David Zaslav has said the age of four separate Batmans is over, as James Gunn and Peter Safran take control of DC Studios.
You’ve probably heard that James Gunn and Peter Safran, the newly-appointed heads of the rebranded DC Universe, have locked themselves away whilst they come up with a ten-year blueprint for the future of Warner Bros’ prize asset. As to what that looks like, we don’t yet know but according to the studio’s CEO, the Marvel method seems to be the direction things are heading in.
Speaking on RBC, Zaslav indicated that the duo have almost completed their decade-long roadmap and that when done, we can expect a lot of DC movies and shows.
He declared that “I think over the next few years, you’re going to see a lot of growth and opportunity around DC, there’s not going to be four Batmans. And so part of our strategy is drive the hell out of DC, which James and Peter are going to do. I think they’ve thrilled the fans. I think they’re going to thrill you over a period of time.”
Obviously that’s corporate-speak but the phrase ‘drive the hell out of DC’ will either satisfy or terrify you, depending on your proclivity for comic book films as opposed to grown-up adult drama. If the studio are hellbent on bombarding us with superhero fare, that is surely going to come at the expense of other types of films, especially given that Zaslav bemoans the ‘weak state of advertising’ in the same interview.
Also, it looks like the comic book universe will become more streamlined, much like its Marvel counterpart, with Zaslav saying ‘there’s not going to be four Batmans.’
Again, this may excite you if you love the homogenised Marvel style but if like me, you happen to think that The Batman and Joker are the two most interesting movies that DC has made, because they are so stylistically different, alarm bells may now be ringing. Still, it will be very interesting to see how it all plays out. James Gunn is a terrifically-talented producer and filmmaker and if nothing else, his attempts to match Marvel on its own turf should be intriguing to say the least.
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