Today’s no-news story is so short that the trail of links will be longer. On Saturday, ShockTillYouDrop reported that WB producer Charles Roven “told us that there is “no momentum” on the comic book adaptation The Flash at Warner Bros. Pictures.”
Not a big surprise, frankly, given the last few bits of non-news about the film. (via SuperHeroHype, in turn via The Beat)
Inspired by the wild success of The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. is going to be trimming its low-end movie production and focusing on the big tentpole films, the Wall Street Journal reports. So where to DC’s super-heroes stand?
With “Batman vs. Superman” and “Justice League” stalled, Warner Bros. has quietly adopted Marvel’s model of releasing a single film for each character, and then using those movies and their sequels to build up to a multicharacter film. “Along those lines, we have been developing every DC character that we own,” [Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff] Robinov says.
Like the recent Batman sequel — which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far — Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.
The studio is set to announce its plans for future DC movies in the next month. For now, though, it is focused on releasing four comic-book films in the next three years, including a third Batman film, a new film reintroducing Superman, and two movies focusing on other DC Comics characters. Movies featuring Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman are all in active development.
While I hope they don’t go too dark with The Flash, I’m glad to hear that they’re pulling away from the light near-comedy suggested by the choices of Shawn Levy and later David Dobkin as director.
I didn’t manage to try out DC Universe Online myself — there was always a longer line than I wanted to wait for — and I missed the two gaming panels on Friday. (I think it was Friday. It’s all sort of blurred together.) So here are some write-ups I found online.
Newsarama’s J.K. Parkin writes about playing a speedster in the DCU Online demo:
The coolest part, though, was when I hit the right joystick and turned on the Speed Force. Throwing rocks at my enemies and slamming them with my staff was cool and all, but you’d expect that in any superhero-based MMO. Having my character run through the streets of Metropolis at super speed, trailed by what looked like the Speed Force that all comic fans know from the comics? That’s the kind of detail this game needed to really set it apart. And from what I’ve seen so far, it has it in spades.
They’ve also got an article on the DC Universe Online presentation that Sony made Wednesday night.
IGN has extensive coverage of the gaming side of the con, including a write-up of Friday’s DCUO panel, video clips, an interview with Jim Lee before the show, and Greg Miller’s demo experience:
I chose to quit, take Jim Lee’s advice, and try out the speedster.
Named Rock Solid and decked out in black and gold, the speedster was just about everything I could want in a low-level superhero. Clicking L3 put the dude into super-speed mode so that he could scoot around Metropolis with a wicked speed effect at his feet, run up the sides of buildings, and get away from foes, but being earth-based gave him some more nifty powers.
Moving on to Mortal Combat vs. DC Universe, Newsarama’s article on the MK vs. DC panel, includes a description of one of the fights in the preview video:
Finally, the Flash darted around Soyna, leaving her spinning and dazed before running her off a cliff, the pair trading blows all the way down before the Flash got the upper hand and whipped his opponent into the ground, creating a small crater.
Each brutal blow drew “oooohhhs” from the crowd, who also cheered when Superman cut loose with his heat vision, and when Flash delivered several attacks at his trademark speed.
IGN had its own panel write-up, including the video clip, and added that gameplay is structured in chapters, with each character associated with a chapter. That might explain why we keep seeing the same match-ups in the demo footage.
(Images via IGN)
/Film got a little more info out of The Dark Knight producer Charles Rovan:
“We had hoped to be able to get a new draft going before the writers’ strike and we weren’t able to,” Rovan admitted. “And since the writers’ strike, we just haven’t been able to find the right creative compatibility between what we’re looking for and a writer and you know, we’re a little bit dragging our feet, we’re just waiting to see what’s going to happen with this actor’s strike, you know.”
(via FusedFilm)
On the plus side, there’s that Warner Bros/DC film summit that’s been making the rounds of comics blogs lately. Perhaps once the labor issues are resolved, we’ll see some more movement?
And yes, “looking at how best to exploit the DC Comics characters and properties” is an appropriate description, if a bit blunt. Warner Bros. is a movie studio. Neil Gaiman sums up the typical Hollywood take on source material in his short story, “The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories” (in Smoke and Mirrors):
She managed a pitying look, of the kind that only people who know that books are, at best, properties on which films can be loosely based, can bestow on the rest of us.
A trailer for the MMO game, DCU Online was released for E3, and features clips of DC’s star heroes and villains in action — including footage of the Flash running up the side of a building.
A new trailer for the game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is out:
A lot of the video with the Flash is familiar from last week’s GTTV episode, but some of it is new…including a fatality at the end. (Apparently someone decided this was a Crisis.)
Via Blog@Newsarama. (Thanks to The Dan of Steel for pointing it out.