Tag Archives: Jeff Robinov

DC Entertainment and the Flash Movie

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DC isn’t making it easy for me to take time away from comics news/discussion this month.

So, you’ve probably heard by now that Warner Bros. is restructuring DC Comics, making it part of a new WB company, DC Entertainment. The announcement mentions several movies currently in production, but says nothing about anything in earlier stages, such as the Flash movie.

However, an article at Deadline Hollywood by Nikki Finke mentioned some movies in the pipeline:

Robinov for months has quietly gone to producers like Chuck Roven and Joel Silver and Akiva Goldman and “called back” all their high profile DC titles in development like The Flash and Wonder Woman.

This made me wonder: what does this mean for the Flash movie? It was only 2 months ago that Warner Bros. announced Geoff Johns had written a story and would be producing. Has it been put on hold again? Has this version been dropped the way the David Goyer story was? What exactly does “called back” mean in this context?

Then I looked back at July’s announcement and saw this:

This past fall, Warners quietly hired three of DC’s biggest writers — Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman — to act as consultants and writers for its superhero line of movies. The move involved taking back the reins on projects being handled by such producers as Charles Roven (”The Flash”) and Akiva Goldsman (”Teen Titans”). [emphasis added]

Aha! Now add in the fact that Jeff Robinov was heavily involved in the big DC/Warner Bros. summit last year that led to July’s announcement, and it looks like the current Flash production is the result of the same process that has been building up to the restructuring.

So until we hear otherwise, we can assume that the Geoff Johns/Dan Mazeau version of the movie is still in development.

WB: Big, Dark Super-Hero Films On the Way

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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.

Flash Movie news archive