DC Comics is celebrating their platinum anniversary by putting the kibosh on developing any new Superman movies. The reason is that the copyright to the character is returning into the hands of the creator’s estates and Warner Brothers (DC’s parent corp.) wants to avoid the legal wrangling that almost derailed the Watchmen film.
This means more Batman films in the immediate future, which I’m not mad with. The Batman franchise headed by crazy Christian Bale has been nothing but winners. My fingers remain crossed to see the aged Batman from The Dark Knight Returns find himself on the big screen. A number of other DC Comics properties are also being developed for films as the rumors go.
Bizarro Superman is supposed to be a comedy where we go to Bizarro Earth to find that Bizarro Superman is a hero there and not a villain. A live action Aquaman movie and Adam Strange are also being developed. Green Arrow, Shazam and Flash all reportedly have scripts that are completed. The best news for DC Comics though is that Warner Bros. has hired longtime writers Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman as consultants to expedite the film production.
Early next year we will get to see some of the classic DC characters in their small screen movie premiere. Smallville: Justice Society will feature Hawkman, Green Arrow, Stargirl and Dr. Fate. The preview pics look interesting enough for me to DVR these episodes. I’ve never been a big fan of Superman, but when you mix that character with the justice League or even just Batman and Wonder Woman it starts to make more sense to me.
DC Comics animation division has been on-point from the word go. Now their live-action film division has got to step their game up or get buried by the oncoming Marvel/Disney juggernaut. DC has the characters to get back in the game, but the question remains as to whether or not they have the game plan.
