nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

DC cinematic universe general stuff

Jon Stark

Only fair that we get our DC equivalent to the Marvel thread. :pac:

Anyway, Zack Snyder has posted on Twitter the first image of Jason Momoa as Aquaman. Hard to judge the look without the context of a proper theatrical setting but it looks solid enough to me. I do find it jarring though and I think Snyder has done himself and Momoa a disservice here by posting an official "unofficial" image.

http://m.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a630222/zack-snyder-reveals-first-look-of-jason-momoa-as-aquaman.html

Edit Please keep it general lads, there's more than Dawn of Justice in the pipeline! For example Suicide Squad is the immediate aftermath of BVS.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

Agent Coulson

The Snyderverse heroes aren't going away

https://twitter.com/THR/status/1552820655141314560?s=20&t=7-Ou8mBj9ZBD757_M2190g

pixelburp

Wonder how much money persuaded Affleck to return.

Brief_Lives

The 4 hour Justice League movie was brilliant.... If we can get that quality back, I'm delighted that they are staying.

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119404138#Comment_119404138

All.......

ALL the money

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119404138#Comment_119404138

...

Penn

Seen a few articles popping up that Batgirl is potentially being shelved. Reactions have been poor, it's been removed from the schedule, and might not even be released on HBO Max let alone theatrically.

https://nypost.com/2022/08/02/batgirl-movie-gets-shelved-by-warner-bros-source/

silverharp

lol

https://twitter.com/TheWorldClassBS/status/1554577052564541440

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1554571309153226755

johnny_ultimate

Absolutely buck wild move. A $90 million film being scrapped entirely when nearly complete is pretty much without modern precedent?

Especially strange if this paragraph in Variety is to be believed - an axing not out of poor quality, but out of corporate obsession with scale and spectacle. Perhaps it really was a disaster, but studios have happily put out some absolute worthless stinkers in the past so that’d hardly be anything new.

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/batgirl-not-released-warner-bros-hbo-max-1235331897/

“Studio insiders insist the decision was not driven by the quality of the film or the commitment of the filmmakers, but by the desire for the studio’s slate of DC features to be at a blockbuster scale. “Batgirl” was budgeted to screen in homes on HBO Max, and not for a major global release in theaters. The budget for the project, which finished principal photography earlier this year and was in post-production, reached $90 million due in part to COVID-related delays and protocols.”

pjcb

and will they release Flash on streaming or can it?

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421695#Comment_119421695

Sounds like Flash is still planned for cinema release. The issue seems to be that Batgirl fell between two stools; not big-scale enough for a theatrical release, and too big that it doesn't tie in with what they want to release on streaming. If early reception to Batgirl is poor, it's not worth the cost of reshoots or changing VFX just to release on streaming.

So Flash is still likely going ahead as it's big-scale enough for cinema release. Or at least, up until Ezra Miller actually kills someone, at which point WB might decide to reconsider.

johnny_ultimate

If $70-90m is too small for a theatrical release now, the Hollywood system needs to be burnt to the ground. Well, we probably didn’t need this news to prove that, but still.

CastorTroy

Meant to post here instead of the Superheroes forum.

So it's not Ezra Miller ruining the DC movies, it's Michael Keaton's return as Batman.

They've had no problem releasing bad stuff before in cinemas and they wouldn't have to spend much on marketing if they decided to skip the theatrical release.

Of course the comments in the article on tvline jump to sexism and racism.

This will be a film people will try to get prints of down the line, along the lines of Roger Corman's Fantastic 4 or tv pilots.

The White Wolf

This is daft and I say that as someone who wasn't feeling great about the film. By doing this you're not only stiffing a young actress who will inevitably get a wave of social media support, but also seasoned actors such as Keaton, Simmons and Fraiser. They all got paid I'm sure but this is simply an embarrassing stain on their careers now.

It's a scary precedent they've set. It's the same craic at WB regardless of the numpties in charge. Tone deaf and their own worst enemies.

ThePott

In all my time following film news, I don't think I've ever seen such an insane decision. People will draw comparisons but this is totally unprecedented for the scale of the project and people's awareness of it. There's going to be a lot of spin in the press on why this decision was made.

It definitely doesn't help Warner Bros image as a studio for creatives, it used to be considered a director driven studio. Zaslav is being absolutely cutthroat though and saving money in the short term might cost him some in the long term with creators apprehensive of working with them. I mean if they'll shelve a mostly completed 90 million CBM film, what chance do others have? Considering the damage his predecessor Kilar did with the day and date releases it doesn't exactly inspire confidence on that front that the new leadership will put artists first. I know talking about 'artists and creatives' for a Batgirl movie seems a tad dramatic FYI but it is the precedent it sets.

On the DC side of things, more than ever it looks like the whole thing might get rebooted or far less likely, sold. Crazy to think that Shazam had a somewhat comparable budget to Batgirl and is now getting a sequel that looks like it has a bigger budget. There's been conflicting reports on the quality of the film but I would be extremely worried if I made a DC film right now that isn't a guaranteed money maker (Blue Beetle and Zatanna come to mind), pretty much anything in the works is up in the air. Would explain the muted Comic Con appearance too. When you look at their upcoming slate, DC is pretty much the only thing they have as a blockbuster franchise with consistent releases. Flash was their opportunity to reset and even that's a mess now.

Lot of talk about the future of HBO Max and it's content too, we may know a lot more on Thursday when they present their Q2 Earnings and reveal some plans for the future post-merger. There's also talks of major layoffs coming and I'd be shocked if this was just the beginning of big cancellations, although this being so close to the finish line raises eyebrows. The fact that they cancelled a 40 million dollar animated film and it's being overlooked is even weird. I doubt the quality excuse washes when you're talking about disposable kiddie fare. Even though they've said they're moving away from kids content for Max. This news in general is baffling, after Superpets underperforming too, I think the next few months will be very telling in whether the DCEU is worth saving from a financial perspective.

TLDR: WBD is a mess and the DCEU is as bad.

jill_valentine

When you say "conflicting reports"... advance word was generally fairly positive until very recently.

The mutterings here seem to suggest that the negative reports that suddenly started showing up (right along with this headline) are essentially plants/spin -

https://twitter.com/MurrellDan/status/1554595517837058051?s=20&t=Q0ZVajILv3bz7irUKUddKA

If that's the case, if it's all down to Zaslav's personal corporate footwork, then it's nearly more in his interest not to let it see the light of day if it is any good.

Zaslav is the man who ruined the once well respected Discovery brand, so I'd take some convincing his concern has anything to do with "quality".

ThePott

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422126#Comment_119422126

Oh I know. That's why I mentioned spin later on. Word prior to this was quite positive to the point of it getting a potential theatrical release.

I just said conflicting cause I knew if I said it was bad, people would say they heard good and if I said good, they'd say they heard bad haha. I wouldn't be trusting anything I hear about the film right now, it's damage control trying to make clear this was a good decision regardless of it it was or not.

Warner Bros are saying it wasn't a quality decision and was purely due to it not fitting into their plan for streaming. Which is still dumb considering the cost already put into it. It's a shame cause Batgirl was one I actually had interest in, that and Shazam 2.

Also worth noting Keaton has now gone from 3 appearances as Batman to just one in the Flash. What a mess.

jill_valentine

Ah, fair enough. Sorry for thwarting your disclaimer lol

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421767#Comment_119421767

I had come to the same thought. This is an insane world the industry exists in a thought pattern where $90 million isn't good enough - as opposed to a canny bit of business. Hollywood scale has gone insane.

And for reference and context, we still got DC League of Superpets. Think on that for a second.

Sad Professor

Variety suggests by not releasing the film the studio will be able to do a tax write-down and recoup the costs through some clever accounting but only if they don’t monetise it.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422222#Comment_119422222

Accounting beyond a certain ceiling is quite insane. Wish us norms had those kind of loopholes.

Wonder will there be another hashtag campaign now, given we know it can work with Justice League.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422303#Comment_119422303

that argument gets thrown around a lot of situations, you dont lose money for a tax writeoff, it would be the same as giving someone 2 euro cos they will give you a euro back, you have still lost money. If I knew nothing else about the film my view would just be it would cost an extra ~75m say to get it released and they would only expect to get 50mil back, so he saved them millions by not releasing it. or it was expected not to move the needle on subs if they streamed it

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422442#Comment_119422442

It's not saving, it's cost avoiding.

If they can pin this against a successful film they can go cost neutral on BatGirl by recouping all that cost against the successful film's tax bill

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422506#Comment_119422506

saving and cost avoiding are just 2 words for he same thing, sunk cost and marginal cost would be more technical terms describing the same thing.

your second sentence doesnt make sense to me, one film doesnt need to be paired with another one. I dont know the particular financials of that company but on the assumption that its quite profitable and has decent profits going back years , any loss making film will reduce their tax bill either in the current year or prior years if the US tax rules allow it. There is no cost neutral though , if they have spent 90m on Batgirl (sunk cost) and if the CT rate is 20% then the loss making film will reduce their taxes by 18m, so from an accounting perspective they have still lost 70 odd million

youngblood

This would have been the 2nd iteration of a 3 rate DECU character, neither of which seemed to generate any appetite-was there even a thread of the Batgirl here on boards? A movie no one wanted

The entire DCEU has been a mess for years. Zach Synders Justice League just gave an already dead franchise life support for zero result & fan service. There was zero universe building for a much better known franchise.

I've a feeling they are gonna wipe Flash also and stick to the release of the 3 big theatrical films, Black Adam, Shazam & the Aquaman to tie up contractual obligations

DCEU wrapped up and done by March 2023-

Announcement of new DECU studio/division to follow soon after, that way they'll give time for things to peter out before getting DC fans excited again! Strange old world in Hollywood!

The White Wolf

The only thing that would excite me at this point is WB selling DC off to another company semi competent.

It's a shame we couldn't have started with the self contained stories such as Joker and The Batman.

The Black Oil

Very strange news.

Also, it's just crappy that thousands of young girls won't get to see this and have that cinema moment with their families and friends.

pixelburp

The scuttlebutt is also suggesting the new CEO of Warners intends to gut HBO Max and merge it into Discovery, focusing on unscripted content.

Agent Coulson

That could be good news for the likes of Netflix, Amazon & Apple then of Discovery want to kill off Warners/ HBO's ip's and scripted shows.

I could literally see Disney throwing in a bid for DC.

CastorTroy

I hope we still get at least 1 more season of Warrior and they don't change those plans.

As for Batgirl, as one comment I read said, this was a movie that most people probably forgot about, if they knew about it at all and it could've been shelved quietly if the story wasn't picked up. I think it's the type of film I might've thought about down the line and looked it up to see whatever happened it.

[Deleted User]

I would like to see Netflix take DC IP's and do what they did with the Marvel shows.

Make a proper adult based series using the DC characters there would be plenty of scope to do that and also make movies.