In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Suicide Squad, Aquaman, The Flash, The LEGO Batman Movie, Supergirl, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Man of Steel, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Captain America: Civil War, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Hawkeye, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel’s Most Wanted, Captain Britain, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister 6, Avengers: Ultron Revolution, X-Men: Apocalypse, Powers and more…
…Almost three years after it was first announced at the San Diego Comic-Con, Warner Bros. unleashed Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice this weekend, with the Zack Snyder-directed superhero epic shrugging off negative reviews (it’s below The Room on Rotten Tomatoes) to set an Easter preview night record (outperforming Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Avengers, Iron Man 3 and The Dark Knight), as well as a domestic pre-summer opening day record of $81.3 million. Throw in a further $65 million from international markets and Batman v Superman has already raked in $146 million by close of play on Friday, meaning those projections of a $350 million global bow look a bit low. Like the cast said when asked about the negative reviews, it’s up to the fans to decide what to make of Batman v Superman; it’s certainly off to a good start at the box office (which was surely to be expected), and it will certainly be interesting to see how it performs through its second weekend…
…And speaking of reviews, both Scott Davis and Robert Kojder weren’t exactly big fans of Batman v Superman, each giving the film a two-star review here at Flickering Myth [read them here and here], while Oliver Davis hated it, so much so that he was prompted to write an article entitled ‘Why I Hated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice‘. You can hear more of his thoughts on the film in the latest Flickering Myth Podcast, and be sure to check out FMTV’s new video ‘The Top 5 Justice League Teases in Batman v Superman’…
…In the build up to its release, Warner Bros. unleashed more marketing material for Batman v Superman, including a brand new trailer [watch it here], an extended Amazon.com teaser [watch it here] and a featurette on Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight [watch it here], while the studio wasted little time in announcing the Blu-ray release date for the theatrical cut, Ultimate Edition extended cut and Collector’s Edition versions, which is now available for pre-order. Meanwhile, The LEGO Group also debuted a minifigure version of the theatrical poster [see here] and Hot Toys unveiled promo images of its 1/6th scale Wonder Woman collectible figure [see here] and Batman and Batmobile Cosbaby set [see here]…
…Zack Snyder has been discussing his early plans for Batman v Superman, revealing that there were discussions about including two iconic villains from The Dark Knight’s Rogues Gallery in The Joker and The Riddler: “We talked about the possibility of putting them in. [Screenwriter] Chris Terrio and I talked about it a lot and felt that their mythological presence is felt in the movie, and that’s cool, but I didn’t want to get my eye too far off the ball because I needed to spend the time, frankly, with Batman and Superman to understand the conflict.” Snyder also discussed Jimmy Olsen’s cameo, but it’s a bit spoilery so we’ll just send you on to the link here…
…Following her show-stealing turn in Batman v Superman, Warner Bros. has released the first official image of the Amazons from the Wonder Woman solo movie, which sees Gal Gadot’s Diana joined by Lieutenant Menalippe ( Lisa Loven Kongsli), Hippolyta (Connie Nielson) and General Antiope (Robin Wright)…
…With Justice League set to start shooting in a couple of weeks, Zack Snyder has been discussing his latest DC outing, stating that: “Right now the working title is Justice League. Actually, I’m in that phase where I’ve been drawing logos and I’ve been drawing title treatments and stuff like that to try and figure out what it means, what Justice League is, visually, so we’ll see if the name evolves with this visual presentation. The schedule’s close, it’s not quite as long as [Batman v Superman], but give or take. We have a more efficient machine in England because we have a big backlot that we built for Gotham and Metropolis, so it’ll be easier to photograph than when you have to close down streets. But it’s a beautiful backlot…”
…Deborah Snyder has also given an update on the post-Batman v Superman DC slate, and how they’ll differ in tone from Dawn of Justice: “They’re so different from each other. [David Ayer] has created this really fun movie about bad guys trying to do good [with Suicide Squad], and it’s brazen, and it has just a really great tone to it, so it’s really fun. And it’s so different from BvS and it’s completely different from what Patty Jenkins is doing with Wonder Woman. With Wonder Woman, it’s an origin story, it takes place also in World War I, so as you can imagine you’re kind of in a completely different world. We start Justice League April 11th and that is at Leavesden, mostly on stage and some locations around there as well as Iceland and I think a beat in Scotland at the end of the schedule. And we are working with James Wan on the development of the Aquaman script right now, and I’m hoping that sometime first quarter of next year we’ll be in production on that movie as well as working on the script for Flash. So it’s a little busy.” You can read the rest of Snyder’s comments, including how Ezra Miller’s Flash will inject comic relief into Justice League, here…
…Speaking of The Flash, Zack Snyder has revealed why he decided not to cast Grant Gustin for his big screen take on the Scarlet Speedster in the DCEU: “I just don’t think [Gustin] was a good fit. I’m very strict with this universe and I just don’t see a version where…that [tone is] not our world. Even if Grant Gustin is my favorite guy in the world and he’s very good, we made a commitment to the multiverse (idea), so it’s just not a thing that’s possible…”
…Despite the upcoming R-rated cut of Batman v Superman, producer Charles Roven has reiterated that the plan for the DCEU going forward is to remain PG-13: “At the moment, my understanding is we are still releasing Suicide Squad as a PG-13, so there hasn’t been to my mind a serious conversation about doing anything other than that. I understand why Deadpool was released as an R-rated film, and I think that the DC Justice League characters, particularly because so many of them are so iconographic, have been around for so long and for so many generations that have grown up with them, and that are still growing up with them, I think we want to present them, when we finally present them, to the broadest possible audience that we can. I think that’s why we’ve planned on making these movies PG-13. I’m not seeing any real reason to change. We’ve made some pretty edgy films that are rated PG-13. You never want to say ‘never’ because we all evolve, but right now I think we’re staying that course…”
…As well as debuting Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight, this week has also given us our first look at another big screen outing for Caped Crusader in The LEGO Movie spinoff The LEGO Batman Movie, with Warner Bros. releasing a batch of first look images [see here] and a teaser poster [see here] leading up to the arrival of the first teaser trailer [watch it here]. The film is set for release on February 10th 2017 and sees Will Arnett joined in the voice cast by Michael Cera (Superbad) as Robin, Rosario Dawson (Daredevil) as Batgirl, Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) as The Joker, Ralph Fiennes (Spectre) as Alfred and Mariah Carey as the Mayor of Gotham…
…The big DC crossover between Supergirl and The Flash takes place on CBS this Monday, and you can take a look at a trailer and promo for ‘Worlds Collide’ here and four clips from the episode here, as well as a featurette focussing on the villains Livewire and Silver Banshee here. You can also read Martin Carr’s review of last Monday’s ‘Manhunter’ here, along with a batch of images from the following week’s episode ‘Myriad’ here…
…In other Supergirl news, CBS is yet to officially announce a second season of the show, but producers Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg are already looking ahead and have revealed this week that they have plans for small screen Wonder Woman Lynda Carter to make a cameo appearance in season two as the President of the United States…
…Click below to continue on for Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Man of Steel, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Captain America: Civil War, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Hawkeye, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel’s Most Wanted, Captain Britain, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister 6, Avengers: Ultron Revolution, X-Men: Apocalypse, Powers and more…
