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Posted by Bob Muir on Apr 15, 2015 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Wonder Woman, part of DC’s fledgling film universe, was set for a 2017 release. Not only would it have been the first female superhero movie, but it would have had a female director, Michelle MacLaren. Now I wouldn’t say the movie is in trouble, but MacLaren just left the project due to creative differences. This happens all the time in Hollywood, and it could be for a variety of reasons, from clashing with executives over franchise continuity (see: Edgar Wright and Ant-Man) to disagreeing over creative vision (perhaps with producer Zack Snyder, who is establishing Wonder Woman in Batman v. Superman). There’s no word on whether this will delay the movie, but regardless, it still has a good chance of beating Captain Marvel, due out in 2018. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Warner Brothers, Wonder Woman
Posted by Ben Huber on Apr 11, 2015 in Cinema, Comic Books 
…and one DC Comics Joker tease. For some reason, all the superhero movie marketing teams decided to release their promotional images of new outfits this week. Here’s a list of what showed up: a clear upper-body shot of Vision, the final Daredevil costume, Yellowjacket from Ant-Man, concept art for Angel in X-Men Apocalypse, and a quick tease of Jared Leto’s Joker. Let’s jump in, shall we? Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Marvel
Posted by Bob Muir on Apr 1, 2015 in Comic Books, Television 
Hey CW, I get the impression that you’re still feeling out where your Arrow/Flash spin-off is going to go, since it will have a bunch of superheroes in it. But can you give us a name to use other than “that Arrow/Flash spin-off with all the other superheroes”? Ah well, let’s talk about the new heroes added to the show. Ciara Renée has been cast as Hawkgirl, who learns that she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior who grows wings when she manifests her powers. In addition, Arthur Darvill (Rory on Doctor Who) has been cast as another time-traveller, Rip Hunter, who’s a bit more obscure. This all sounds good, but as I said before, we just need to know what this spin-off actually is! Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Flash, Green Arrow
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 31, 2015 in Animation, Cinema, Comic Books 
While Batman is much more popular these days as a dark, gritty superhero, fans have slowly become more accepting of the classic 60s TV series. The recent resurgence last year — including a DVD/Blu-ray release — has raised interest, and in addition to comics, there will be a movie based on the campy universe. Adam West (Batman) made the announcement at Mad Monster Party, revealing that he and Burt Ward (Robin) would be voicing their characters in a feature-length animated movie. It’s due out for the TV series’s 50th anniversary in 2016, likely direct-to-video, making this the much more interesting of two Batman movies that year. Sorry, Batman v. Superman, but after Man of Steel, I’d rather concentrate my excitement on this strong counterpoint to the Batman mythos. Read more…
Tags: Adam West, Batman, DC Comics, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 11, 2015 in Comic Books, Television 
It seems a bit spoilery to me, but the CW put out a promo for upcoming villains on The Flash. You’ve got your Weather Wizard, your Golden Glider, your time travel, all good stuff — but forget those guys. As mentioned a few months ago, Mark Hamill is returning to play an older version of the Trickster in an episode featuring a new copycat Trickster. Hamill previously played the role in the 1990 TV show The Flash, and while that show isn’t canon to 2014 The Flash series, get this: they’re using pictures of Hamill in that crazy outfit to reference this older Trickster’s criminal past. I love meta references like that! I wonder if he’ll have any scenes with John Wesley Shipp or Amanda Pays, who were on both TV series as well? Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Flash
Posted by Ben Huber on Mar 9, 2015 in Television 
The pilot episode for Supergirl is now in production at CBS, pushed forward by the success of The Flash and Arrow. Finally! Here’s the first look at the costume, and… it looks like Supergirl! Nothing too scandalous, nothing too unique. Simple, safe, and pretty faithful to the original design. The colors are muted a bit more than I would prefer, but everything has to be darker and grittier these days, right? Still, it fits within the universe CBS has created for the Flash and Green Arrow, so expect plenty of crossovers. Melissa Benoist will play Supergirl. Hopefully we’ll see this pilot get picked up! Read more…
Tags: CBS, DC Comics, Supergirl
Posted by Bob Muir on Feb 10, 2015 in Comic Books, Television 
Superhero or superhero-esque stories are very popular right now, and in the last two years, we’ve seen a bunch of shows start airing on network TV, of all things. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, and Gotham may not be pulling in the usual network TV ratings, but they’re succeeding in their intended demographic and keeping pace with the CW’s Arrow and Flash. But NBC’s Constantine is not doing so hot, partially because of what they’re allowed to get away with on network TV, and partially because Friday night is a horrible night for new TV. As the future of the show is uncertain, a rumor has surfaced that NBC may move it to another one of its networks: SyFy. Read more…
Tags: Constantine, DC Comics, NBC
Posted by Bob Muir on Jan 13, 2015 in Comic Books, Television 
Unlike the shaky future of DC’s shared movie universe, DC’s shared TV universe is doing great. Arrow is getting a fourth season, while Flash is getting a second. But that’s not enough, because at least one more spin-off is coming, with the possibility of another in the wings. First is Vixen, an animated series to be streamed on CW Seed. Vixen was intended to be DC’s first African female superhero with her own comic series, but after that was aborted, she showed up later, becoming a member of the Justice League and Suicide Squad. Meanwhile, Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer, a.k.a. the Atom may see his own show, which seemed obvious once he appeared in Arrow‘s third season. Nothing is confirmed yet, but Arrow execs and WB’s president have a “general concept,” as long as there isn’t “audience fatigue.” I’m just happy to see that Routh isn’t on Hollywood’s crap-list like he was after Superman Returns. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Green Arrow, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 9, 2014 in Comic Books, Television 
I love in-jokey meta references in TV series, and The Flash has a cool one coming up. Not content to cast John Wesley Snipp, the star of the 1990 one-season live-action adaptation Flash, as the father to the new show’s Flash, the producers are bringing back Mark Hamill as James Jesse, the Trickster. Hamill played the character in a Joker-like fashion, and ended up voicing the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. But in this series, the Trickster is an “anarchist terrorist con man” in jail for life; he ends up helping the Flash to stop the attacks of a Trickster copycat, a possible reference to the second Trickster from the original comics. I have a feeling Mark Hamill will play this version much straighter, but I’d love if they snuck in a glimpse of that comical clashing costume from the old series. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Flash
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 3, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Can we admit that despite WB’s questionable direction of their DC Cinematic Universe, the Suicide Squad movie actually sounds good? WB just put out a press release announcing the stars of the film, and it is a very solid cast. We’ve got: Jared Leto as the Joker, Will Smith as Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney is Boomerang, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, and Tom Hardy as Rick Flagg. They haven’t picked their actress for Amanda Waller yet, but rumor says that Oprah Winfrey is their top pick, with Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer also being considered. With Fury‘s David Ayer writing and directing, Suicide Squad may survive having Man of Steel‘s Zack Snyder as its producer. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Suicide Squad, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Nov 25, 2014 in Comic Books 
One of the reasons many comic fans have been hoping for a female-led superhero movie (at least one in the modern mold) is that it would offer a different perspective and outlook than the many male-led superhero movies that have come before, to give more variety to the stories told. One way to improve the chances of Wonder Woman expressing that is to hire a female director, and Warner Brothers seems to have made a great choice. Michelle MacLaren, known for directing episodes of such great TV series as Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead, has signed on to develop and direct the film. (Charles Roven, Zack Snyder, and Deborah Snyder will produce.) I feel that Snyder is one of the weakest links DC keeps using, so hopefully with MacLaren directing, we’ll get something better than Man of Steel. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Warner Brothers, Wonder Woman
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 16, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Well, at least WB and DC are getting serious about competing with Disney and Marvel. WB has confirmed all the upcoming pieces of their shared superhero universe that started with Man of Steel in 2013. 2016 will see two movies: the already-known Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice (directed by Zack Snyder), and then a Suicide Squad movie (directed by David Ayer) about a team of villains who do dangerous work for the government. Then, 2017 will see a stand-alone Wonder Woman movie (starring Gal Gadot, who will be introduced in BVS:DoJ) followed by the inevitable Justice League movie (which will see all the heroes team up). But the schedule doesn’t stop there. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Warner Brothers
Posted by Ben Huber on Oct 3, 2014 in Comic Books, Videogames 
I’m not sure why, but the latest playable character announced for LEGO Batman 3 is Kevin Smith. Yes, that Kevin Smith, of Clerks fame. The guy who named his daughter after Harley Quinn — didn’t you know? This is an interesting choice for a playable character in a Batman game, but I guess once you’ve used up all the expected Batman and DC characters it’s time to start dipping into the surrounding pop culture pool. You want to know who else is joining Smith as a playable character? DC Entertainment chief creative officer Geoff Johns. Ok, that makes a bit more sense. More info will debut about the game at New York Comic-con. Read more…
Tags: Batman, DC Comics, Kevin Smith, Lego
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 2, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Now that DC has sorted out their animated movie universe to be more in line with The New 52 comic initiative they’ve had going on, it’s time for more New 52 adaptations! Justice League: Throne of Atlantis is the sequel to Justice League: War from earlier this year, the movie that basically adapted the origin of the new Justice League in The New 52. Aquaman is going through his own origin in this movie, as he didn’t appear in the previous one. It seems they’re going with the more “bad-ass” version of Aquaman from recent years instead of the joke everyone remembers from the Super Friends. Good on ’em, but I still can’t stand the bright orange and green outfit. (It clashes!) No date on the movie yet, but the release date shouldn’t be far off. Read more…
Tags: Aquaman, DC Comics, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Sep 17, 2014 in Comic Books, Television 
It seems that Gotham won’t be the only DC comic adaptation on Fox. Californication creator/executive producer Tom Kapinos is working with Warner Bros. TV to adapt Lucifer for Fox, which has given it a put pilot commitment. Though from DC Comics, the character Lucifer mainly appeared in its older Vertigo imprint, first appearing in The Sandman as a supporting character. Later, in the 00s, DC put out Lucifer, the character’s own series in which he opens a piano bar in LA after becoming bored of ruling Hell, which is likely what this series will be based on. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Lucifer, sandman, Vertigo, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Aug 20, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Following a long period of hinting, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has confirmed that he will be starring in DC and WB’s Shazam movie. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s playing Shazam, previously known as Captain Marvel before copyright issues screwed things up. Apparently, though he’s signed on for the movie, he has yet to decide whether he wants to play the hero Shazam or the villain Black Adam. While I bet WB would like him to play Shazam and build a franchise around the star, The Rock says he’s always liked anti-heroes, with Black Adam being one of his favorite DC characters. While I’m sure he’d make a good Shazam, I have a feeling he’d make a better Black Adam, since he’s got the looks to match the character. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Shazam, Warner Brothers
Posted by Ben Huber on Aug 8, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Warner Bros. saw that massive list of Marvel films and said, “Hey! We can totally do that too! Yeah!” and released a bunch of dates for their upcoming slate of DC Comics films. Yes, they have announced nine new films and dates, but no titles. It’s kind of close to Nikki Finke’s supposed leaked list from a few months earlier, but with a few more items. Also of note, Warner moved up Batman v Superman from May 6 to… March 25, 2016! Yes, they moved it up to an unusual March date to avoid directly competing with Captain America 3. Crazy! Check out all the unknown film dates below! Read more…
Tags: Batman v. Superman, DC Comics, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Jul 16, 2014 in Comic Books, Television 
Gotham is set before Batman emerges, so the upcoming TV series has a chance to show supervillains before they actually become supervillains. We’ve seen various characters confirmed for the show, but so far, no Joker. You could assume it’s because they might want to leave him out, since Batman is often credited with accidentally creating his most persistent nemesis. But the Joker didn’t always originate from Batman in every origin story, so in this show’s continuity, he could spring from anywhere. Apparently that’s what Gotham will be playing up. Read more…
Tags: Batman, DC Comics, Gotham
Posted by Bob Muir on Jul 8, 2014 in Comic Books, Television 
Looks like DC is hiring back Brandon Routh after kind of ruining his career with Superman Returns. The actor will appear in the third season of Arrow as the new owner of Queen Consolidated. However, he won’t be donning a red and blue outfit again. This time, he’ll be playing Ray Palmer, a scientist and inventor better known to fans as The Atom, DC’s shrinking superhero. It’s nice to see Routh get any roles these days, because he’s still a good actor. The last thing I saw him in was Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which he was great in. Maybe this role could get expanded in the future beyond this season? Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Green Arrow
Posted by Ben Huber on Jun 14, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
DC and Warner Bros. have been working on a Justice League movie for a long time. A very long time. But a recent report from Nikki Finke says that the company may be closer to realizing its vision — or a the very least, they have a map laid out. According to Finke, the current plan is to lead up into a Justice League movie with the Batman v. Superman film (something we all expected), and not have standalone Wonder Woman or Green Lantern/Flash films until after it releases. An interesting idea. Below is a full list of the upcoming films. Obviously, everything is in flux and things can change, but this looks like DC’s roadmap for their future superhero films. Read more…
Tags: DC Comics, Justice League, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on Jun 4, 2014 in Comic Books, Videogames 
After the somewhat disappointing Batman: Arkham Origins, most fans are pretty excited about Batman: Arkham Knight, the third and supposedly final entry in Rocksteady’s series. While the game was originally supposed to be released by the end of 2014, that seems to no longer be the case. Now Rocksteady says the game has been pushed back to 2015, to allow more time to deliver “the awesome level of quality that Batman fans and gamers expect.” I’d imagine some of this is prompted not only by working with newer hardware — the game will release only on current-gen platforms: PC, PS4, and Xbox One — but also to make sure it’s much more impressive than Arkham Origins, which Rocksteady didn’t develop. I’ve always got a lot of games on my plate, so I don’t mind waiting. But still, it would be nice if most of the big games for these new platforms weren’t all coming in 2015 or later. Hopefully E3 next week has some good news for that issue. Read more…
Tags: Batman, Batman: Arkham Knight, DC Comics, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on May 22, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Remember how ridiculous it was that we still didn’t know the name of Batman vs. Superman, the sequel to Man of Steel? WB has finally confirmed the name, and it’s not that great. Yes, the film will be called Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. I kind of figured that they’d keep the temporary title in some form, but changed “vs.” to “v.” makes it sound like a court case instead of a confrontation. And while I know that the subtitle is supposed to be a reference to the Justice League sequel that will come next, “Dawn of Justice” just sounds like the empty, hollow kind of subtitle that means nothing. Why not something classy, like “World’s Finest”? Or if you want to set up Justice League, why not “Mere Set-up for a Bigger Movie”? It’ll be just like Iron Man 2! Read more…
Tags: Batman v. Superman, DC Comics, Warner Brothers
Posted by Bob Muir on May 14, 2014 in Cinema, Comic Books 
Fans were somewhat apprehensive that Ben Affleck of all people would be playing Batman in Zack Snyder’s Batman vs. Superman (and also Justice League, apparently). Once some fans pointed out that these complaints mirrored the drama surrounding Heath Ledger’s casting as the Joker in The Dark Knight, which turned out to be a great call, everyone calmed down and went into “wait and see” mode. Now we have the first picture, courtesy of Zack Snyder himself. It’s not a great look at Affleck, and it’s in black-and-white, but it can’t be denied that the suit looks great. Read more…
Tags: Batman, DC Comics, Man of Steel, Warner Brothers, Zack Snyder
Posted by Bob Muir on May 13, 2014 in Comic Books, Television 
Two weeks after I complained about DC and WB not taking full advantage of their comic adaptations, NBC put out this trailer for Constantine, a new TV series airing this fall based on the Hellblazer/Constantine comics, previously published under DC’s Vertigo imprint. And damn, this blows the trailer for Fox’s Gotham out of the water. Unlike the Keanu Reeves movie (which was enjoyable, but not actually a faithful adaptation), this looks like a real, well-made version of the original comics. Go on, watch this trailer and tell me you’re not excited to see a con man magician fight supernatural beasties as they creep into our world.
Read more…
Tags: Constantine, DC Comics, Vertigo, Warner Brothers
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