Oh man, what is going at Warner Bros.? The studio is riding a really ugly streak at the moment, with some spectacular bombs (“Jupiter Ascending,” “Pan“), films of dubious promise (“The Legend Of Tarzan,” and “Knights Of The Roundtable: King Arthur,” pushed from release this summer to next spring), and that’s not to mention the fragile state of their DC Comics universe, whose success seems to now be resting partly on “Suicide Squad,” but mostly on the two-part “Justice League.” And WB has made it clear in hiring Ben Affleck to serve as both Batman and executive producer on the film that they are no longer confident in Zack Snyder‘s sole vision following the critically thrashed “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice.” And then there’s the “Godzilla” universe of movies, which has just lost a key figure.
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Gareth Edwards has exited reprising his directing duties on “Godzilla 2,” which explains why it was recently pushed back a full year from its original release date to 2019. The official line is that Edwards has some of his own smaller-scale movies he wants to get made once he’s done with “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” and that his exit had nothing to do with the release-date change. But I would also guess that he has no desire to make yet another creature feature following “Monsters” and “Godzilla,” and I can’t imagine the atmosphere at WB at the moment for anyone working on their major tentpoles. I can only assume there’s a lot of second-guessing going on in light of the performance and reception of recent films.
Frankly, I’m kind of relived to see Edwards move on and try something else, and no doubt he’s going to have plenty of people come knocking after ‘Rogue One’ arrives later this year. As for WB, no word yet on who they’re eyeing to take over, but they’ve got some time to rethink the project post-Edwards and find a suitable helmer. [Deadline]
