Apparently I haven’t been reading enough rumor rags as the possibility of the currently “Untitled Superman-Batman Project” (aka Batman vs. Superman) actually ending up being titled Justice League is speculation that’s been floating around for a while now. Of course, with both Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) being in it with rumors of The Flash and others perhaps having cameos this makes total sense. It also means Warner Bros. and DC are looking at the Marvel model and have determined they might not want to explicitly copy their path to success.
In an interview with IGN, screenwriter David S. Goyer (Batman vs. Superman, Man of Steel, Batman Begins) says as much telling the site, “I know that Warner Bros. would love to make their universe more cohesive. There have been a lot of general conversations about that, but it’s really, really early. I’m not sure. Marvel has had enormous success, but I’m not sure that everybody should try to emulate them either.”
Goyer added, “There’s just our approach to how we want to tell a story, and hopefully we can convince Warner Bros. or whatnot of that. We don’t sit in a room with cigars and say, ‘Look at what these guys are doing!’ It doesn’t work that way.”
DC has already found some success going a different route, beginning with “Arrow” on television and soon to bring “The Flash“, “Constantine” (written by Goyer) and “Gotham” to the small screen as well, all before we get this untitled Man of Steel sequel in May of 2016. Though Goyer doesn’t seem to think the shows will carryover into the feature films. “You know, ‘Smallville’ was running while Bryan Singer’s Superman came out,” Goyer said, “and no one had a heart attack over that.”
Oh, and another thing… that May 2016 release date for Batman vs. Superman… as of now, Warner Bros. isn’t backing off even though Marvel Captain America 3 on the same day.
Speaking with Bloomberg, WB president of domestic distribution, Dan Fellman, said, “It doesn’t make a lot of sense for two huge superhero films to open on the same date but there is a lot of time between now and May 6, 2016.” He added, “However at this time, we are not considering a change of date for Batman vs. Superman.”
Yes, there is a lot of time and not only does it not make “a lot of sense” it makes no sense for these two superhero films to be released on the same weekend. One will move, but let’s just say they both do release that weekend, I wonder how far out we’d be from May 6 before one of them announced their film would actually hit theaters early, on Wednesday, May 4. Because you know it would happen.
Getting back to Goyer, perhaps the most interesting comment he made, and one I’m having a hard time entirely dissecting is when he’s asked about the pressure in achieving the same success with DC properties as Marvel has had. He responds saying, “Look, we’ve been pretty lucky with the films we’ve done so far. I think right now it’s just kind of, ‘More of the same, please.‘ I’m trying to branch off with Sandman.”
When he says “more of the same, please” is he referring to Marvel movies? Is it a jab? Or is he referring to WB suits asking him to mimic what Marvel has done and don’t try anything too risky?
If anything, I’d say the DC films, love ’em or hate ’em, have seemed far more risky in terms of “Will audiences accept this or won’t they?” than Marvel, which seems to have found a winning template and stuck to it, they I will say Guardians of the Galaxy, on paper, is a bit of a risk with a talking Raccoon and a sentient tree, though just watching that first clip from the film makes it look like they’ve done their very best to limit risk and, more or less, guarantee a certain level of success.
