New DCU boss James Gunn finds himself in hot water after dismantling much of the SnyderVerse and other supposed plans to resurrect Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel, not to mention Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman 3 — though admittedly, he didn’t have much to do with that beyond what damage the director had already caused the franchise with 1984. Still, all of us are probably wondering the same thing about Gunn these days: How far is he willing to push his luck when it comes to acclaimed flicks like The Batman? Well, it looks like we’re going to learn the answer to that question soon enough.
Speaking of The Batman, director Matt Reeves has recently discussed his inspirations for Cloverfield, and the ideation process might actually surprise you just as the internet gets into a heated debate over whether his take on the Caped Crusader was the best superhero movie of 2022. (Barring Mobius, of course.)
James Gunn himself isn’t exactly keeping away from controversy’s impetuous reach, deciding to address those Superman casting rumors headon. The answer isn’t going to sate you, per se, but it also won’t leave you hanging. Check out all of these developments in today’s sci-fi roundup.
Matt Reeves is meeting with James Gunn soon and the fate of Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight will be the topic of debate
The Batman is definitely among the DCU’s more successful debuts, giving us a unique cinematic take on the World’s Greatest Detective and taking his burnt-out story down a grimdark path. Such was the extent of the movie’s acclaim and box office mileage that Warner Bros. immediately greenlit a sequel, though the fate of that sequel is now shrouded in ambiguity thanks to James Gunn getting that promotion. In fact, all it took the internet to raise pitchforks against the Guardians of the Galaxy director was the knowledge that he is going to meet with Matt Reeves. Frankly, we don’t even blame them at this point.
This monster film helped inspire Cloverfield in more ways than one
Cloverfield is a truly remarkable example of renovating a genre and resorting as little as possible to its established tropes. But you might find it surprising to hear that the 2008 disaster flick, which is now a cult classic, took inspiration from the godfather of all monster movies, Godzilla. As ever, the greatest ideas seem to come together inside your head when you simply look at a problem from a different angle.
“The inception of the movie was to do Godzilla on the ground view point of view from somebody who had a handycam,” Matt Reeves, the award-winning director of the original Cloverfield, explained. “Because in the Godzilla movies, there’s always those big, wide shots of like crowds running. And the idea was, Oh, what if you saw the movie from that point of view down there on the street with one of those characters and today, or back when we did it, that camera, that person might have had a tiny camera like a handycam today you’d have on your phone?”
The numbers don’t lie: The Batman might be the best superhero movie of 2022, but not everyone agrees
Superhero cinema experienced a discernible downgrade in 2022, whether we’re talking about lackluster MCU flicks or their even worse DCU counterparts. In fact, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to suggest the genre as a whole might be a little inundated, so we should hardly find it surprising that the most distinctive title from 2022, which just so happens to be Matt Reeves’ The Batman, managed to top the Rotten Tomatoes list with a whopping 85% certified fresh rating.
This immediately opened a can of worms, of course, and got the online community into a heated debate, the kind where you’re bound to repeatedly lose one end of a sound argument from another’s utter nonsensical swill. We can say one thing for certain, though, and it’s that no one loves Morbius enough to defend it unironically. No, guys… for once, it’s not Morbin’ time.
Spider-Man: No Way Home director is working on a Star Wars Disney Plus show, and no one seems to care, least of all Star Wars fans themselves
2023 already got off to a great start for Star Wars fans thanks to The Bad Batch. What’s more, in just a few weeks, the third season of The Mandalorian is going to make its way to Disney’s streaming platform and give us a much-needed dose of Din Djarin the space bounty hunter and Baby Grogu, his Force-sensitive ward.
All of that is apparently enough for the majority of the fandom to completely overlook Skeleton Crew, which is an experimental television series being helmed by No Way Home director Jon Watts and starring Jude Law as its main lead. Those two names alone should be enough to give you at least a measure of hype, but Star Wars fans are finding it amusing that everyone seems to have forgotten about this standalone project altogether.
James Gunn addresses those Superman casting rumors once and for all
It seems that the Peacemaker showrunner and new DCU boss has had enough of your rumormongering over the past couple of weeks. Taking to Twitter to address those Man of Steel casting rumors, Gunn reminded everyone that he doesn’t like to cast actors in roles until he’s finished a script, and he is a long way from doing that when it comes to the Son of Krypton’s next outing on the big screens.
“My thoughts are no one has been cast as Superman yet,” he wrote. “Casting, as is almost always the case with me, will happen after the script is finished or close to finished, and it isn’t. We’ll announce a few things in not too long, but the casting of Superman won’t be one of them.”
Well, you heard the boss, folks. There’s going to be nothing for it but to wait and see if he’ll ever have a draft of that screenplay handy. As for those other announcements, they most definitely involve the DCU’s next line-up, and we expect Justice League characters to comprise a huge part of it.