At The Movies: Back to the Ol' Drawing Board

In the aftermath of last summer's stunning success of The Dark Knight, some of you may recall that Warner Bros. bigwig Jeff Robinov had an epiphany that all DC superhero movies should be similarly dark and brooding...even if the characters weren't dark and brooding by nature like Batman. Naturally, I was irritated that such a clueless doofus was calling the shots at the WB...especially when compared to Marvel's rock-solid and incredibly faithful adaptations of their own properties.

Thankfully, a story that broke a few days ago suggests that Mr. Robinov's dark visions may not come to pass afterall. In an interview with David S. Goyer at the IESB.net, the Dark Knight writer said that all DC properties have been put on hold for the time being. In an oddly-worded quote, Goyer (kinda-sorta) elaborated...

"A lot of the DC movies at Warner Brothers are all on hold while they figure out, they're going to come up with some new plan, methodology, things like that so everything has just been pressed pause on at the moment. It was the double header of both Iron Man and The Dark Knight coming out, so more than ever I think they've realized, I think DC was responsible for 15% of Warner Brother's revenue this year, something crazy like that, so they realized that comic books, it's become a new genre, one of the most successful genres."

Now, Robinov's earlier plan to "go dark" wasn't specifically referenced by Goyer or anyone else, but the fact that Warner Bros. appears to be calling a "time out" is definitely a good sign.  No, I'm not happy to wait even longer for future DC films....but if by "taking a breath" they can put together a coherent plan, things may just turn around for DC/Warner's troubled (non-Batman) movie plans.

Comments

[Tony Z]

Okay, I'll go with your optimistic viewpoint. When I read it, I was seeing, "We're putting everything on hold until we can find suitable ways to darken them up."
I like your reading better.

[Mark Engblom]

Well, Tony, darkening them up may indeed be the way they'll end up going...but the "time out" is definitely a good sign that they realize things need to be re-thought and realigned. I would think much more than the Dark Knight's success was Marvel's sterling example of creating successful adaptations without radically departing from the source material. So, if anything, Goyer should have been citing Iron-Man and Hulk as an example of a great one-two punch in faithful and intriguingly coordinated adaptations. Whether Batman is ever tied into the other DC adaptations is immaterial to me, but from here on out, the new movies need to be something more than just stand-alone entities. Marvel has absolutely raised the bar....much moreso than Dark Knight has.

[Richard]

Damn!

I was also set for a "grim & gritty" Sugar & Spike film!

The Dark Knight was a good film that happened to be dark.

The focus should be on making the films good. I they are, the audience will show up whether they are dark or not.

[Pat Curley]

Both the comics companies have a huge advantage in that their heroes have become iconic enough that the movies don't have to introduce them to us anew.

I would hope that the lesson to be learned from Iron Man and Dark Knight is that if the movie is reasonably true to the characters, and played straight, it can work. No guarantees, of course, but clearly those movies worked better than (say) Fantastic Four or Superman Returns, both of which went over the line (IMHO) into camp.

[greyman24]

Really hope you're right.

But I have a difficult time scratching up the same level of optimism. How many times have we heard the same thing from WB?

The past decade has been a series of stops and starts. Wonder Woman is going to have a film. No she isn't. Green Lantern is coming next. Nope. Never mind. Justice League is coming! Uh...scratch that.

How many more things do they have to rethink?

[Grumpy]

Here's one account of how TDK put the kibosh on a lighter-toned version of Shazam!

http://johnaugust.com/archives/2009/shazam-done