…Turning to the DC Extended Universe now and this week has brought news that Warner Bros. has set an October 5th 2018 release date for the James Wan-directed Aquaman solo movie, pushing the project back from its originally expected July 21st 2018 date. So, could that July date be filled by another DC project, such as Ben Affleck’s The Batman..?
…With the Harley Quinn movie rumoured to be more of a Birds of Prey affair as opposed to a solo feature, Vikings star Katheryn Winnick has thrown her hat into the ring to portray the character of the Black Canary, stating “Hell ya” when asked on Twitter if she had any interest in donning the fishnets. Winnick had previously been mentioned as a possible contender to play Carol Danvers in the Captain Marvel movie prior to the casting of Brie Larson…
…Speculation time now, and it seems that some Twitter detective work has linked a couple of actors to potential roles in the DC Extended Universe – specifically John Cleese (Monty Python) and Armie Hammer (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), both of whom have been following a selection of DCEU-related accounts this week. Now of course, that in itself isn’t really very newsworthy, but a similar thing happened prior to Rick Famuyiwa’s short-lived appointment as director on The Flash (no word if he then unfollowed the accounts after his creative differences), so it’s certainly possible that there’s some fire around this smoke. If you’re interested in Anghus Houvouras’ thoughts on who John Cleese might be playing, read his rampant speculation article here…
…In another quick couple of DCEU-related tidbits, Warner Bros. has released two new featurettes for the extended cut of Suicide Squad [watch them here], along with a new promotional image of Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman from Comic Con Experience 2016 in Brazil [see here]…
…During a promotional interview for her new film Allied, actress Marion Cotillard shared her thoughts on her much-derided death scene from The Dark Knight Rises, stating that: “We’re all in the same boat, and if sometimes it gets out of control, then everyone is involved. Sometimes there are failures, and when you see this on screen, you’re thinking: ‘Why? Why did they keep that take?’ But either you blame everyone or nobody. But I thought people overreacted, because it was tough to be identified just with this scene. When I’m doing the best I can to find the authenticity in every character that I’m playing, it’s tough to be known just for this scene… It’s important to know how to laugh about this, and also, there are worse things in life. Even if there are things that can hurt you. But I wasn’t really affected by this. I just though the reaction was disproportionate, and it helps to laugh about it…”
…The CW hosted its big four-part DC crossover ‘Invasion!’ this week; be sure to read our reviews of the episodes for Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and check out a trailer, promo and images for The Flash’s midseason finale ‘The Present’ [see here and here], a promo for Arrow’s midseason finale ‘What We Leave Behind’ [see here], and a trailer, promo and images for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow midseason finale ‘The Chicago Way’ [see here and here]…
…In other Supergirl news, it has been rumoured this week that the Superman villain Mr. Mxyzptlk will be making an appearance in two episodes of the show in 2017, although details are scarce at present…
…Read Martin Carr’s review of this past Monday’s winter finale of Gotham season three, ‘Beware the Green Monster’, and we also have a promo for January’s midseason premiere, which teases the return of Jerome; check that out here…
…Moving on to DC’s animated projects now and this week has brought a new poster and international trailer for February’s The LEGO Batman Movie, as well as news that Billy Dee Williams will be lending his voice to Two-Face, having initially been lined up to portray the villain in Batman Returns and Batman Forever following his role as Harvey Dent in 1989’s Batman. Meanwhile, LEGO collectors may also want to check out some promotional images for two of the upcoming tie-in sets, as well as a trio of promos for the new sets…
…Next month will see the home-entertainment release of Warner’s second R-rated DC animated movie in Justice League Dark, and director Jay Oliva has been discussing how this year’s Batman: The Killing Joke has paved the way for the filmmakers to go darker with their DC movies: “If I knew that I could get away with a rated R, I would have made it a hard R. When we make these films, our goal is always a PG-13, so there’s certain things that we know we can get away with and things that we can’t; we can’t do beheadings and we can’t do arterial blood spray or anything like that. I’m just trying to tell the best story that I can, and from there we edit some things out, or we try to hide things. Instead of showing a beheading, we’ll cut to the shadow on the wall as you see the beheading in the shadow, but you don’t actually see it. The Killing Joke was kind of a godsend in the sense of, because of its success and because Home Video took a chance of releasing it as an R, it paved the way for this to be an R…”
…We’ve got a brand new Justice League cartoon set to hit Cartoon Network in the States this month with Justice League Action, although the show has already premiered here in the UK, and you can watch the opening title sequence here…
…And finally, Todd McFarlane has offered another update on his planned Spawn reboot, stating that he’s “not going for the same crowd that Marvel and DC is going for; I’m going for the same crowd that horror film releases are going for. People who want to take their boyfriend or girlfriend or go out with the girls and go to the movies and get spooked… I can argue getting money might be harder than getting everybody signed off on the story. I’ve been living with the idea for so long that I wanted to direct it, but I knew that if I gave it to Hollywood and they spent a lot of money on it then just from a practical point of view, it wouldn’t be fair for me to then say, ‘I want to direct.’ It’s not good business to spend $80 million on a movie and then give it to somebody who’s not known for directing movies – but if you can make a movie for $10 million, they’ll get a lot of less experienced directors to do those movies. So I knew I needed to keep the story and the budget both tight so that when I go to Hollywood and say, ‘I have to direct it, that’s not even a negotiation, so if you can’t accept that, then the conversation is over quickly,’ then once they understand the scope and size and budget of it, they’re like ‘Oh, okay. It’s not like Todd’s coming in here asking for $100 million and then saying let me direct the first movie. He’s saying ‘Give me $10 million to make a little horror movie and let’s see if we can scare some people. We’ve done that tons of times.”
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.
Originally published December 4, 2016. Updated November 30, 2022.
