…Turning to the DC Extended Universe and with much of the life of Justice League sucked out of the the box office in the wake of the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Warner Bros. is starting to prep for the home entertainment release of the DC blockbuster, unveiling the Blu-ray steelbook cover, featuring artwork from Jim Lee; check it out here…
…From Justice League to Justice League Dark now, and some concept art from a failed pitch for the supernatural team up from filmmaker Joseph Kahn have surfaced online, featuring Swamp Thing, Floronic Man, Deadman, Natalie Dormer as Zatanna, Dan Stevens as Constantine and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Jason Blood/Etrigan the Demon. Take a look at the concept art here…
..We’re just under a year away from the release of Aquaman, and director James Wan has been speaking about the solo movie this week, clarifying that while the film includes Patrick Wilson’s Orm (a.k.a. Ocean Master), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Black Manta, and Dolph Lundgren’s King Nereus, we won’t be seeing Jason Momoa’s Arthur Curry going up against all three villains: “This is what I’ll say: I don’t have three villains. I think that’s ridiculous! I would never go into an origin movie with three villains. We don’t even know the main character let alone the world and its antagonist. I believe in taking baby steps. I want to introduce Arthur Curry in a much more emotional and powerful way, and introduce Mera played by Amber Heard, and of course there’s Nicole Kidman and Temuera Morrison playing his parents. We know Black Manta is in there, but I will say this: Patrick Wilson is the main antagonist in this film. I wouldn’t necessarily say ‘villain,’ but he’s the antagonist…”
…Having stepped away from the director’s chair on The Batman earlier in the year, Ben Affleck has spent much of 2017 answering speculation about his future as the DCEU’s Dark Knight. While we still don’t know if he’ll don the cape and cowl for the Matt Reeves-directed solo movie, Affleck has now revealed that he still has ambitions to helm a Batman film: “For me, it’s interesting, and I always evaluate this stuff on the merit of the material. I want to direct a Batman movie, and I never got a script that I was happy with, so they are starting over and writing another script. And right now, I think a lot of different possibilities I think for the way the DC Universe could go, and I will just follow my interests in pursing that. And I know that I love working with this group of people, and it was a real joy for me to make this movie…”
…Another filmmaker with ambitions of directing a DC movie is X-Men: First Class and Kingsman helmer Matthew Vaughn, who has been linked on several occasions to the director’s chair on Man of Steel 2. This week, Vaughn confirmed that he has had talks with Warner Bros., and relishes the prospect of “saving” the DCEU: “I do love the world of DC, and I’ve been talking to them at the moment about a few things. It’s more fun getting involved with franchises when they’re on the down, because then it’s easier to make a good film. So if I got involved with a few of the superhero movies out there that have been disappointing, it’s going to be… if I do OK, it’ll probably be better. So when I did X-Men there was, you know, a pretty low bar — X-Men 3, no offense, was not a fantastic piece of work. It’s much more fun saving and reinventing something — I’d be more intimidated trying to do a new Guardians of the Galaxy, for example.” You can read the rest of Vaughn’s comments here, as well as some comments from his buddy Mark Millar, who revealed that he’s also been talking to Vaughn about Man of Steel 2, as well as discussing a previous Superman pitch from the filmmaker back in 2008…
…With Shazam gearing up to go into production, it has been reported that Cooper Andrews (The Walking Dead) and Faithe Herman (This Is Us) have joined the cast, with Andrews playing the head of the home where Billy Batson lives, and Herman Billy’s friend Darla Dudley. The duo join a cast that sees Zachary Levi starring as the titular superhero, with Asher Angel as his young alter-ego Billy Batson, Jack Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, and Grace Fulton as Mary Marvel…
…While it’s been absent from Warner Bros.’ recent DC slate announcements, Suicide Squad director David Ayer has confirmed this week that Gotham City Sirens remains “in development”. Where the movie fits into the studio’s plans is anyone’s guess, particularly as there’s also Suicide Squad 2, The Joker and Harley Quinn and a Harley Quinn solo movie in the works…
…Over on the small screen and Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim has revealed that the character of Deathstroke is currently unavailable to the show, due to the planned DCEU solo movie featuring Joe Manganiello: “These are DC’s characters, we’re just renting them you know, so we use the characters that they tell us we can use when we can use them, and we work around whatever limitations that places us. For a time they were saying ‘you can’t use Deathstroke’, and that changed and we were able to have Slade Wilson back on the show, and now we’re back to ‘you can’t use him’. They’re working on the feature film version, it really is sort of now that you’ve got obviously Slade, spoiler alert, Deathstroke appears at the end of the Justice League movie…”
…And it seems that Deathstroke isn’t the only character out of bounds, as Guggenheim also revealed that DC has plans for The Question: “I always bring him up. I’ve always felt like that character would be a really great fit for the tone of Arrow. That said, it’s not our characters, it’s DC’s characters and they’ve got other plans for The Question, which is awesome… I don’t know what their plans are, but clearly they do have plans or else we would be using him…”
…Syfy might be keeping the premiere date of Krypton close to its chest, but the network has released a new synopsis for the Superman prequel series, which reads: “Set two generations before the destruction of Superman’s home planet, Krypton follows Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe), the legendary Man of Steel’s grandfather — whose House of El was ostracized and shamed. With Krypton’s leadership in disarray, Seg-El encounters Earthly time-traveler Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos) who warns he’s under the clock to save his beloved world from chaos. Fighting to redeem his family’s honor and protect the ones he loves, Seg is also faced with a life and death conflict – save his home planet or let it be destroyed in order to restore the fate of his future grandson…”
…If reports are to be believed, production on HBO and Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen series is slated to get underway in March, meaning we might not have too much longer to wait before we find out whether the speculation linking WWE’s John Cena to the role of Doctor Manhattan has any merit to it…
…Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced that the Scarlet Speedster is set to take centre stage in his very own animated LEGO movie, with LEGO DC Super Heroes: The Flash set for release in February. The synopsis reads: “In LEGO DC Super Heroes: The Flash, Reverse-Flash manipulates the Speed Force to put The Flash into a time loop that forces him to relive the same day over and over again – with progressively disastrous results, including losing his powers and being fired by the Justice League. The Flash must find a way to restore time to its original path and finally apprehend his worst enemy before all is lost for The Flash … and the world! Along the route, The Flash encounters numerous new characters being introduced to the popular DC Super Heroes series, including The Atom; B’dg, a squirrel-esque Green Lantern; a pair of legendary super pets in Ace the Bat-Hound and Krypto the Super-Dog, Batman and Superman’s faithful canine pals; as well as Aquaman’s trusted seahorse, Storm.” Watch the trailer here…
…Casting is underway on Amazon’s adaptation of the Garth Ennis / Darick Robertson comic book series The Boys, with Erin Moriarty (True Detective, Jessica Jones) signing on to play Starlight, “a young woman with superhero powers who can make lightning bolts flash from her eyes. Her dream is to be a real superhero like the famous Seven.” The TV adaptation of The Boys has been created and written by Supernatural‘s Eric Kripke, with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Preacher) executive producing. Expect more casting news on the pilot soon…
…Liam Hoofe has posted his rankings of 2017’s superhero movies from worst to best, which you can find here. Be sure to let us know how you’d rank Logan, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Wonder Woman, Thor: Ragnarok and Justice League in the comments below…
…And lastly, I’d just like to take this opportunity to wish all of the readers of Flickering Myth a very Merry Christmas!
Gary Collinson is a writer and lecturer from the North East of England. He is the editor-in-chief of FlickeringMyth.com and the author of Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen.
