We’ll be repeating it all day: the DCEU is changing. After some major shakeups in the last two weeks—Geoff Johns is out as Chief Creative Officer— Walter Hamada, known for “The Conjuring” universe, has been named the president of DC Entertainment-based film. Evidently, Warner Bros. wanted someone with a cinematic universe that actually works.
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“He walked into a shitshow, and he’s trying to clean it up,” an insider told THR this week. Indeed, after the colossal failure of “Justice League”—the lowest grossing film in the DCEU franchise— Hamada has lots of work to do to get this series on track.
So a new plan is forming: Step one, make a Batman film without Ben Affleck directed Matt Reeves (the ‘Planet Of The Apes‘ series), make the character younger and set it outside the current DC films continuity. Step two: make a fun, entertaining, “Back To The Future“-like Flash film. Lastly, keep going forward with your first of two Joker films.
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Yep, despite a new Joker film in development with original new Clown Prince Of Crime, Jared Leto—got that?— DC Films/WB is doubling down on the idea of parallel DC universes. One will feature the characters and actors you already know, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, etc. and the other that looks like it may be launched under a new label that could be branded with a name like “DC Dark” or “DC Black.”
READ MORE: Geoff Johns Stepping Down As DC Films Exec And Instead Will Write ‘Green Lantern Corps’
This would be the, seemingly, darker, more adult version of the DC characters and films you know and the first one would be Todd Phillips‘ (“The Hangover” series) version of a Joker movie starring Joaquin Phoenix and exec-produced by Martin Scorsese (though his name seems to be missing from recent reports, so perhaps his involvement is distant at best).
So today’s update: yes, Todd Phillips’ film is still moving forward and it looks like it will shoot in the fall. Perhaps more importantly, despite acting evasive in every interview, it appears that Joaquin Phoenix will star in the film. Lastly, this Phillips-helmed Joker film will reportedly feature a budget of about $55 million, a fraction of most superhero pics and well under “moderately budgeted” genre films like “Logan” and “Alien Covenant” (both around the $90 million range).
So perhaps DC is aiming for something much more character driven and less VFX, set piece and action driven.
WB/DC Films, unlike Marvel, seems to have no qualms about franchise and branding confusion. That company seems to have no problem with a Flash on TV and a Flash in the movies and obviously seems happy to go forward with Supergirl and parallel stories and characters that aren’t in the movies. Whether the strategy will pay off on the big screen—two Jokers, two Batmans, etc.—remains to be seen, but the company has a lot of work to do before they can earn the goodwill of the general public back.
For every “Wonder Woman” step forward, there always seems to be a three-steps back film to follow it like “Justice League.”
Lastly, THR says “Hamada and his boss Toby Emmerich, sources say, also are not looking to date upcoming titles in advance, something they’re convinced has bedeviled the DC movies since 2013’s ‘Man of Steel.’ “Walter has a specific design for the universe,” says one insider familiar with his thinking. “He has a plan.” A coherent strategy for the DCEU would certainly be nice.
What a mess
I think this is a good move. The simple truth is that alot of DC properties are dark. To try and simply dilute them and make them marvelesque(lighter in tone) would be another disaster.
Batman and it’s villains – require darker hands.
Darker hands than Batman machine-gunning the opposition? Darker than Batman branding criminals so they can be murdered in prison?
I’m not sure audiences stayed away from Justice League because they didn’t think there would be enough killing in them.
“Man of Steel” and “Wonder Woman” were fine. “Batman vs. Superman” was not, and I did not see “Justice League”. A “Batman and Robin” movie after “Wonder Woman” would have worked better. Robin could eventually become Nightwing- so there is your next jump after a few films. The fact that Lex Luthor was such a weak character, not to mention pitting Batman vs. Superman, really did not pay off for me. “Suicide Squad” was ok, it just felt like a bunch of misfits moping around and really were not that evil. When I saw that Marian Manhunter was not in “Justice League”, and a comedic Flash, and what looks like a wrestler in Aquaman, I really lost interest. All of the actors are good and talented, I just felt that DC/WB really needed some quality control on the essence of these icons and how they relate to society. I’m happy to hear they are going in another direction, while trying to salvage the rest of the universe they started.
Didn’t Geoff Johns like JUST even take that job? The “chief creative man” or whatever for the DC wing of the studio? like less than a year ago, right?
Walter hamada is not the solution, it goes deeper than just hiring some producer who’s done a few horror films .. im not sure how darknthe dc universe needs to be , for my personal tastes nolans batman trilogy was on point !!! Zack snyders man of steel was on point !!! Batman vs superman while it had its flaws the extended version was good .. wonder woman sucked ass !!! Yes i said it it sucked gal gadot is a horrible actress ! Suicide squad was ok for first hour then got really lame ! Justice league well was ok not the worst but definitely not the best , only thing i really hated was ezera version of flash ( he is a horrible actor )
just reboot the whole thing…
My God the DCEU is an embarrassment. Di$ney and Marvel are laughing all the way to the bank. Kill the Snyderverse. Replace Affleck. Forget the New 92 and stick to the classic mythology. Jesus just put Nolan in charge.
Of all the recent DC films I quite liked Wonder Woman and didn’t mind Suicide Squad. The trailer killed Batman vs Superman for me as Jesse Eisenberg hamming it up as Lex Luthor convinced me I really didn’t want to see it. I watched Justice League at home and before it was half way through I was reading a book and just had it playing in the background. My favourite DC film so far is Green Lantern, yes, the one that everybody mocks (including Ryan Reynolds). I just found it entertaining, sometimes a bit of enjoyable rubbish is all you need.
Jesse Eisenberg is an absolute DISASTER as Lex. FFS, Michael Rosenbaum on Smallville was a FAR better Lex.
Eisenberg seems to think acting is playing a variation on the same idiot whiny character. I hate his face.
This will be shit. Joaquin Phoenix may be good at some characters, but there is NO WAY I would EVER trust him with joker. that stupid ass “performance art” movie he did with Casey Affleck was SO bad, I hate Joaquin now.