Here’s the difference between the Marvel and DC film empires. The Marvel film efforts are such a well oiled machine that nothing short of a fistfight on set will get mention in the trades. However, all it takes is a casual mention about a potential film schedule from a head executive at Warner brothers to have all the people to start running around like a chicken with their heads cut off.
What’s causing all the chicken’s to run, including this one, is information culled from an L.A. Times interview with Warner Brothers executive Jeff Robinov and reported on the paper’s Hero Complex blog about the company’s plans for DC Comics properties. The information concerns the future of the Bat-franchise after The Dark Knight Rises—and what role Christopher Nolan’s role in that future will be—and a potential restart to the aborted Justice League film.
While it does appear the The Dark Knight Rises will close out the Christian Bale starring/Nolan directed Batman trilogy, the Batfilms will go on as the property will be rebooted once again immediately afterword. The good news is that Nolan will stay on board, producing the reboot with his wife Emma Thomas.
The bad news is that producing isn’t the same as directing or writing. Nolan’s involvement in both those areas is what makes the current series of films great. Well, maybe they learned a lesson from the first films series. If they rebooted at three back then, we wouldn’t have had to suffer through Batman and Robin.
The news about Justice League being in the works is interesting for a number of reasons. Robinov makes it seem like the film is on the fast track, with a 2013 release date mentioned. Of course, a Justice League film got all the way to the costume-making, cast-relocating-to-shooting-location stage back in 2007 before a litany of problems caused Warners to pull the plug on it.
Also, Geoff Johns, DC’s liaison with Warner Brothers concerning film adaptations of DC characters, stated as recently as last October at the New York Comic Con that there was no Justice League film in the works.
This film is mean to be a vehicle that restarts the stalled Flash and Wonder Woman film franchises. This fact cause many to question if, like Marvel’s The Avengers, will this be shared universe project, meaning Henry Cavill as the Justice League’s Superman and Ryan Reynolds as its Green Lantern. This kind of shared universe was expressly disavowed by Nolan back when he took over producing the Superman reboot. He made it clear that his Batman films were definitely in a different universe that the Superman films.
One question was addressed by Robinov—how Wonder Woman in the Justice League and her own film franchise would affect the Wonder Woman TV series in the works. Robinov considers it to be like Smallville and Superman Returns—two different takes on the same concept, different enough to avoid confusion. However, it worked that time because Smallville was an unique take on Supeman’s life as a teen and young adult, while Bryan Singer’s film dealt with a grown Superman. The Wonder Woman in the films and the TV show would appear to be much closer in age, so the lines of distinction will be far muddier.
