itt: consternation and wailing about Zach Snyder's upcoming SUPERMAN/BATMAN film/sequel to MAN OF STEEL -- official title: BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/20/report-supermanbatman-movie-planned

oh god...

Could be kewl

why is David Goyer a thing

Yeah, it's his involvement, not Snyder's, that makes this an especially dismal proposition.

Could be kewl

― Treeship, Saturday, July 20, 2013 6:59 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ilu treebutt but you're just too much sometimes

oh god...

― Gukbe, Saturday, July 20, 2013 5:54 PM

^^^

Only saw Man of Steel cause I was dragged. For this one, I'll be sure to put up a better fight.

All of you who went to see 3000/watchmen/man of steel - THIS IS YOUR FAULT

http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/modules/xphoto/cache/85/320785_656_700_0_0_0_0.png

didn't watchmen bomb tho

If this is anything like the last book of Batman DKR that would be amazing xp

Saw 1/3 of those, am willing to accept my share of blame.

Good. You are approximately 33% responsible for this film.

ok, as long as I get my third of the gross

i'm not in charge of that, unfortunately. i just dole out responsibility.

i am not against this film in theory or in practice. more movies in the world are a good thing.

i hope they decide to cast me as batman.

i love that this means DC realized doing Justice League this soon would be a folly, but that they still wanted some HOLY COW movie to compete with Avengers 2 in '15.

it's such an ironic problem they have, awkwardly trying to cram the two biggest characters in comicdom together because Marvel did such a great job of launching and combining four lesser-known franchises

it's possible they'll find a different way to make the pair mesh, but usually the vibe is "yeah you're a god, but you're also an idiot boy scout." How are you going to establish a new Batman and have us believe he's more experienced than the established Superman at the same time?

fail to make us believe Batman could outsmart Superman and he's just some jackass with a grappling hook taking up screen time

I GOT IT. BRING BACK CLOONEY.

i think they should cast a woman in the role of batman. anne hathaway maybe. women have been known to successfully play hamlet.

would see a superman vs peter pan movie

wall street 3 should involve superman

some kinda prophecy going on here from William Goldman in 1983

Jaws began the present cycle: It did business far beyond what anyone dreamed possible. Then Star Wars shattered all the records set by Jaws. And now every executive in Hollywood is trying to figure out how the hell to topple Star Wars. Which, of course, is only right and proper: It’s their job. But in their quest, they have altered the tradition of ploughing back profits in pursuit of an entire range of different sorts of films. Right now—today—comic-book pictures are only breeding more comic-book pictures, something that has never happened to this extent before. Will the ecology shift back to what it’s been? “Absolutely,” the studio executives will tell you. When? “When the public demands it.” Of course, there’s a certain element of truth to that—but basically it’s a cop-out. Change will only come when the executives stop ignoring the churning in their guts. These are bright people, never forget that. They don’t personally enjoy the movies they’re okaying. Do you think they’re happy going home and saying to their families, “Hey, guess what, a great thing happened today, we decided to make Megaforce.” The ecology can only shift when these people decide that there’s got to be more to life than a remake of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. When they suck it up and decide to find material like Ordinary People and Cuckoo’s Nest. But this summer’s three big pictures so far are E. T., Rocky III, and Star Trek II. So, for the present, I think we may as well prepare ourselves for seven more Star Wars sequels and half a dozen quests involving Indiana Jones. By the end of the decade, we may well be seeing E. T. Meets Luke Skywalker.

Cowboy and Alien

comiccon culture is a scourge

i wish THIS summer's three big pictures were e.t. star trek 2 and rocky 3

Al otm

The ecology can only shift when these people decide that there’s got to be more to life than a remake of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. When they suck it up and decide to find material like Ordinary People and Cuckoo’s Nest.

You know, I can't pretend I'd go to the movies more often in that ecology.

well it'd probably still cost $10.50

!

rofl

marvelous

BATASTIC

The thread title is definitely OTM right now.

*does batdance*

Oh I want Prince to do the theme for this one so bad.

my guess is we'll have to settle for Robin Thicke

"Inspired by Prince"

"music inspired by the music inspired by the film 'batman'"

"movie inspired by Prince's Batdance"

ben affleck has a problem reading lines and knowing what his eyes should be doing

in other words he seems like the kind of guy who is very successful doing something he isn't really any good at

also, this is the sound of air wheezing out of a beat-up old tire

maybe they'll go retro with his costume and give him the og batman suit, with the big pointy ears

http://starsmedia.ign.com/stars/image/article/891/891730/batman-dc-comics-20080717031318430-000.jpg

batman camel toe

toeman

Way too many self-immolation gifs on my facebook feed.

Why he's taking to the role like a charm!

http://blindscribblings.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Affleck-Superman.jpg

Wait hold on.

nothing says "gravitas" more than ben affleck

Can't wait for the contrarian Slatepitch articles in favor of this

I woulda thought getting Clooney back to play an ageing Bruce Wayne would have been a good idea...

baffleck

good casting imo

So I guess this won't be in the same continuity as the latest Batman movies, and Affleck is gonna play Bruce Wayne? Because if it is the same continuity, how would explain how newbie John Blake suddenly becoming 10 years older and a "seasoned crime fighter"? Or maybe they'll try to come up with a reason why Bruce Wayne has to come out of retirement?

I wouldn't worry about it

I mean, at least its not Christian Bale.

http://i.imgur.com/DaTTbc2.gif

so DC's response to the avengers movies is to go all justice league, is that it? yeesh.

exactly how long has the wonder woman movie been in the works, by the way

IDRIS ELBA FOR WONDER WOMAN

Wasn't there some failed attempt to launch a new WW series a couple of years ago?

If they ever actually produce a Wonder Woman movie, I really hope they'll cast a someone who actually is tall and has muscles and looks like an Amazon princess, instead of taking the Scarlet Johansson route.

totally knew this would be on deviantart

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/085/1/1/wonder_woman_gina_carano_superman_by_christinalongmeadow-d5zdm2j.png

ya I was gonna say, if they can't get Idris Elba they need to go for Gina Carano

Wasn't there some failed attempt to launch a new WW series a couple of years ago?

There was a movie project with Joss Whedon attached to write and direct, which he eventually walked away from because apparently he and WB just had fundamentally different conceptions of the character. That kinda tanked the whole deal.

There was also this atrocious attempt to launch a new series on NBC two years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwUs3g2GHIs

realistically tho, j lawrence is the only bankable wonder woman, right

let's see what happens when Chloe Moretz grows up

Gina Carano would be perfect, imo.

(as DJP says)

After seeing Haywire, I can't imagine anyone else playing the role aside from Idris Elba

The deal is that the Amazons send WW out into the world to be their designated asskicker, right? Gotta be Gina Carano.

Obviously part of the problem of bringing WW to tv or film is the fact that part of the character's raison d'être is beating chauvinist pigs down to their knees for disrespecting womankind. Male-dominated studios just can't get to the point of writing checks for that yet.

Ah Gina Carano, my dream woman.

Affleck is terrible for this. It's a move he could/should have made a decade ago instead of several of the shitty choices he did make. I wonder if Clooney pushed him in this direction, given how vocal Clooney has been about the financial independence Batman afforded? In any case, Affleck lacks brood power, his fame/celebrity is too distracting, and he's already five years older than Clooney was when he played Batman.

Better Affleck casting would be as Thomas Wayne in the flashback when we find out, finally, Batman's origins. It's about time this was revealed!

Affleck just won an Oscar, what more financial independence does the dude need

he needs to be able to buy Cambridge

i still wish clooney had gone back to the cowl

I don't know who Gina Carano is, but based on that pic she could indeed be a good Wonder Woman.

Physically, I mean.

She starred in the movie Haywire and apparently played Riley Hicks in Fast and Furious 6

I'm pretty sure her face is photoshopped into that WW picture. She's a former(?) mixed martial arts fighter who was the lead in a Soderbergh film about a freelance asskicker and did surprisingly well with the non-asskicking parts. xp

After talking about this with a big Superman fanboy in my office, all I can think now is "HEY JOKAH, YOU LIKE APPLES? WELL HOW DO YOU LIKE DEM APPLES!"

lol: https://twitter.com/djperry1973/status/370935138667859970

haha HIGH FIVE

nicely put.

gina carano would be an awesome wonder woman omg CAN THIS HAPPEN PLZ

Affleck just won an Oscar, what more financial independence does the dude need

Oscars don't pay the bills. Hell, I'm surprised Snyder isn't funding this movie through Kickstarter.

Man of Shit made $400 million why would a studio NOT bankroll the shitty sequel?

Man of Shit!

no wait it made way more than that

anyway

xp

Gross: $289,633,849 (USA) (16 August 2013)

how much did it make non-USA?

Gross: $24 (Krypton) (16 August 2013)

lol

Man Of Steel was definitely a hit, and this likely will be too. But I still think Marvel is going to send them a thank-you bouquet because unless this is CRAZY good, good enough to make people want to meet the flash, it won't actually fix DCs problem, where they have the #1 & #2 cinematic superheroes of all time, while marvel has like 3-20 right now.

there's "hey they went, we made a couple hundred mill yaaaay" good and there's "america's now hungry to see ben solo, ps where's martian manhunter" good

Accidentally genre crossover, I read da croup's post and thought, "Ben is LUKE's son, the Solo kids were Anakin, Jacen and Jaina."

Please kill me.

lol

also if the movie where the top two superheroes meet doesn't get anywhere near the movie where #5, 8, 10 and 14 met (currently the biggest superhero movie ever) then ouuuch

this totally isn't going to fix DC's problem because ZACK SNYDER IS FUCKING HORRIBLE

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kz0crdfxKN1qzyp0vo1_500.jpg

yeah yeah, zack's a tone-deaf fool who should be doing levi's ads, but i mean christ, the justice league roster is so sad right now

flash: mia, but marvel's got TWO quicksilvers showing up before they could wheel him out
green arrow: marvel has their archer in the avengers, they've got theirs on the CW
wonder woman: pilot not picked up by the cw
green lantern: well, the movie did make almost a million more than ghost rider and THAT got a sequel
captain marvel: nope
martian manhunter: haha ok sure why not
plastic man: please let's nolan him up

oh forgot aquaman

also Cyborg is now a Justice League A-lister, don't front

SO LONG, SUCKERS

http://trivialmtb.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/aquaman.gif?w=500

xpost oh right he's in lego batman 2, forgot

seems like the core they need to worry about is Batman-Superman-Wonder Woman and the others are gravy

xp

but yeah these will suck why because everyone involved is terrible, whereas the Avengers is guided by competent filmmaker with a solid cast and a coherent plan from the parent company

seems like the core they need to worry about is Batman-Superman-Wonder Woman and the others are gravy

that's the thing - they think they're challenging avengers 2 by putting the two biggest guys together forgetting that Avengers was A+ moneyball where this would giving away batman free with your superman.

would be giving away, i mean

i almost feel bad for affleck being made to not only pull off batman but made to pull him off in the middle of a superman movie, but then he has oscars, millions and memories of j lo's butt up close and personal so he'll be ok

i hope he just walks into the movie screaming "HELLO I AM BATMAN, THE ONE AND ONLY" like his cameo in Shakespeare In Love

would so prefer this movie to be full of Silver Age hijinks like Batman standing in for Clark Kent while Superman wins an award and then they fight the Toyman on top of a giant blender. also Lois Lane gets turned into a black lady.

Non-stop Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite or no deal.

Bale was kinda terrible when in the actual suit for much of the neo-Bat films imo.

he may have been my favorite wayne but i hated him as batman

kinda agree, he made an awesome Wayne

keaton's wayne is pretty great in a fun "i seem distracted but that's because i should really be kicking people in tights right now" way but bale's usually vaguely fake air worked great for implying a secret life/demon, sadly that demon wanted COOKIES

its too bad bale's wayne wasnt given more to do, because yeah he was pretty good outside the suit

I'm trying to predict if this is going to be worse than the Green Lantern movie...

i would say affleck will be *closes eyes, throws dart* better than kilmer but worse than clooney

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/request-warner-brothers-zack-snyder-recast-role-batmanbruce-wayne-and-denounce-selection-ben-affleck/Mwcw96fC

Affleck is terrible for this

everyone is terrible for this, it was already going to be a terrible movie, why does this matter

also APPARENTLY no one remembers gina carano for her greatest role, as "Crush" in the revamped american gladiators

poor ben, that the debate is between "ben affleck will suck" and "who cares, stop talking about it, oh i can't stand this net chatter i'm forced to endure!"

i mean, i know the cv is that lots of people thought keaton would suck, but i'm pretty sure the other side was saying "i dunno that guy's pretty fucking awesome" not "oh do shut up, person on my phone, I care not!"

woopsie, i meant the conventional wisdom not the curriculum vitae

everyone is terrible for this, it was already going to be a terrible movie, why does this matter

You're wrong, this is all very important.

Did you not see the White House petition?!? You must not be American.

i mean, i know the cv is that lots of people thought keaton would suck, but i'm pretty sure the other side was saying "i dunno that guy's pretty fucking awesome" not "oh do shut up, person on my phone, I care not!"

― da croupier, Friday, August 23, 2013 8:51 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there was not twitter then who cares

and no one wants to see superman or wonder woman cause theyre nerds, everyone now living is a dark conflicted xman thats just how the world is

I'd see Ben Affleck as Wonder Woman.

they dug themselves into a hole by casting cavill. now batman can only be as charismatic as that guy, which narrowed it down a lot.

I don't have any real feelings about this but anything that pisses off nerds so much can't be a bad thing

Affleck should direct Zach Snyder as Batman.

http://movies.dosthana.com/sites/default/files/image-gallery/Zack%20Snyder-Image-Gallery.jpg

they dug themselves into a hole by casting cavill. now batman can only be as charismatic as that guy, which narrowed it down a lot.

― slam dunk, Friday, August 23, 2013 10:08 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha this is really otm

ISn't Cavill more hot/in shape than "charismatic"? Also I love Batman but the worst thing that could result frm this is a) as latebloomer said, and b) he's shitty and it's funny

I mean he's PLAYING Batman, he isn't like ACTUALLY BATMAN

I wouldn't like that

i don't think affleck will be a bad batman, necessarily. he was brooding and impenetrable in argo -- vaguely distant, vaguely unsettling -- and that's what keaton's wayne was like. i think it's the best way to do the character.

the talk about gina carano led me to rewatch haywire and i forgot that at one point she's talking to the deputy and he dismissively calls her wonder woman

so that's settled, then

ISn't Cavill more hot/in shape than "charismatic"? Also I love Batman but the worst thing that could result frm this is a) as latebloomer said, and b) he's shitty and it's funny

― albvivertine, Friday, August 23, 2013 11:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah that was the point. Cavill isn't that charismatic to begin with so they have to be careful about casting a Batman who could steal the movie from him.

Seriously, though, I hope we finally find out the respective origins of Batman and Superman.

Batman's really Superman's uncle. and General Zod was actually a patsy, the real evil overlord is the deadly Cutsman from Mega Man 1.

seeing as Cavill read out this DKR quote at the announcement - "I want you to remember, Clark. In all the years to come. In all your most private moments. I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you" - I expect Batman is intended to steal the show

I see that quote and can only think 'slashfic'

well it is Frank Miller

imagine ben affleck saying that

i imagine eventually that Superman's main nemesis is going to be the construction crews that have to rebuild the damn city each time

"I want you to remember, Clark. In all the years to come. In all your most private moments. I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you"

AMANDA

Would love if Batman insists on calling Superman "Clark." Sort of the way some people call insist on calling Wolverine "Logan," except that it's funnier, because "Clark" is his adopted name.

"Clark, lift up that building!"

"Look out, Clark, it's made of Kryptonite!"

"Hey, Clark, check out my new Batmobile!"

"Hey Clark, please stop destroying an entire city!"

Batman doesnt say please

Over/under on this movie containing the line "I'm the goddamned Batman?"

It has to include it!

Doesn't Affleck's watery rep make sense as Bruce's public persona though?

I don't have any objections to Batfleckman.

http://www.moonbattery.com/ben-affleck_gq.jpg

Turn off the dark, man.

looking forward to 90 minutes of Supes and Batman discussing what haircare products they use

actually, if they make this movie fun and actiony (without going full schumacher), ben affleck walking in and saying "i'm the goddamn batman" would probably do just fine with the audience that's gearing up for Fast And The Furious 7.

i mean, i'd still be fucking shocked if they could do avengers numbers with "Superman 2 (Now With Extra Batman!)" but it's not a guaranteed turkey

holy fuck a fast and furious/batman crossover would be so much better

This movie has to play well in Christian Middle America -- there won't be any "I'm the goddamn Batman." I don't think there have been any goddamns or Jesus Christs in any of the Marvel/DC filmed entertainments, iirc. Maybe once or twice in the Nolan trio, but I don't think so... (I say that without having seen Man of Steel.)

point is just that ben's probably best off going for an unpretentious intro like that, rather than trying to outnolan nolan or something

This movie has to play well in Christian Middle America

― cops on horse (WilliamC), Sunday, August 25, 2013 12:54 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha what. Middle America would love a badass cussin' Batman. It just has to be PG-13.

My impression is that studios dole out the blasphemies very carefully, and the heroes don't get any of 'em.

but Batman isn't a regular hero!

"only 1.2 billion estimated damage? c'mon Supes, you gotta go hard or go home man".

http://31.media.tumblr.com/a8cc66b195208675facc00581b5b4f0a/tumblr_mryn5y6ux71qg4blro1_500.png

lol

if this isn't completely lame, i think they will have pulled off a miracle

and that's pretty much all i have to say about it

here's another thought, actually: ELI WALLACH IS BATMAN

tell me you can't see it

http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/bg/Eli+Wallach+Star+Born+World+Premiere+o0xHoT4zE2hx.jpg
"I want you to remember, Clark. In all the years to come. In all your most private moments. I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you"

I didn't read this news directly til maybe Saturday.

Surely he can't be worse than Christian Bale?

always forget how big an argo fan you were

wait did Morbz actually watch a batmovie?!?

You really need to ask that?

morbs saw the one w the joker, we talked abt it

They could have cast Morbs as Batman. I bet he would have done it for free if they let him keep the deep grouchy voice changer. I know I would!

I just saw Argo and thought evil Mirror beard Spock not batman

Surely he can't be worse than Christian Bale?

― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Monday, August 26, 2013 10:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I think he could. Bale was boring but at least you didn't get the palpable sense of embarrassment which I think is in play here with Affleck.

Affleck as douche-batman (basically his character in dazed and confused) would be great.

i hope they give affleck his own batman franchise

do you think we can break the Internet by photoshopping Miley from the VMAs as Harley Quinn

hope Cranston has the good sense to stay away from this

otoh lol:
And as if all of these rumors weren’t enough, now there’s talk that Matt Damon is being considered for either Aquaman or the Martian Manhunter

a dilemma for any actor

affleck's probably directing the justice league movie. he was already rumoured before and now, as sean o'neal put it, he'd get to work w/ his favorite actor. as someone who's pretty sick of the affleck comeback and very sick of the batman franchise i greeted this news w/ profound joy.

and now, as sean o'neal put it, he'd get to work w/ his favorite actor

haha

Man of Shit Gross: $660.9 million

morbsian numbers

man of gross shit

love that marvel moved ant-man up to open two weeks after superbat

not sure exactly how to read the tea leaves but i think they might be hoping a good chunk of the superbat audience will be easily swayed from seeing superbat twice

would watch Ant-Man if it was all Phase IV-style nature photography w/creepy editing

in reality will just shake my head that there is actually a fucking ant man movie

an Ant Man movie that follows Hank Pym's descent into madness and wife-beating would be a very bold and unexpected move

In July 2015, DC will slip their most successful character into the sequel for their second most successful character.

In July 2015, Marvel will look around for a property they haven't made billions off of already, and realize they're down to Ant-Man.

Ant-Man isn't even that far down the rabbit hole, call me when Marvel is releasing a Maggott movie

you dudes need to give Asshole Ant-Man a chance

Nhex OTM, there could be some seriously entertaining fan whiplash here

there are seven Marvel-based movies coming out before Superbat, admittedly three are from companies desperate not to lose their claim on Marvel titles but I have to wonder if Warner Bros has just given up on having even a fraction of the overall supermovie-market Marvel/Disney has, and are hoping they can at least reclaim the gold medal from The Avengers.

Ant-Man movie will be directed by Edgar Wright, so don't write it off just yet.

Comic book lord Kevin Smith says the new Batsuit blew his mind.

blew it all over his jorts

Comic book...lord?

just quoting Associated Press

I guess it's grey and black. Cool

Zack Snyder's ear for dialogue is second only to Helen Keller's.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jesse-eisenberg-cast-as-lex-676043

And Jeremy Irons as Alfred.

omg

they are seriously going to introduce a new batman, new alfred, new wonder woman and new lex luthor in one movie

in one superman movie

like, imagine if The Avengers came out a year after Thor, with no Captain America movie and a recast Iron Man.

I hope they go full camp. Who is the modern Schumacher?

make it stop

Who is the modern Schumacher?

Snyder iirc

Eisenberg is actually an interesting choice, but there's no way this won't just be a massive shitshow.

it doesn't matter who gets cast because Snyder will find a way to make them boring.

^^^^

this could be all my favorite actors working now and I still wouldn't see it, Snyder is a horrorshow

dc/warner bros is so drowning in marvel/disney envy that they're going to just lump all their iconic figures in one movie just ONE film into the specific universe (unless ryan reynolds gonna fly through for a cameo). they're basically going to try a sony spider-man-style reboot INSIDE of an underbaked Avengers. jesus christ.

yup

altho this is the first I heard of Wonder Woman showing up in this

Gal Gadot announced as WW late last year.

i love that they're bumping this back a year but don't have any dc universe films planned for the interim. Apparently, they will give us nothing but gossip about script problems and bad buzz in 2015.

they hamstrung themselves with the previous Batman flicks imo, which were obviously huge blockbusters but also never intended to be universe-building-blocks a la the Marvel movies. trying to play catch-up like this is just sad. especially on the back of Man of Shit.

part of the problem for them was also green lantern bombing - i do wonder how the build-up to the avengers would have gone if say Thor had been a turkey.

i mean was the executive who said "just let nolan do what he wants for TDKR, we'll just rooty toot reboot two years later, spidey style" and the executive who said "shit look at what marvel's doing, we gotta have an avengers fast!" the same executive?

yeah, GL was kind of an odd choice to lead with.

Who is the modern Schumacher?

Ryan Murphy?

What else were they gonna lead with though? Flash? Martian Manhunter? Said it before but DC has the #1 & #2 heroes and then Marvel has like #3-15.

wouldn't it have been better to have Gordon-Levitt show up as The New Batman and allow SOME degree of continuity with their established world, rather than ask us to accept a new batman before we're even totally on board with supes?

yeah the nolan stuff really is an obstacle for them whereas even though it's not a shared cinematic universe or whatever if hugh jackman's wolverine or some white guy's spiderman showed up in the avengers they would fit right in.

even if they do manage to make a decent hit out of this, marvel's gonna be all "hey bats vs supes, cool story, bro, fyi we're sitting on so many millions that we're actually making an ant-man movie cuz fuck it"

Flash? Martian Manhunter?

Superman is the obvious choice, except they'd screwed the pooch on that one too

but fwiw I think Flash would have been better than GL. An inherently more fun, more relatable (and probably better known) superhero

GL would have been great if they'd actually harnessed the visual possibilities of the ring (shame Marvel already had their mitts on Edgar Wright) instead of making a murky movie with more grumpy CGI aliens then inventive action sequences. And yeah, Flash would have been good but with TWO movies starring Quicksilver coming out before Batsvssupes he may get shunted to the CW like Hawkeye I mean Green Arrow.

it's kinda funny that they had whedon work on a wonder woman movie for awhile and then shelved it cuz they decided the smart thing to do w/ that property was to make it a david kelly tv lawyer drama.

hahaha dc just fucking up left and right

man marvel's stable is so good they've got fox and sony sending them checks on the reg for franchises they don't want to let go of, while dc's just gonna take a big dump in 2016 and hope we like it cuz otherwise they got nothin.

oh wait there is joseph gordon levitt's sandman

it bums me out cuz I find the DC stuff so much more inherently interesting than Marvel

They should just trash it all and do a Jack Kirby's New Gods adaptation. Ving Rhames as Darkseid, Ryan Reynolds as Mister Miracle, Tom Cruise as Metron, Meryl Streep as Granny Goodness.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/a-look-at-all-the-dc-comics-films-rumored-and-in-development/

lol according to this they're thinking about breaking Flash out of a Justice League movie shot back-to-back with SupesVsBats...but there's also a CW show coming out this fall.

a constantine pilot's also been ordered by nbc. jesus, how is it that half the stuff on this page is from vertigo?

ed asner will always be the definitive granny goodness

"jesse eisenberg as lex luthor" is trending, alot of ppl thinking it's a random choice apparently. yeah, jesse eisenberg as some smart, arrogant asshole - what is that gonna be like?

lol Phil

i haven't watched smallville but jesse eisenberg feels like a very smallville choice - wish they'd picked someone like joaquin phoenix, who actually scans older than superman.

supes vs big business rather than some fuckin' internet start-up kid

also I REALLY wanted to see Joaquin with a shaved head

supes vs big business rather than some fuckin' internet start-up kid

um

What happened to the "Justice League" movie?

supposedly being shot back-to-back with batsvssupes, esp now that that's been pushed back to 2016

And we all know Lex will be some super-genius nihilist hacker in this, right?

shakey not sure if you're "um" is in regards to facebook being big business, i just mean lex should be like an oil tycoon imo

superman flying into this window to slam the CEO against the wall

http://cdn.home-designing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/tumblr-newyork-office.jpg

http://cdn.home-designing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/tumblr-newyork-office.jpg

shakey not sure if you're "um" is in regards to facebook being big business

yeah mostly. I would be cool with Superman smashing some Google shit

A friend just suggested Shia LeBeouf as the Joker, and why not.

GL would have been great if they'd actually harnessed the visual possibilities of the ring

Yeah I don't think the problem was picking a relatively low profile hero (how many members of the general public seriously gave a shit about Iron Man in 2007?) it was making a crap movie.

"STOP DATAMINING NOW!!!"

"heheheheh....they CLICKED the terms of service, Superman! It was ALLL legal!"

A friend just suggested Shia LeBeouf as the Joker, and why not.

― Ned Raggett

No one would dare put the Joker in another movie for like ten more years surely.

ben affleck would have to fucking OWN the role to get a chance to staredown joker

but if america is 100% on board with ben after Justice League then I'd guess he'd face Joker pretty quick - it would be more than ten years after TDK before he'd get his own movie anyway!

Google is obviously part of Brainiac anyway

curious if they're going to "introduce" the concept of batman to the supes-world or act like he's already a known public figure - who just didn't die in TDKR.

like, "lois, the trail leads to gotham city" "but clark...that's BATMAN country!" *cut to Ben Affleck staring at a bay of computers in a cave*

they should just go full camp and cast Matt Damon as Robin at this point

michael douglas as alfred, in that case

Sandra Bernhard as Catwoman

I admit I'm just free associating now

I don't care what happens with this movie but anything that pisses off comix nerds is a good thing IMO

I hope they make the next Batman after this a literal mutant half man/half bat who plays smooth jazz saxophone

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/davidsanborn_1_jk.jpg

david sanborn is ready!

I was going to say I hope they make the next Avengers movie a 3 hour orgy but that would satisfy way too many people on tumblr

I hope they make the next Batman after this a literal mutant half man/half bat who plays smooth jazz saxophone

You're thinking of this guy:

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090209150905/marvel_dc/images/6/69/Man-Bat_Vol_1_1.jpg

Ha I knew someone would bring up manbat

Seriously though, the whole orphan billionaire origin for Batman had been done to death. Let's reimagine the whole thing. Bruce Wayne is a struggling jazz saxophonist in debt to the mob. To pay them back he's forced to rob some valuable chemicals from a science lab. Of course, everything goes wrong and there's an explosion and he's assumed dead. What no one knows is that the lab was doing experiments on bats and during the explosion he was exposed to a mutagenic bat DNA serum which transformed him into a bat human hybrid. Now he seeks vengeance by night, flying over the skies of Gotham and fighting crime. By day he rests in a dilapidated old jazz club called The Cave, where his former manager Alfred (the only one who knows his identity) meets with him and helps him out with various tasks. This shit writes itself!

oh wait there is joseph gordon levitt's sandman

This sounds like yet another terrible idea. Keep in mind that I tried to write a script for a Sandman movie at age 15... did not get far.

morpheus is just such a passive character aside from his initial "back from the grave, gotta find my swag" journey in the first few issues that I don't know how you make him work in a film. you can't just show him winking at shakespeare for a 15 minute interlude. as insane as jon peters' "make him fight a giant spider" thing was in the late '90s, he is gonna have to fight something.

sandman was a horror/fantasy anthology at heart with an aloof on-page author stand-in who'd talk about how stories are great and occasionally have to decide who gets the magic macguffin. Not really gonna set the screen ablaze.

they should just give Death her own CW pilot already

Perhaps even moreso than Watchmen, the whole series is tied to a specifically comics-based style of storytelling, and one really of its era at that. It just doesn't work unless the film is going to be rambling, abstract in places, tangential and willing to bore its audience for 7 straight issues.

In a way it would be better if it was some kind of TV thing where they did some of the standalone stories like Dream of a Thousand Cats, where you didn't have to make Morpheus the protagonist.

Although if it caught on it could pay comedic dividends should it trigger a full on goth revival.

jon peters' "make him fight a giant spider" thing

man this still makes me laugh. funniest kevin-smith-related thing to me is when he's talking about receiving this directive from peters for his cancelled superman script and later sitting bored watching wild wild west "and then all of a sudden..."

Come to think of it, superman does fight a spidery thingamajig toward the end if Man of Steel didn't he?

they should just give Death her own CW pilot already

― da croupier, 31. januar 2014 22:03 (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Man, Bryan Fuller should get on that!

which is worse Superman Returns or Man Of Steel? genuine question. i've seen neither and LOVED the first 2 Reeve Superman movies as a kid.

Man of Steel is a smidgen worse.

both are contemptibly off-key in ways but the relationship with lois in superman returns is infinitely skeevier and i thought the man of steel had more decent moments for the supporting cast and more action.

like, in man of steel he's a huffy idiot who doesn't actually seem to care who's on the other side of a wall he smashes, but in superman returns he's a deadbeat dad creeping on his ex.

man of steel is cold grim humorless nolandustrial competence, superman returns is kind of baffling in its execution and tone and casting but its heart is in the right place i guess.

krypton looked more like ethereal sandman domain, maybe a sandman/superman teamup is in the works

Come to think of it, superman does fight a spidery thingamajig toward the end if Man of Steel didn't he?

have not seen but i hope so. i read for the first time yesterday abt the legendary lost spider scene in king kong

Cooper personally cut a scene in King Kong in which four sailors are shaken off a rope bridge by Kong, fall into a ravine, and are eaten alive by giant spiders. According to Hollywood folklore, the decision was made after previews in January 1933, during which audience members either fled the theater in terror or talked about the ghastly scene throughout the remainder of the movie. However, more objective sources maintain that the scene merely slowed the film's pace.

and i wondered if this was the inspiration for peters' faith in the spectacle of the giant spider.

amazing to think a scene with spiders eating people alive could *slow* a film's pace??

Peter Jackson's "Kong" has an extended eaten alive by critters scene on the director's cut.

Warning: gross:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTWYQhTT388

Peter Jackson's "Kong" has an extended eaten alive by critters scene on the director's cut.

― Josh in Chicago

It's in the theatrical version.

also..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOMKnhN7ABs

xpost It's in the theatrical version, but the director's cut is longer and more grisley. Like in that clip of Serkis getting consumed by the larva-thing.

Eisenberg at least has being a billionaire dick down...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIntDen7fv0

also..

http://www.youtube.com/v/SOMKnhN7ABs&fs=1&hl=en

― piscesx, Saturday, February 1, 2014 7:40 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

watching this made me realize i'd never noticed the unfulfilled foreshadowing of the bodies falling through cobwebs on the way down. love that. glad the real thing is still unavailable tho; prefer it as an overpowering infinite jest macguffin.

dunno wtf jackson thinks a giant crab would be doing down there, unless that's in a script somewhere.

well i guess this excuses it: Some species of terrestrial crabs can be found many kilometres from the sea, but have to complete annual migrations to the sea. merian cooper shoulda restaged the elephant stampede from chang w giant migrating crabs.

xp there actually was a giant crab of sorts in the original concept art for the 1933 sequence:

http://images.sodahead.com/profiles/0/0/0/6/5/4/7/6/0/Lost-Spider-pit-scene-18712209024.jpeg

thought "wait i think that's a scorpion", realized the thing in the jackson sequence might have been a scorpion, still standing by my rampaging migratory crabs treatment. that concept art is great tho. should have a little caption like an illustration in an adventure novel, i guess just reading "AGGGGGGHHHHH!"

i mean no i guess it's a crab. look sorry. superman.

First look at Batfleck (and the Benmobile):

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--GFHwELpk--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/b2i9e5yp2sbmxsclewjj.jpg

Check the veins on the suit!

sad batman is sad

MAN OF SHIT

It's an up the arse corner photo with participant 2 shopped out

Pfft.

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/batman-superman-titled-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice-1201188157/

Dawn of Asshole

THIS IS THE BEST NEWS

THESE GENIUSES, MAKING THE "IRON MAN V HULK: AWW, WE GONNA AVENGE SOON" MOVIE MARVEL FORGOT TO MAKE

Because really, why have a slate like:
Iron Man
Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Thor
Captain America
Avengers
Iron Man 3
Captain America 2

When you can have a slate like:
Batman's Dead
Superman's Back
Superman vs Batman: MEET THEIR FRIENDS
SUPERFRIENDS

like, could they not have the patience to make superman 2, a new batman movie with affleck, a wonder woman movie AND THEN superfriends? It's like they don't think they have time to bake a cake so they're just going to microwave the raw ingredients all fast-like.

i maybe should have included green lantern in that dc slate, but i don't think they've said whether or not Ryan Reynolds or some other actor will actually be playing GL in justice league

I recognize superhero and comic book movies aren't new but man they just seem so pathetic now and it's kind of embarrassing to just look at the slate coming up.

I really enjoyed Iron Man 3 & Winter Soldier, and am looking forward to Guardians.

Noticeably I'm only anticipating Marvel studios releases

You forgot Thor 2, croupier. As is probably all well and good. I think the thing I'mm most excited about with Justice League - Day of Justice is finding out what they intend to do about Green Lantern.

I'll never get why ppl dislike the Thor movies

Haven't seen the second one. Can't really remember the first. Definitely didn't dislike it enough to recall. I just don't think people find them memorable?

First one was great, second one semi-great with some boring thrown in

you know, I haven't gotten around to watching Thor 2 or Cap 2 despite being sure i'll like them ok, while I want to be the first on my block to see Soup v Butt: Don Justice DeMarco. So maybe Warner Bros is on to something.

david s goyer's karma sure ain't gonna help this project

http://www.avclub.com/article/she-hulk-sex-fantasy-virgins-and-other-david-s-goy-204935

What great timing that Goyer's clueless fuckheadery is akin to what DC Comics has been doing to its female characters, staffers, and readers lately.

who's Wonder Woman in this POS? If there were any justice in the world it would be Ashwarya Rai

Some random gal

Batman V. Superman sounds like somebody's ill-advised legal name change.

Place bets now if this will have a better plot, representation of Wonder Woman, Cyborg, the JLA, et al

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWbhbOgEtl4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWbhbOgEtl4

what kind of terrifying bat mite is depicted on mechabatlegoman's chest there?

space armo(u)r, apparently

the lego movie batman sort of pwned any possible batmans in the near future

lol

May 2016 – Batman v Superman
July 2016 – Shazam
Xmas 2016 – Sandman
May 2017 – Justice League
July 2017 – Wonder Woman
Xmas 2017 – Flash and Green Lantern team-up
May 2018 – Man Of Steel 2

wtf...

wait joseph gordan levitt is directing a sandman movie, what is this world

the Xmas 2017 entry is really getting to me. I'm imagining them wrapping presents or something

green lantern + flash combined do have the powers of santa claus hmmmm...

3 a year? jeepers, makin' up for lost time!

also apparently captain marvel is straight up named shazam in the comic books now, can't wait to see what actor signed up to play shazam in the movie shazam where everyone will say "shazam" a lot

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0mc9wsych1r44xpyo1_500.png

also apparently captain marvel is straight up named shazam in the comic books now, can't wait to see what actor signed up to play shazam in the movie shazam where everyone will say "shazam" a lot

― da croupier, Thursday, June 12, 2014 5:40 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this has been true for as long as DC comics purchase the character. since the 1980s I think?

no billy batson was captain marvel, shazam was the wizard. they just couldn't name the comic 'captain marvel'.

and of course SHAZAM itself itself is just a ridiculous anagram

yeah the decision to call him "shazam" apparently came in 2012, i assume the film will do likewise

keep thinking it would be smart if w/ one of these comics properties they went animated and maybe (brace yrself) pitch it more toward kids (albeit more 'kids and adults' a la all animated movies today). incredibles was a huge hit, captain marvel would be perfect for this, it'd be a way to monetize that property and not overcrowd the market even more, make it happen already.

as long as it doesn't crowd-out my dream of an animated, CGI-jaws remake.

Also no one wants to see a live action Shazam.

all the animated stuff seems to be aimed at straight-to-DVD market, when its made at alll

yeah, but a well-made, incredibles-level animated shazam movie could do okay, i think. and sparkle motion otm.

oh I agree. tbh I've learned that I infinitely prefer superhero stuff in animated form, the DC Universe stuff is p much better than any of the recent blockbusters imo

May 2016 – All our at-best half-baked eggs in one basket
July 2016 – A kid says "shazam!" and becomes a guy named "shazam!"
Xmas 2016 – Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a magical pick-up artist code-named "Dream King"
May 2017 – Our eggs, fully baked god-willing!
July 2017 – Loved our eggs? Here's the lady egg again! Three months!
Xmas 2017 – MMMM, STILL HUNGRY FOR EGGS!?!?! Here's the one you puked up six years earlier, hanging out with the one from the CW (fingers crossed!) Don't thank us, thank Santa!
May 2018 – Superman celebratin' the year of the egg with a victory lap!

The only reason I can even half-believe this is that a) as goofy as she is you'd think Nikki Finke wouldn't lead her new site with complete bullshit and b) WB has been fucking up left and right as it is

Also no one wants to see a live action Shazam.

― lauded at conferences of deluded psychopaths (Sparkle Motion), Thursday, June 12, 2014 6:13 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

much less a "dark" shazam that ends in some quasi-apocalyptic climax

I'd be up for an animated shazam set in the 30s

keep thinking it would be smart if w/ one of these comics properties they went animated and maybe (brace yrself) pitch it more toward kids (albeit more 'kids and adults' a la all animated movies today). incredibles was a huge hit, captain marvel would be perfect for this, it'd be a way to monetize that property and not overcrowd the market even more, make it happen already.

― balls, Friday, June 13, 2014 12:07 AM (19 minutes agpo) Bookmark

well Disney are sorta doing this (albeit with a lesser known property) with Big Hero 6. Could be testing the waters

this slate is 100% reliant on the idea that superman v batman not only does well but does so well that people want three movies about the same characters THE VERY NEXT YEAR

honestly they should have gone that route w/ the spider-man reboot

xpost

that's a good idea though i do have to remind myself that those new spidermans are making a ridiculous amount of money.

yeah (sigh)

you could make fan movie?

the international on spidey-films is insane but the domestic numbers have been waning enough that i wonder if they're really gonna go through with the villain movies.

Only if it's a solo Mysterio joint with no dialogue

and of course SHAZAM itself itself is just a ridiculous anagram

― Οὖτις, Thursday, June 12, 2014 7:06 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for what? MASHAZ?

Um I mean acronym lol

http://comicslust.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Captain-Marvel-%E2%80%A2-05.jpg

lol

May 2016 – Batman v Superman
July 2016 – Shazam
Xmas 2016 – Sandman
May 2017 – Justice League
July 2017 – Wonder Woman
Xmas 2017 – Flash and Green Lantern team-up
May 2018 – Man Of Steel 2

this is seriously the funniest thing i've read today. and that includes the debut of clickhole so the bar is high.

feige must be pissing himself laughing

omg i didn't realize that was real

lol i know it reads like something a 12-year-old scribbles to himself under the covers at night

also apparently captain marvel is straight up named shazam in the comic books now, can't wait to see what actor signed up to play shazam in the movie shazam where everyone will say "shazam" a lot

― da croupier, Thursday, June 12, 2014 5:40 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this has been true for as long as DC comics purchase the character. since the 1980s I think?

― I dunno. (amateurist), 13. kesäkuuta 2014 2:00

no billy batson was captain marvel, shazam was the wizard. they just couldn't name the comic 'captain marvel'.

― balls, 13. kesäkuuta 2014 2:03

The way I understand it, at one point Marvel acquired the trademark for "Captain Marvel", even though the Billy Batson Captain Marvel far predates Marvel's Captain Marvel. Apparently Marvel managed to do this because at the time no one was publishing comics featuring the Billy Batson Captain Marvel. This doesn't mean DC can't have a character called Captain Marvel (there are several DC characters who share their name with a Marvel character), only that they can't market him with that name, so the Captain Marvel comic books DC has published have been called "Shazam"/"The Power of Shazam"/etc. Apparently they've now decided that for clarity's sake the character should be called Shazam too, though I admit it's a pretty silly name for a live-action movie protagonist.

Also, Marvel comics has had at least four or five different character called "Captain Marvel"... I'm not sure about it, but I think it has to do with the trademark situation: in order to keep the trademark, they have to keep publishing comics with a character named "Captain Marvel", so when one Captain Marvel becomes less popular, they just give the name to a new one. If I've understood it correctly, if Marvel wouldn't keep using that name, at some point the trademark would be considered as having fallen into disuse (that's how Marvel managed to acquire it in the first place), and DC could reclaim it.

yep

To retain their trademark, Marvel has had to publish a Captain Marvel title every year or two since, leading to a number of ongoing series, limited series and one-shots featuring a range of characters using the Captain Marvel alias.[3]

oh man, that schedule. this could take down TimeWarner.

they need to make ONE movie that really, really connects w/ people before they go all in like that.

The Batman movies and the new Superman one have made loads of money, right? That's all that matters, I doubt they really care about "connecting with people".

the new superman made money, not sure it met expectations though?

there's loads of money and then there's loads of money. Man Of Steel, a resurrection of the most popular superhero ever, made less money at the US box office than the first Iron Man, and only slightly more internationally, despite the intl market being bigger today than it even was in '08 when IM came out. And it made about half as much as Iron Man 3.

It did pretty good, and considering The Dark Knight did megabucks following a modest rebooting, there's no reason to assume Man Of Steel 2 could blow up as well. But they're not doing Superman 2. They're making a Superman v Batman movie despite having a wholly different Batman 2 years ago who either died or faked his death to go on a sex vacay with Catwoman. Instead of a sequel that reintroduces a big hero's most legendary, charismatic nemesis (which worked for The Dark Knight!) they're making a sequel that has to do that AND reintroduce a hero big enough they're putting his name first in the title.

That's a lot for a movie to handle, without putting money down that it will do well enough to merit (if this slate can be believed) a superhero team-up movie and two related spin-offs ALL IN ONE YEAR. Compare this to Marvel, who had two Iron Man movies, two hulks, one thor and one captain america before making the team-up. What DC is allegedly doing is like if Marvel made Iron Man, then Iron Man vs Hulk, then the Avengers, then Black Widow and then Captain America & Thor's Excellent Adventure.

Oh, and they're also making Shazam and Sandman.

You can say "well they make a lotta money" but they also cost a lot of money, and DC is setting up a slate where each component has to do CRAZY good to justify the next components...which come only a year later. It's not a lot of time to put on the brakes.

sorry that should be "there's no reason to assume Man Of Steel 2 couldn't blow up as well"

and actually, my comparison re: "iron man v hulk" flatters DC because in no way is henry cavill's superman as popular as robert downey jr's iron man. And we don't know yet whether Ben Affleck's Batman will be as popular anybody's Hulk (ditto Gal Gadot vs ScarJo, whoeverthefuckisplayingGL&Flash vs the Chrises)

(batman) faked his death to go on a sex vacay with Catwoman.

― da croupier, Friday, June 13, 2014

now there's a dc-comics movie sequel worth making.

i bet christian bale would come back for that, definitely

Okay, I get your point... It's interesting that despite having recognizable brand names and a template for widescreen action, it all still seems to boil down to casting the right actors for key roles. The first two Hulk movies weren't successful, the first Thor movie wasn't a big hit either, but the Iron Man movies were, and I guess that was mostly due to Robert Downey Jr.'s charisma. And that charisma seems to have done a lot of the carrying for the Avengers movie, as well as Tom Hiddleton being the perfect choice for Loki. (As I've understood it, he's become more popular a character than Thor himself.) Similarly, a lot of The Dark Knight's success was seemingly built on Heath Ledger. So yeah, I guess good actors and memorable characters are the thing where the DC movies haven't been quite as successful as the Marvel ones, they still need to tackle that one, and I'm not sure casting Affleck at this point in his career is gonna help... Who's gonna play the villains in Batman & Superman?

(xxx-post)

Jesse Eisenberg is Lex Luthor in Bat vs Sup, which feels like it could go either way. but it's not like anyone gives a fuck now that batman's in it.

Thor 1 and Cap'n 1 weren't huge breakout hits like Iron Man but they did well with audiences, established the (relatively unfamiliar) characters and the sequels did money equal to Man Of Steel following the Avengers.

Honestly, Marvel has done a sterling job building a "universe" and everyone else is rushing to keep up, esp DC, which is diluting the Marvel template with the "hey just reboot it 2 years later" Sony/Spidey mindset (which is getting them diminishing if still impressive-in-china returns) and their own "uhhh dark knight made money be like dark knight" deal.

Okay, wtf, I checked it, and apparenly Luthor will be played by some guy who's 4 years younger than me! Are they gonna go for the Silver age "Clark Kent and Luthor used to be childhood buddies" angle? IMO the Byrne reboot where Luthor is older and more experienced than Superman made him into a better villain, but I guess they won't be doing that with this Eisenberg dude.

(x-post)

if this slate is real there is no way marvel is backing off from the chicken run of both Bat vs Supes and Cap'n 3 opening the same weekend (May 6, 2016 until somebody flinches!). In a world where both are dropped the same day and there's mutually assured destruction, Marvel still has umpteen other franchises while DC has put everything they have in this movie.

is batman still the "villain" in this new movie, or have they gone in a different direction?

but it's not like anyone gives a fuck now that batman's in it.

I dunno, I'm sure the majority of people who saw The Avengers didn't give a fuck about Loki or Tom Hiddleston (comic fans and those who saw the first Thor movie being the exceptions), but he made a such impact that they had to rewrite Thor 2 to give him bigger role than the main villain of that movie.

considering they're superfriends a year later, one must assume bats and supes hug it out and start dealing with lex pretty early on in the film.

i think lex luthor is way more interesting as this experienced, cynical mega-capitalist corruption of the american dream that superman can't just shoot laser eyes at, too. but then i haven't seen smallville.

and yes, it's possible jesse eisenberg will find some new angle rather than just do Mark Zuckerberg With A Laser Gun and blow everyone's mind. My point is just that it's going to be a lot harder when the movie has so much far important stuff to do.

i mean jesus, at this point I'm WAYYYYY more curious about Belle vs Sebastian: Department Of Justice than I am about this Ultron fellow

also thor made 180m in the US alone! that the majority of people who saw The Avengers didn't care about loki previously is just because that movie was the third biggest film ever!

also thor made 180m in the US alone!

With a budget of 150 million (which doesn't include marketing, I think), this wasn't a huge success.

jesse eisenberg

Keep parsing this as Pinefox trying to refer to Aaron Paul.

tuomas you're moving the goalposts around. thor made $450m globally (and 2x the budget is the traditionally perceived breakeven point for a movie like this), which while not a mindblowing success, was still A Profitable Movie Lots Of People Saw and quite good for a film that introduced a norse god played by an unknown as a superhero. And with a boost from the avengers, the sequel made $644m (while only raising the budget to $170m - marvel's tight like that).

Er, my only point was that the Iron Man movies were huge successes mostly because of Downey, while Thor wasn't. I wasn't saying it didn't make profit, just that it wasn't a big hit in the way Iron Man was.

actually iron man 2 and thor 2 did about equal numbers, and i don't think it was just because they decided to shoot more loki footage

def not denying that downey's charisma and surprise success was the engine of the whole marvel kaboodle, just that you're overstating the alleged lack of charisma/success of the viking

actually got thrown off - thor 2 and iron man 2 did the same globally, but 100m more of iron man 2 came from america. so yeah, thor is definitely smaller scale, though not unpopular.

and here's the thing, they went into the avengers with four heroes who at the very least had films that made north of 200m globally (one with new actor). they're going to into supes/bat/justice league with two heroes in that league, one with a new actor.

Well maybe not, but The Avengers had already done a lot of heavy lifting for Thor 2, it being the first Marvel movie to follow, and featuring one of the heroes and the villain of one of the biggest movies of all time. Iron Man 2 did the same numbers without any support like that, and I really do think Downey is the biggest reason why.

(xxpost)

obv we disagree on the degree to which chris hemsworth's a lucky drip hanging on downey's coattails, but the important thing is that you realize DC is flying without a net if this slate is true

Keep parsing this as Pinefox trying to refer to Aaron Paul.

I don't think so

but the important thing is that you realize DC is flying without a net if this slate is true

Yeah, that was the point I was trying to make above.

obv we disagree on the degree to which chris hemsworth's a lucky drip hanging on downey's coattails, but the important thing is that you realize DC is flying without a net if this slate is true

― da croupier, Friday, June 13, 2014 4:22 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, and a slate this ambitious could doom warner bros forever, presuming they are distributing. at least the first slate of marvel films were spread among different distributors.

"shazam: the movie" should just be a loop of dave chappelle saying "shazam!" for 80 minutes.

casting ben affleck seems like such a creative misstep that i assume the whole enterprise is going to be a major fiasco, but then again i'm not really in touch with the volk.

Are they going to do little teasers & easter eggs with these, like a scene where Bruce Wayne's having a nightmare about his parents and he sees a mysterious goth dude in the background?

They couldn't even follow through on the Sinestro post-credits thing in Green Lantern, let's not give them ideas.

I think the thing that baffles me the most about this memo (assuming the memo is at all accurate) is that it suggests that they intend to integrate Sandman into the rest of this mess. I was under the assumption that it was initially intended to be its own thing (which is a questionable endeavor in and of itself). And it may still be, but given DC's current contempt for its readership and their overeagerness in tearing down the barriers separating their different and previously-unrelated (or mostly unrelated) properties, I'm inclined to believe that they intend to go down whichever road is the most ill-advised.

The bit where Batman and Martian Manhunter show up for Morpheus' funeral is gold - 2 panels is enough to build a film franchise out of, fear not.

post-avengers, marvel's worked out this great plan where they'll have one sequel followed by one original each year. Captain-America 2, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Avengers 2, Ant-Man, Cap'n 3, Dr. Strange...which they'll bump up to 3 a year if so many of the originals do well that they gotta make a Rocket Raccoon solo movie or some shit. But the current schedule means that even if Ant-Man's a turd, it has no affect on anything other property - just no Ant-Man 2.

Meanwhile DC is allegedly going to release its two not-necessarily-Justice-League movies in 2016 (Sandman, Shazam) and then drop two justice league spin-offs MONTHS after Justice League in 2017, despite having no idea whether america is on board at all.

Madness!

the worst case scenario for marvel post-iron man 2 and pre-avengers (aside from RDJ melting down from the pressure) was that thor or captain america would have bombed the year before, forcing them to cut down the character's presence in Avengers and scrap sequel plans for that character.

the worst case scenario for dc/wb now is that Bat vs Sups is hated, Shazam's a Kazaam, Sandman fails to turn everyone goth and they go into 2017 with a super team-up nobody is excited for (they're shooting concurrently so they can't scrap it). Aside from being costly as fuck, that would leave them with NOTHING as far as potential super-franchises, unless they drove a money truck to Chris Nolan's house to make The Dark Knight Is Sorry.

Legion of Superheroes movie!

Teen Titans?

uh... Suicide Squad?

If Justice League bombs I dunno if Kid Justice League and Future Justice League are worth spending hundreds of millions on.

and where marvel quickly accrued a writing brain-trust and quality crowdpleasing directors to diminish the odds of a true turkey, DC has Zack Snyder and the guy who thinks Hulk fucks She-Hulk.

i read some WB honcho quote where he said he loves putting money down on Zack Snyder, which is funny considering every movie he did between 300 and Man Of Steel lost WB money

xxp METAL MEN

what's great is that Marvel IS down their Metal Men...just for happy "everything's coming up roses" reasons

down to their Metal Men, i mean

i should make a correction, though. justice league has THREE characters from $200m+ grossing movies, though the third will also be portrayed by a new actor, as while Green Lantern made 200m globally it also cost 200m pre-advertising.

what's great is that Marvel IS down their Metal Men...just for happy "everything's coming up roses" reasons

― da croupier, Friday, June 13, 2014

lest we forget...

Announced in November, the unprecedented 60-episode deal with Netflix calls for four 13-episode solo series featuring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, followed by a Defenders miniseries.

btw i totally hope this will be awesome

the guy who thinks Hulk fucks She-Hulk.

The thing I don't get is that David Goyer has actually written some pretty decent superhero comics (with James Robinson), plus his whole filmwriting career is based on superhero movies, so him being so disdainful of the genre sounds kinda weird and hypocritical.

maybe less disdainful of the genre than cynical abt its audience, a fine line

xxp METAL MEN

― Disagree. And im not into firey solos chief. (Phil D.), Friday, June 13, 2014 6:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't care about any of these forthcoming DC releases, but a CGI Metal Men film by the people who made The Incredibles would be the best thing ever (also, I had no idea it's nearly 10 YEARS since The Incredibles was released, that's horrifying)

worst part about all this is all these movies are gonna be GRITTY AS FUCK GRITFESTS OF GRIT cause WB thinks that's the only way these things can work now

just cast david eckstein as everyone

some unintentionally hilarious/tragic pondering at the end of this

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Kevin-Smith-Confirms-Warner-Bros-DC-Stage-I-Line-Up-Accurate-43489.html

More outlandishly, I'd like to think that Warner Bros is keeping Kevin Smith in the information pool not only because of his ability to drum up fan interest, but also because they'll eventually want to offer him the chance to direct a DC Comics film. Think about it: Zack Snyder is the DC equivalent of Jon Favreau, the man who kickstarts everything and lays down a solid couple of films for the rest to take off from. Kevin Smith is the Joss Whedon of DC, the man with the knowledge and the passion to take the groundwork and push it to the next level, weaving everything into one gigantic arc of awesome. Bringing Smith into the fold, even if it was just for a movie or two, would benefit Warner Bros/DC, and would almost guarantee box office and fan credibility. It's the type of shot to the arm the DC cinematic continuum needs, and it's not too out of the realm of possibility. Unless Kevin Smith has progressed to the point where he'd turn down the chance to direct Ben Affleck in a standalone Batman movie, in which case all this is for naught.

If the world can just make it to 2019...yes...maybe we'll see Kevin Smith's Batman starring Ben Affleck.

I have never been happier for the bubble I choose to live in than I am reading that paragraph, because things could be so much worse for me and I could be thinking things like that

lol @ the person assuming kevin smith has the ability to deliver like that on any level

lol @ kevin smith

lost me at "Think about it:"

Zach Snyder and solid films

guy jacking off to a crayon drawing of kevin smith dressed as batman

if i were a crotchety conservative intellectual writing an allen-bloom-style book abt critical decadence i'd call it one gigantic arc of awesome

Kevin Smith is the Joss Whedon of DC

first i was like lol but the more i think abt it the more otm this is tho maybe not for the reasons the author had in mind

I don't see any other point in the comparison except that they've both written supehero comics? Other than that, their directing styles and careers are totally different... Smith is like the least visually-oriented director there is, whereas Whedon can at least handle that bit (which should be pretty essential for a superhero director) competently. And all the actual Smith comics that I've read have been totally meh, whereas Whedon's X-Men was pretty good. I still like Smith's early movies, but what he's good at is so different than what is required of these movies.

They are both fond of smarty-pants pop culture referencing dialogue I guess.

Tuomas, that's the joke. Smith is terrible and so is DC/Warner.

they should both be smothered with a pair of jorts

Also, hasn't Smith recently proved unable to even finish the minseries he writes? If you can't do one or two 23-page comic scripts, I'm not sure you can handle the pressure of managing some vast multimillion-dollar movie which relies for its success on several iffy-looking films beforehand and which has to lead into other iff-looking films beingh made at the same time.

the rumor is DC wants Affleck to wear the cowl and the puffy director pants in 2019

OK I caught the first 30 min of Man of Steel last night, it's pretty fucking bad. The stuff on Krypton looked like some Timelords dropped in on Attack of the Clones. I can't speak for the rest of it but it doesn't strike me as something to build a bunch of other stuff around.

Its more like a shitpile that you add shit to

Other than that, their directing styles and careers are totally different... Smith is like the least visually-oriented director there is,

yeah, i was gonna say... referring to smith's "directing style" is... an oxymoron.

Never forget:

http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/media/2013/December/weiners/phallic-manofsteel.jpg

That was amazing.

I clapped and cheered at that moment in the theater. Highlight of the entire dumbass movie for sure.

My favourite moment in MoS was when Helo and Gaeta from Battlestar Galactica appeared briefly, and in the same scene too! That must've been intentional, right?

TBH though, I thought the movie was perfectly okay. Okay script, okay diresting, okay actors... It was never really great, but never as cringeworthy as it might've been. Even the controversial kill scene was, while still stupid and pointless, kinda less controversial than I thought, because it felt like this was the thing that made Supes establish his "no killing" code. (It helped to sell the scene that Zod clearly wanted to commit suicide by cop, while still screwing with Kal's head for one last time.)

I tried to watch Man of Steel the other night but jfc the beginning is horrible

may need to get drunk for this one

The idea of supes getting into "no killing" after snapping Zod fits with the rumor that the new movie involves batman and aquaman being pissed off about the destruction on land and in the ocean during man of steel. Maybe this superman just starts off as a Nebraskan asshole with daddy issues who only becomes America's top Boy Scout after he finds better role models than pa kent?

the beginning was the only part i liked tbh!

it was kooky

it would be interesting if the new one was all about the consequences of the climactic action scene of the first one, has any series ever responded to its critics quite like that

Though man it will be nuts if in the middle of a movie that introduces a new batman they also have to establish the existence of Atlantis and Amazons.

Maybe they'll have different origin stories, though.

"Hey, superman, I'm batman. Veteran superhero, not dead but not Joseph Gordon-levitt. Decimating metropolis was fucked up!"

"Yes, and you also made a mess of things in my undersea kingdom!"

idk the beginning had so much superfluous flying around & "omg stuff!" it felt like a fking Lego Bionicle movie or some shit

I just love that Jor-El had a trusty dragon.

yes and a robot friend

IIRC the robot friend, plus a lot of the other Krypton elements, came from John Byrne's 1980s reboot of the comic (which was also titles The Man of Steel). In fact most of the movie's plot points were taken either from Byrne's Superman, J. Michael Straczynski's Earth One, or Mark Waid's Birthright. Even Superman killing Zod happened in the comics, and it was actually harsher there: he executed Zod and the other Phantom Zone criminals with Kryptonite... Though in the comics it was at least made clear that Superman felt he had no other choice (since those guys were mass murderers, and they'd proven that no prison could hold them), and killing them resulted in a major moral crisis, which made Supes leave Earth and wander aimlessly in space.

between his "i'm from nebraska!" bit at the end, and the fact that he didn't give a fuck when skyscrapers fell but got murderous when zod was endangering a single family of obvious tourists, maybe they'll have reporter clark kent be ostracized from his peers for being an anti-urbanite republican prude rather than a klutz

jesus forgot smallville was in kansas

i mean superman straight up says terrorists can't be from kansas, already sounds like a fox & friends guest

http://www.dragon-zoo.com/images/News_Pics/superman_dragon_cover.jpg

wait, that superman movie has a trusty dragon and robot friend? Somebody should have told me this earlier.

I don't remember either of those things being in it.

It was better than Bryan Singer's 'Superman lifts objects of increasing weight' at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-EdLrzZutE

in which jor-el, standing with robot friend during laser battle, calls for trusty dragon to rescue them

tbf, i did forget about the underwater lair where babies grow on seaweed

geez there are other colors besides teal and orange aren't there

yeah it's funny that this dismally colored land of lasers, dragons and seaweed babies would bring us SUPERMAN

but yeah, to be clear, i did prefer this mess to "SUPERMAN VS HEAVY THINGS: DAWN OF CHILD SUPPORT"

i always say superman ii is my favorite but it's hard to be objective when you saw the first four before the age of 10

but yeah, to be clear, i did prefer this mess to "SUPERMAN VS HEAVY THINGS: DAWN OF CHILD SUPPORT"

high praise

yeah tbf i was loling at myself for preferring Marlon Brando In An Ice Palace

like when mark waid wrote that SUPERMAN DOES NOT KILL HE'S A SWELL GUY article as if last time superman didn't throw Zod down a pit after pulling the ol' de-powering switcheroo...before picking a payback fight down at a diner.

In fairness to him...

But after I processed all that, I realized that it wasn’t so much my uncompromising vision of Superman that made this a total-fail moment for me; it was the failed lead-up TO the moment. As Superman’s having his final one-on-one battle with Zod, show me that he’s going out of his way to save people from getting caught in the middle. SHOW ME that trying to simultaneously protect humans and beat Zod is achingly, achingly costing Superman the fight. Build to that moment of the hard choice…show me, without doubt, that Superman has no other out and do a better job of convincing me that it’s a hard decision to make, and maybe I’ll give it to you. But even if I do? It’s not a victory. Not this sad, soul-darkening, utterly sans-catharsis “triumph” that doesn’t even feel like a win so much as a stop-loss. Two and a half hours, and I never once got the sense that Superman really achieved or earned anything.

yeah no it was a good piece and i was being reductive, just noting how hard it is to really have perspective on a reboot in comparison to the original

Simple fact: If you can't top the perfection of Ornery, Drunken Supes in Superman III, you shouldn't be making a Superman film.

IIRC Waid wasn't comparing MoS to the earlier Superman movies but to Superman comics, particularly the one he wrote that the movie was partly inspired by, so in that sense I think he does have some perspective. I'm sure many comic fans were disappointed too when Supes killed Zod back in the day in Superman II, since the no-kill code has been such a big part of his persona, it's just that in the pre-internet era the fans' voices weren't heard like the are today.

(xpost)

"like they are today"

I'm sure many comic fans were disappointed too when Supes killed Zod back in the day in Superman II

I think the manner of death is also important - in II he's just thrown into a crack in the ice (entirely within the realm of survivable fates in comicbook-land). which is fundamentally qualitatively different from Superman snapping his neck imo.

in 2 i remember the kill-choice to be pretty agonizing and affecting... tho that could have been my younger more sensitive self.

mark waid otm about everything else.

lois kills ursa for unambiguous lols though

Lois isn't a being of unimaginable power, she's just a regular ol human, lower standards etc

women, amiright

unless they drove a money truck to Chris Nolan's house to make The Dark Knight Is Sorry

slept on pullquote imo

hee hee hee

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2014/07/03/henry-cavill-batman-superman-movie-first-look/11310229/

When developing Man of Steel, Snyder didn't harbor dreams of one day putting Batman on screen, too — he figured he'd one day tackle an adaptation of Frank Miller's seminal 1980s masterpiece The Dark Knight Returns, which pits a retired Batman against government agent Superman.

It ultimately made sense with Dawn of Justice to add Bruce Wayne and his cowled alter ego to the mix. Because of Christopher Nolan's recent Dark Knight trilogy, "I was in no rush to put Batman in the movie," Snyder says, "but on the other hand it seemed organic the way our story was unfolding to start to feather him in."

Instead of using several movies to define Affleck's Batman, Snyder felt the character's 75-year mythology is so deep in culture now that they can just jump to an older, road-weary take on the Dark Knight. Plus, he says, "it's cooler to see a crusty old Batman beating the snot out of guys."

The director can't say exactly how the relationship between the two superheroes evolves, "but suffice it to say there is a 'v' in between their names" in the movie title, Snyder says. He explains that having the "v" instead of "vs." is a way "to keep it from being a straight 'versus' movie, even in the most subtle way."

forgot cyborg is going to be in this too

wait, so there's Wonder Woman and Cyborg? who else?

The most recent Justice League debuted with:

Supes
Bats
Wonder Woman
Aquaman
Cyborg
Flash
Green Lantern

so my guess is some subset of those characters, if not all of them (already have 4 out of 7)

The director can't say exactly how the relationship between the two superheroes evolves, "but suffice it to say there is a 'v' in between their names" in the movie title, Snyder says. He explains that having the "v" instead of "vs." is a way "to keep it from being a straight 'versus' movie, even in the most subtle way."

Kubrickian attention to detail here

xp but how many origin stories can they cram into one movie? I assumed Batman and Wonder Woman were enough...

well, the article linked above does say that they're not bothering with doing an origin story for Batman, so maybe they won't do any origin stories?

I've never looked forward to a Zach Snyder movie before. It's a peculiar sensation.

Based on the Zach Snyder movies I've seen, I really can't imagine him making a movie I would like. I'm interested in several aspects of this movie, but have no desire to actually watch it.

I think I'm intrigued by the notion of a guy who's making a movie where they've shoehorned batman in so egregiously can say something like "it seemed organic the way our story was unfolding to start to feather him in."

If Snyder makes a movie where Batman and Atlanteans and Amazons are just THERE with no backstory...

Oh god I can't wait

"Meanwhile, under the sea..."

Man I hope the first visit to Atlantis they're all just singing Little Mermaid songs.

like, what if there hadn't been a thor movie or a cap movie and then in the avengers they just had nick fury say "and behind this door is a guy who's been asleep for fifty years" and a MEANWHILE IN ASGARD

were they so burnt by green lantern that they don't realize they're basically letting zack snyder make watchmen again only with the real heroes

to be entirely fair to this movie, which will be bad no matter what, it does make at least some kind of sense to say that you can do without an origin story for Batman, I wish to god they would stop remaking origin stories for some of these guys. With Spider-Man it was just insulting: just change the actor and do another movie, call it "Spider-Man Versus The Lizard" and let us get on with our lives. If they actually cast some old grumpy asshole as Batman (Bruce Willis... Clint Eastwood.... you know) then the Dark Knight Returns fight with Superman could be awesome. That won't happen of course, and it will be terrible. I am not deluded about this.

let's be honest, we're all just marking time til

Xmas 2017 – Flash and Green Lantern team-up

xpost testify. either of those guys as miller DK would have ruled. clint probably closer to the miller vision but willis gives good pathos.

I also wish Spidey had just treated Andrew Garfield like a Roger Moore and agree there's no need for an origin story re: batman, who's equitable in the Avengers to the Hulk - a known character with a new actor. It's the new-to-movies characters from magical continents I can't believe DC is just gonna wedge in this thing.

the dude who played Khal Drogo has supposedly been cast as Aquaman fwiw

But everyone has seen the Superfriends, the only character that really needs explanation for a comics-illiterate audience is Cyborg

even if we accept that everybody knows the superfriends, and that america will be fine with batman v superman being interrupted by the king of the sea and the queen of the amazons, it's a hell of a risk to assume that america will LOVE all the characters enough based on this movie to want to see three spin-offs the following year.

and it's not like marvel/fox/sony are going to politely sit on their hands while DC goes justice league happy

No Gleek origin story? NOT CANON.

jesus, currently captain america 3, batman v superman and x-men apocalypse are ALL scheduled for May 2016

I read that as Jesus was scheduled for then too. Which one will he see first?

so if the dc slate is legit

2016
==
may - cap 3, batman v superman, x-men apocalypse
june - amazing spider man 3
july - unnamed marvel movie (likely Dr Strange), Shazam
dec - sandman

2017
==
March - Wolverine 3
May - Justice League, another marvel sequel
July - Wonder Woman, Fantastic Four 2
August - Whatever fresh madness comes after Ant-Man and Dr Strange for Marvel
Dec - Flash and Green Lantern's Bogus Journey

2018
==
May - Man Of Steel 2, another marvel sequel

and this is just the superhero shit, there's also multiple star wars and countless other sequels floating around

Jesus vs. Wolverine green-lit for 2018. "I'm the blessed there is at what I do."

there's also the new Fantastic Four as well as Sinister Six, Venom, and more Spider-Man

and if there's one thing comics have taught us it's that market saturation cannot possibly backfire

What's the movie equivalent of foil-stamped covers?

The kevin smith stamp of approval

Sinister Six movie really gonna happen?

well Drew Goddard was announced as the director and he seemingly left the Daredevil TV show to work on it

What's the movie equivalent of foil-stamped covers?

Retrofitted 3D?

lol

http://www.movieweb.com/news/fake-batman-v-superman-script-written-and-leaked-by-kevin-smith

We just received an interesting tip from an anonymous source deep within the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice production. This comes just moments after we posted a story about the introduction of three new, lesser-known heroes in the movie. Badass Digest has gotten their hands on a pdf that claims to be the legitimate shooting script, and in it, there are a number of new secondary characters and locations. This came hot on the heels of Latino Review claiming four new villains were going to appear alongside Lex Luthor. Well, guess what? If we're to believe the email we just got our hands on, not only is the script fake...It was written by Kevin Smith!

He explains that having the "v" instead of "vs." is a way "to keep it from being a straight 'versus' movie, even in the most subtle way.

so subtle it's literally just a legal drama and batman and superman are now lawyers

http://static.tvgcdn.net/MediaBin/Galleries/Shows/G_L/Ha_Hh/HarveyBirdman_AttorneyAtLaw/crops/HarveyBirdman3.jpg

Yeah, I liked Sean O'neal's take:

And he discussed how he originally had no intention of introducing Batman to Superman’s world so soon, believing he’d one day get around to that by making an adaptation of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. “But on the other hand it seemed organic the way our story was unfolding to start to feather him in,” Snyder said, of this very natural progression to jumpstart a comic-book movie universe to compete with Marvel’s as soon as possible.

otm tho rilly it's not like warner/dc's competing with marvel for anything but style points and I guess maybe "not looking like complete idiots"

real losers are producers shopping big budget non-comic projects, as there are now even fewer prime release slots. so much for Hudson Hawk II...

Good enough place to post this long Chris Sims piece about DC's "Marvel problem." I missed it when he published it at Comics Alliance last year but Business Insider ran it last week. DC's identity problems extend to the films as well, imo.

http://www.businessinsider.com/dc-copies-marvel-2014-6

Great article.

Entertaining read for sure. Boy, does he hate Bob Kane!

The shoutout to the Conan issue of What-If (unquestionably its high point) made me smile.

Is the one where Wolverine somehow ends up in that time period?

There's some anti-Kane, pro-Finger sentiment brewing these days because Kane is apparently going to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame or whatever it's called. Mark Evanier's been blogging it up a bit lately.

xxp

Here's Chris Sims on why he dislikes Bob Kane:

http://comicsalliance.com/ask-chris-164-bob-kane-is-just-the-worst/

It's a lot like if Stan Lee not only took all the credit for Marvel superheroes, but denied that Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, or Steve Ditko ever existed.

That gravestone is pretty unbelievable

It looks like Conan was a popular subject for what-if. There are 4 issues apparently. One I remember has him becoming a pimp and walking a leopard on a leash (referenced in the article), which must be WI#13 from 1979. Then there's this one http://www.comicvine.com/what-if-what-if-conan-the-barbarian-were-stranded-in-the-20th-century/4000-23995/ from 1985 with a sick bill sienkiewicz cover that has him on the verge of joining the avengers at the end. I also remember one where he becomes buddies with Thor (who dies) and the final panel is Conan climbing up a mountain with Mjolnir. The Wolverine one is from the later relaunch of What If in the 90s.

(xpost)

ahh i see

good piece

as an outsider it feels like there's a lot of narrativizing and that he also really just doesn't like DC despite his constant assurances otherwise but still good piece thanks for posting

He also loves Batman more than anything

we all say things to make batman feel better, don't have to mean them

okay that tombstone

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--00NL7eOa--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/19dfys1yex2wxjpg.jpg

Sims piece is pretty good at explaining DC's current actions/predicament (not that they were really that difficult to grasp to begin with). I think it conveniently elides some basic facts in the service of maintaining the overall argument about the companies narratives though - for one thing, it's weird to act like these corporations, the ownership and direction of which has shifted multiple times over the decades, during which huge swathes of their respective creative departments switched back and forth, have any kind of inherent, coherent behavior patterns. These are not distinct individuals. They are constantly shifting conglomerates that have continuously tried to adapt to market pressures. They don't have a philosophy beyond making money. I know that in this glorious day and age corporations are people too, my friend, but talking about Marvel and DC like they're a couple of neurotic siblings is not really reflective of reality.

Also, it seems one-sided in its assessment of DC's chasing Marvel's trends. Marvel has ripped off plenty of shit from DC over the years, for the same reasons DC ripped off Marvel - they saw the other making money and tried to copy it. Thanos/Cosmic Cube/Capt Marvel saga are a pretty blatant rip of Kirby's Fourth World. Man-Thing and Swamp Thing. Marvel's alternate universes (Ultimate etc.) and DC's Earth-2, Earth-Prime, Earth-C whatever. It's all a rich tapestry of opportunism. Where there's some divergence (at least afaik) is that occasionally DC has gone out on a limb and succeeded and Marvel didn't even bother to try to compete - thinking primarily of DC's Vertigo imprint and their importation of the Brit troika of Moore/Gaiman/Morrison (if Marvel made some corresponding moves to capture the college-girl market the way Sandman did I'm not aware of it).

I look forward to sic correcting whatever factual errors I may have made with this post and defer to his voluminous knowledge of publication/comics history but Sims' piece oversimplifies this stuff imo.

Plus we are getting into Ouroboros territory, as Marvel are about to have their own Crisis and merge the Ultimate universe with Earth-616.

haha waht

wait what? explain that!
I was gonna say, the Ultimate universe was sort of different take on DC's Crisis. The original idea - that the original universe is too complicated for new readers - was used, but they didn't kill off the original stories and then ran parallel. They were pretty dedicated to the idea that the universes would never crossover for a long time (until they did the Mile Morales/Peter Parker thing). They even teased it as a joke for Marvel Zombies and UFF.

Marvel has generally preferred gradual line changes rather than big event reboots. But as the Ultimate Universe started getting 5, 10 years on, it became just as screwed up as the 616. I haven't kept up in a long time, but my impression was that the Ultimate universe was rebooted post-Ultimatum when they killed off like 90% of the characters?

I just wish they would abandon the idea of continuity altogether. it's so fucking stupid and unworkable.

it might be kind of *more* workable in film where there's less product but it just seems so constricting. much prefer the near-nonsensical Silver Age DC approach - just make up whatever you want/use whatever you want and shoehorn in some ridiculous explanation if it serves the story, otherwise who cares.

They abandon whatever they feel like when it's convenient. (Peter and MJ married? Haw!) I wouldn't want them to abandon the idea altogether. I was rereading Age of Ultron last night and its callbacks to early Avengers and Pym history are its big strength.

xp -- we're definitely going to have to agree to disagree, Otis.

that the original universe is too complicated for new readers

also I think this gets at something that really bothers me about continuity - it's only too complicated because you end up with situations where you've got characters that have been used for 50+ years and you set them as if they have all this history/exist in the real world and yet they don't age in real-time (or they do when it's convenient? how old is Kitty Pryde now anyway?) I get the feeling this would not have been a problem with someone like Kirby at the helm because he would just create something, abandon it, and then move on to the next thing - but when you have companies that basically stopped creating flagship characters sometime in the 70s you just end up with all this baggage that requires such labyrythine explanation to even begin to make any sense it's just ... ugh.

xp

xp Right - the fact is that neither Marvel nor DC actually adhere to continuity anyway, and it's a really fun part of mainstream comics IMO. Even the early Ultimate stuff was pretty fun to have a unified universe, as they were trying to replicate the semi-realtime 60s Marvel era in spirit.

(Can't say I wasn't sad when they killed the Peter and MJ marriage though)

oh hell

I guess - I mean, one of the reasons I initially loved X-Men was BECAUSE it has such a crazy, labyrinthine universe! Even all the crazy crap they did in the Days of Future Past movie was a lot of fun.

uh oh we shitted up the Supes v Bats thread

You're right in that it would be nice if they gave up on tired old characters and passed the mantle on, as DC was doing prior to Crisis. I am really sick of Hal Jordan.

xp Ha, I forgot what thread this was for bit. I'll walk away

it's weird to act like these corporations, the ownership and direction of which has shifted multiple times over the decades, during which huge swathes of their respective creative departments switched back and forth, have any kind of inherent, coherent behavior patterns. These are not distinct individuals. They are constantly shifting conglomerates that have continuously tried to adapt to market pressures

No doubt it's strange, but both companies' success has been in large part by making the whole experience personal. Stan Lee, for whatever else he can be blamed for, was a master of this. I used to read letter columns and Stan's Soapbox religiously, felt like I knew Rascally Roy, was disappointed when Joltin' Jim Shooter left Marvel. Why, I ask myself- it's not like I knew what an Editor In Chief really did, or what business decisions were driving the creation or cancellation of any given title. But they were successful in selling that sense of personable familiarity. And the creators themselves, if they were memorable, were known and sought after, as any artist would be for a personal style, so it's easy for a longtime comics reader to continue to imbue a level of personal narrative continuity into the framework you've identified. (xxxposts)

uh oh we shitted up the Supes v Bats thread

whatever, it deserves it

You're right in that it would be nice if they gave up on tired old characters and passed the mantle on, as DC was doing prior to Crisis.

yeah I like Sims' stuff about the Legacy aspect of DC.

And yeah I get that both companies only defer to continuity when its convenient, really I'm fine with that. Maybe it's these giant, totally abritrary company-wide CONTINUITY EVENT things that put me off so much, because they inherently imply that everything in the company actually IS part of some continuity, and they're just an excuse to shuffle the properties around and make things even more complicated and stupid and to try out some new (usually terrible) ideas. And these things happen with an alarming regularity now. It's the companies' habitual cry for attention.

xxp

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/07/02/brian-bendis-teases-the-convergence-of-the-ultimate-and-616-universes-in-todays-ultimate-spider-man/

many xposts

I feel corporations do have patterns of behaviour regarding money-making strategies though, albeit rapidly evolving ones - I'd imagine there are certain standards and traditions which are expected to be upheld throughout various changes in management. In a similar way that a sports team will maintain a recognisable identity despite having barely any of the same personnel as even twenty years ago.

xp oh shit i saw that and went "huh i wonder where that's going" but couldn't have fathomed a Crisis maneuver

you mean like the traditions of ripping off your creative staffs, or being almost exclusively white and male (ok now I'm really derailing...)

xp

Well those ones go without saying.

time-honored

thx aldo

ChinButtBatFleck

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--GdxX-DeA--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/bajwd1lhgmw3ap722vly.jpg

the part catching the light looks like the pope mooning someone

is he taking a batnap

http://31.media.tumblr.com/318f93b810e7d54ba53c17b11e5251ca/tumblr_ms151fXzu11qgjynlo1_500.gif

like a tiny velour bottom

I actually like the cowl design TBF, good ears.

looks uncomfortably snug to me. he's going to have terrible cowl hair when he takes it off.

Is the word 'cowl' used in any modern context apart from talking about Batman's hat?

yes - cowl sweaters, etc

rpgs

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/6/66303/3916854-3848948-cowl%2B01.jpg

dont have a cowl man

Cowl-man would be a good dis name

shout out to kingfish

Frowny brow cowl

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BtfLTo5IYAAnYfc.jpg

sigh... this film will have no colours outside of black, grey and brown, right?

ochre

is that supposed to be wonder woman?

starting to get a Destroy All Monsters vibe

should've just cast xena

or done a xena movie instead

So many people are overjoyed at this online that I wonder if they remember that Zach Snyder will be writing her

no he won't

He's not? Who's writing it then?

chris terrio, writer of argo.

Why in the fuck is Wonder Woman wielding a sword?

Pardon me, Wikipedia lists that in her cadre of known weapons. I've certainly never seen it before, though.

she's rocked the greek-style short sword on and off for years

also superman has never had a cape in the comics, that was invented by the 78 movie to hide the flying rig

DC actually went in and altered all the original cartoons and comics to make it consistent with the new becaped Supes (and to screw the creators out of their rights)

Also Clark Kent was originally part kangaroo

ha ha, i had to look up the cape thing to be sure you were joking (and google autocompleted the phrase so someone else has wondered too). reminded me of batman's purple gloves.

i was thinking the same thing, really can't put anything past DC

http://www.zedsjoesite.com/review/wwgrundy/wwdcd.jpg

Wonder-Gadot's heels are quite high, aren't they? How is she going to fight with swords in those?

the dc slate has de-wackied a bit. we don't go from 2 movies a year to 3 until 2018

http://www.deadline.com/2014/08/batman-v-superman-new-release-date-warner-bros-dc/#more-805905

Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice – 03/25/16
Untitled DC Film – 08/05/16
Untitled DC Film – 06/23/17
Untitled DC Film – 11/17/17
Untitled DC Film – 03/23/18
Untitled DC Film – 07/27/18
Untitled WB Event Film – 11/16/18
Untitled DC Film – 04/05/19
Untitled DC Film – 06/14/19
Untitled DC Film – 04/03/20
Untitled DC Film – 06/19/20
Untitled WB Event Film – 11/20/20

should be a poll imo

Hoping for "Wonder Woman Theme" - Daft Punk (ft. Karen O)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMg8WofpNcc

Hope they just put this in there.

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae231/13_illusions/Vampire%20Academy/fanmix/yourbodyisawonderland.png

nikki finke on why her old scoop doesn't match this one

Oh ye of little faith. Granted, the dates don’t exactly line up with what I reported on June 12th but nearly everyone agrees that the titles are still right: Batman v Superman, Shazam, Sandman, Justice League, Wonder Woman, Flash And Green Lantern (team-up), Man Of Steel 2 in that order. (There had been talk of a Metal Men and Suicide Squad movie but that project fell off the schedule I received back then.) It turned out that Warner Bros Pictures and DC Entertainment weren’t ready by Comic-Con to announce the future schedule. In the meantime, they’ve have had the benefit of learning Marvel’s future movie schedule.

Oh man, maybe Guardians' success means the Suicide Squad movie is back on. I ain't holding my breath that they'd be able to summon John Ostrander to any degree how Marvel got Jim Starlin's stuff on screen.

In the meantime, they’ve have had the benefit of learning Marvel’s future movie schedule.

Dying

I dunno; there's something about seeing their compressed schedule laid out like that and DC/WB straining so very hard to hotshot a connected movie universe that makes me wonder how it's not going to be spectacularly mediocre. There's a post on ComicsAlliance reminding me that Marvel Studios was able to set up their assembly line as it were because comic adaptions are all they do and they took years to build it. DC has like 18 months before its train starts coming in.

watched about the last half hour of man of steel on cable. that shit was laughably stupid. Emo supes destroying New York = do not want.

It's METROPOLIS, not New York

*folds arms, adjusts fedora*

kinda disappoints me a bit that this thread title doesn't begin "itt: wailing and gnashing of teeth..."

It's pretty dumb that Metropolis and New York exist in the DC universe

and Gotham I should add

That list of release dates reminds me of every list of arbitrary goalposts I've set for myself when I didn't have a firm plan of what I needed to do in order to reach those goals. Which is to say that WB's "plan" has the makings of an epic, glorious failure. Someone should secure the film rights now!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/Gnomes_plan.png

Curious what the window is for the abort button - I think amazing Spider-Man 3 got it within two years? Cuz like, if wb/dc had this back when they made watchmen and green lantern, it would have been pressed at least once already

I would think a team of villains forced into kamikaze missions under a team name with the word "suicide" in it might be a little rich for PG-13 (and I can't imagine they want to go back to the R-rated waters of Watchmen, which tanked). But then again one of the biggest franchises at the moment shares a plot with Battle Royale so who knows.

http://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/spandex-wars-2.jpg?w=605

i'd assume that loney 2020 from Marvel is Guardians 3, would love to know what two wishes DC has made for that year

Untitled Female Spiderverse

dir. Rob Pollard

c'mooon, Araña

Spider-Female? Spider-Broad?

Spider-Tits?

TS: Untitled Female Spiderverse vs Venom Carnage

I guess it'll be either the Jessica Drew Spider-Woman or the Black Cat? Can't think of any other major female superheroes in the Spider-verse. (I guess it could also be the second Spider-Woman, or one of the Spider-Girls, or Jackpot, but presumably they're all to obscure to be a star of a movie.)

There really hasn't been enough discussion here about Venom Carnage. Because, y'know, Sony is planning to release a movie called Venom Carnage. Venom Carnage.

I wonder if they have the rights to Jessica Drew. She isn't really connected to Spider-Man at all, despite the name.

Whatever the reasoning DC has for moving BvS, I like the fact that they choose to do it the week after GotG broke all those audience records. That just screams 'ok, we're screwed...'

I assume the name of the movie is actually "Venom/Carnage" or "Venom & Carnage", since they are two different characters? Still sounds pretty stupid though.

No, there was a press release or leak or something earlier this week and the title was written out exactly that way: Venom Carnage.

it's nice to know superhero films will go on after we're employed / have tenure / are dead

Sony's "ok guess we ran Spidey into the ground, let's put him on the backburner and make Enemies Of Spidey, Ladyfriend of Spidey and Two Guys Who Dress Like Spidey. Then people will be jazzed for Spidey."

i assume untitled fox superhero is channing tatum's gambit, assuming the world digs him saying "ma cher" and throwing playing cards in x-men apocalypse