast & Furious 7, then 2019’s Shazam could certainly be a possibility…
…On the small screen, The CW has announced that it has given a full season order to its new DC show The Flash, which will run for 23 episodes. Meanwhile some new set photos have arrived online giving us our first look at Prison Break duo Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell together as Captain Cold and Heatwave, and it has also been revealed that Roger Howarth (General Hospital) has signed on for a recurring role as Mason Bridge, “an award-winning reporter from Central City Pictures News” who is investigating Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh). You can read our review of the third episode of The Flash ‘Things You Can’t Outrun’ here, and we’ve also got a trailer, promo and stills for Tuesday’s episode ‘Going Rogue’, which you can peruse here…
…Ra’s al Ghul is set to make his debut in Arrow this Wednesday with the fourth episode of the third season, ‘The Magician’, and you can check out some promo images here, along with a trailer and even more images here. Meanwhile, this week has brought news that Vinnie Jones (X-Men: The Last Stand) is set to feature in episodes 10, 11 and 12 as the villain Danny ‘Brick’ Brickwell, as well as giving us our first look at Nick Tarabay as Captain Boomerang. And of course, we’ve also got a review of Wednesday’s third episode ‘Corto Maltese’, which you can read here…
…Over at FOX and a promo and clips from Monday’s sixth episode of Gotham have arrived online ‘The Spirit of the Goat’ have arrived online, along with two new featurettes. The network has also given us a taste of the seventh episode ‘Penguin’s Umbrella’ with a batch of promotional images, along with a few shots of the debuting villain Victor Zsasz (who you might recognise from the last episode of The Flash), while it has been announced that former Firefly star Morena Baccarin has signed on to play the character of Dr. Leslie Thompkins, with a recurring role in the first season expected to expand into a series regular if and when the show is picked up for a second season. And we’ve also been catching up with our Gotham reviews this week – check out Martin Carr’s take on episode four and episode five…
…DC’s latest TV show Constantine got underway on NBC last night; we’ll have a review up on Flickering Myth soon, but in the meantime the network has released a batch of promotional character images which you can see here, along with a batch of stills and a promo for next week’s second episode ‘The Darkness Beneath’…
…It looks like we’ll be getting another DC TV series in the near future, with Warner Bros.’ new digital division Blue Ribbon Content tapping Reginald Hudlin (Django Unchained) to develop a live-action Static Shock series, based upon the DC Comics character of Static, who headlined his own DC Animated Universe show back in 2000-2004…
…Ahead of its first ever home entertainment release, five remastered HD clips have arrived online from the Blu-ray box-set of Batman: The Complete Television Series, which see Adam West and Burt Ward’s Dynamic Duo taking on The Riddler (Frank Gorshin), Catwoman (Julie Newmar), The Minstrel (Van Johnson), The Puzzler (Maurice Evans) and their goons. Check them out here…
…And on the animated DC front, a new clip has arrived online from LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Batman Be-Leaguered, which sees the Man of Steel attempting to recruit the Dark Knight into the Justice League. The animated special is set to air on Cartoon Network this coming Monday; check the clip out here…
…In one other piece of Batman related news, if you’re a glutton for punishment and were wondering how Joel Schumacher planned to continue the franchise post-Batman & Robin with the abandoned sequel Batman Triumphant, then you might be interested to hear that Schumacher is adapting Batman Forever, Batman & Robin and the unmade fifth movie as a twelve issue comic book series, which will “revisit his intentions for the three films [and tell] one story”, giving us “his original vision for the movies.” So, expect Bat-Nipples and Bat-Codpieces galore…
…And in another case of “what might have been”, Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) has spoken about his work on the script for Tim Burton’s infamous attempt at rebooting the Man of Steel with the abandoned Superman Lives: “I spent a year working with Tim Burton on his Superman Lives movie and the day they pulled the plug on that was very, very disappointing. It was disappointing for all of us: for me, for Tim, for Nicolas Cage, for Jon Peters. We were very far along and Warner Bros. had gone through a cycle where nothing they were making was connecting and they were hemorrhaging money and they just didn’t feel that they could sustain making that film. So that was a major disappointment. I think Tim would have made a really marvelous film out of what we had come up with. That was hard. Tim had the idea, which was really the driving force of the movie, that Jor-El didn’t have the chance to tell Kal-El when he put him in the little spaceship meteorite where he came from or who he was. So poor little Kal-El grew up on Earth having no idea where these powers came from or who he was, and I always thought that was a really inverted, deconstructionist element to bring to the story. I loved it and working with Tim we tried to explore it as much as possible. I’d love to see it happen some day. I’m a big Tim Burton fan…”
…Having expressed his interest in Doctor Strange in recent weeks, Keanu Reeves has been speaking about comic book movies this week, with the former John Constantine stating that he used to have ambitions about portraying two A-list superheroes: “I always wanted to play Wolverine. But I didn’t get that. And they have a great Wolverine now. I always wanted to play The Dark Knight. But I didn’t get that one. They’ve had some great Batmans. So now I’m just enjoying them as an audience…”
…The planned live-action reboot of Spawn may be stuck in development hell, but Todd McFarlane has announced that Spawn is set to return in a new animated series; McFarlane announced the news on Facebook, releasing a couple of pieces of concept art, including the character of Sam and Twitch, which you can see here…
…And finally, we have a few superhero-related op-eds for your perusal this week with Thomas Roach’s Why a Female Robin Would Be Good For Batman v Superman, Is 2017 Too Soon For a Wonder Woman Movie?, Is Suicide Squad Too Early in DC’s Cinematic Line-Up?, and Who Is Andy Serkis Playing in Avengers: Age of Ultron?, Anthony Stokes’ Why Warner Bros.’ DC Line-Up Is Worrisome, and Anghus Houvouras’ Popular Actor Sought For Big Budget Comic Book Movie.
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.
