Recently there has been some noise about the upcoming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice movie and that being, who has more screen time in it? Will Batman be dominant in the film or will Superman? Or will they share equal screen time? Rumors and news bits suggest that this is more of a Batman-centric film while the man playing Superman, Henry Cavill, says there is plenty of Superman in the movie.
But folks are suggesting other things too because what used to be on the distribution list of movies from WB/DC for their slate of upcoming hero movies.
Between what I'm seeing with their schedule and what I'm hearing about the upcoming BvS film, I started wondering what's up?
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Some time ago WB put out a schedule of movies they want to make, as they compete with Marvel's Cinematic Universe. In that early list was a Man of Steel 2. Awesome. Because the first one pretty much dusted any previous origins and story film that was put out there. Then again, Christoper Nolan was involved.
Then Batman Vs Superman was announced and later as more and more casting of hero characters were making their way to the headlines, the film name was then being called Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice.
Then Ben Affleck was hired to play Batman.
Then Affleck rescheduled his movie-filming life to possibly do more Batman movies as WB was jacking up the number of Batman movies, while also giving the nod to Affleck for helming the films. Which is not a bad thing at all and considering Nolan did his part and has moved on to space/love adventures, well, they needed someone with directing chops. And if anything else, Affleck has that.
Then it was recently noticed by the online community that the second Man of Steel film was no longer in the upcoming slate of DC/WB movies.
And now it's being said that WB wants more Batman in the Batman v Superman movie and it's been confirmed by director Zack Snyder that there will be more Batman than Superman in the Batman v Superman film.
In fact not only was it confirmed, but it seems that the rumors or discovery of this fact was way behind the curve, considering that Snyder said that's been the plan all along. Or so he says.
As Snyder put it,
“Only in that because it’s a different Batman than the Batman that was in the Chris Nolan movies, so we have a little bit more explaining to do—and you just had a whole Superman movie."
Which, if you've paid attention to the trailer clips, yes, we're getting another *&^%ing form of an origins story on Batman... yet again... because you know, how many times do the Waynes have to die for us to understand that little Bruce becomes the Batman to compensate for his loss? It's not like we live in a cave or something. We've seen the other movies, TV shows, comics, and what not.
Snyder then tried to boost the support for these two characters by indicating how iconic Batman and Superman are in the comics, compared to "the flavor of the week Ant-Man — not to be mean, but whatever it is. What is the next Blank-Man?”
Seriously? Marvel is kicking DC's ass in the realm of making movies, introducing a spate of characters from their inventory, doing well doing that, and all Snyder can come up with is by calling it the "flavor of the week?"
That seems kind of shameful, but it is what it is.
That does kind of sum it up, as it is beginning to feel like to fans.
Then there's the print side, where DC is backing down from taking daring chances with their characters, telling the creative crews to stick to canon. It's like the entire company just got neutered or something.
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What I'm finding curious is the pattern of how support seems to be slipping for a primary Man of Steel film, being potentially made into a second fiddle in this BvS film and then what?
DC's history of Superman movies isn't horrible, but egads, it isn't great either. Are they worried about overstaying their welcome to the big screen with the invulnerable character who does not muster up movie-goers affinity for worrying about his well-being?
And then again DC has seemingly always had a tough time with these characters that inspire our imaginations in print, but don't always seem to set the world on its end when put to film. WB ignored Joss Whedon when he suggested a spec script he put together for a Wonder Woman film some years ago. And right now, after so many billions for Marvel later, I bet they wish they took him up on his offer.
But their mindset would probably have worn him down. DC/WB has said they want their films to be more serious in tone than what Marvel has set, which seems to limit them with their productivity. But then again, when there is humor in their films, it sort of never plays out well.
WB/DC are in a pickle. It's not a bad one because their films still make them money, but they are second fiddle to Marvel's approach and they've waited a long time to reply to Marvel's film worlds with their own.
Their list of comic/genre book films schedule looks like this:
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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice > March 25, 2016
Suicide Squad > August 5, 2016
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Wonder Woman > June 23, 2017
Justice League > November 17, 2017
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The Flash > March 23, 2018
The Batman > Some time in 2018 (Can we guess MAY since that was the date Man of Steel 2 was originally planned for?)
Aquaman > July 27, 2018
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Shazam > April 5, 2019
Justice League 2 > June 14, 2019
Cyborg > April 3, 2020
Green Lantern Corps > June 19, 2020
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The Sandman
Dark Universe or Justice League Dark
Legion of Super-Heroes
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Adding it all up, I swear that DC has reduced itself to a "testing of the waters" mode, seeing what plays out from their next few films. Then there's Shazan? Cyborg? Really? There was a Sandman in the actual schedule (Xmas, 2016), but that has been pulled out of the list as they re-juggle what I presume to be more (really quickly rebooted) Batman films.
Meh, they, I presume, think they know what they're doing and we'll let it be that for now.
I've seen some fascinating rumors running around, which I will stick at the bottom of this post, considering they are probably HUGE SPOILERS for Batman v Superman. (No, not right here, but farther down... don't worry, it's marked properly so you don't accidentally spill into spoiler territory.)
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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice stars Henry Cavill (Clark Kent/Superman), and Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, with Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane reprising their roles from Man of Steel, while Jesse (I hate Comic-Con) Eisenberg plays Lex Luthor, Jeremy Irons will play Alfred, and Holly Hunter is in the film too, in some mystery role. Jason Momoa will also be in it as Aquaman, while others will be playing bit moments of other iconic DC characters that will end up being in the Justic League movie
It is scheduled to open in theaters on March 25, 2016.
Honest Trailer's,New Honest Teasers
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SPOILERS / RUMORS (Remember, as with all "leaked" or "surmised" bullshit, take with a grain of sale.)
Supposedly the girl version of Robin is in the story somewhere.
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The reason it looks like Lex Luthor has power over Superman is because he kidnaps his mother.
Michael Shannon (Zod) may still be alive, with flippers for hands. Or possibly bone shards for hands, like the infamous Doomsday that killed Superman in the comics many years ago.
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Cyborg is created in the aftermath of everything that takes place in the film.
Looking at Aquaman's poster, I presume he's talking about the Justice League seven.
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