Whatever tactic DC and Warner Bros. are employing to materialize whatever they’ve envisioned as a triumphant extended universe, it apparently isn’t working. The latest setback, Zack Snyder/Joss Whedon’s Justice League, failed to earn the critical and financial success needed by a superhero movie of that calibre to be considered a win, and the disappointment may still prove to be a misstep too significant for the franchise to regain its footing.
While the reason as to why the DCEU is stumbling so mightily to gather momentum remains a mystery, one of the comic book titan’s well-known fans has provided some insight into the studio’s struggles and how he’d handle directing a character like Batman.
During the latest episode of his podcast, Smith revealed that he agrees with Warner Bros.’ approach of “making movies that aren’t connected” and pleads with them to believe in their characters.
“I would do what [Warner Bros.] are doing right now, which is, let’s just start making movies that aren’t connected. Don’t worry about that universe, don’t worry about tying things together. They were masters at this sh-t. They mastered the comic book movie in the ’70s with Superman, in the late ’80s, early ’90s with Batman, they have the f-cking Dark Knight trilogy, they should be able to do this in their f-cking sleep.”
Smith also discussed upcoming DC projects, big budget superhero movies, and the importance of casting, saying that The Batman could be a $15 million dollar horror film.
“The notion of the Todd Phillips Joker movie is kind of interesting to me. Matt Reeves’ solo Batman movie is interesting to me. I don’t think they should just be making f-cking 200 million dollar f-cking Batman movies. They don’t need to. You can do a f-cking 15 million dollar cool horror version of that movie, sh-t, for even less. Arkham Asylum, if they were ever gonna do Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum, takes place in one f-cking location, man. Bunch of spooky rooms with the rogue’s gallery. Everybody’s f-cking in it.”
Continuing on, he explained:
“Unless you don’t overpay for talent, which you really don’t f-cking need to because a lot of people are in makeup and sh-t like that, you can cast that movie pretty simply and shoot that movie for like 15 million bucks.”
“If a Batman movie can make 800 [million] to a billion [dollars] and it does it on a 200 million dollar budget, it’s just more profit in a 15 million dollar film and something to talk about because it sounds like it could be an interesting project as well in smaller hands with a tighter vision. Different from, ‘Let’s just make it big and over the top!’ I think they need to pirouette. They need to f-cking pivot and do something different. The rumors are that Reeves is doing the Dark Knight detective, old version of Batman. That might be interesting as opposed to the same f-cking thing that we’ve seen over and over again.”
DC and Warner Bros.’ next attempt at success will be with us later this year when James Wan’s Aquaman is released. The Jason Momoa-led film is currently polishing up a few things in reshoots, and Arthur Curry himself posted a behind-the-scenes look at the production just yesterday on Instagram.
Apart from Aquaman, though, 2018 isn’t a busy year for the DCEU, and that’s a very good thing. Given that the film is said to have received either glowingly positive feedback or damning criticism during test screenings, the ambivalence is enough to give the studio, and fans, heart palpitations. If you ask me, they all could benefit from a break right now.
As for The Batman, it’s still incubating in the early stages of pre-production, but Matt Reeves says progress is being made and as soon as we hear more, we’ll be sure to let you know.
Published: Apr 11, 2018 08:12 pm