More direct to video stuff in the interim would be great though.

Mergers after mergers after mergers made this some sort of melting pot of differents companires that doesn’t mix. It got worse when it became “Time Warner”. It got even worse when they bought Ted Turner’s Empire. And it got even worse when AOL bought the whole thing. I heard horror stories about those different companies hating one another when the fact that they are so many various entertainment fields merged into one outfit should be a strength. Not so, so far. All the companies are at war with one another, they won’t cooperate with one another. They’re lucky that individualy they did a decent job(Warner Bros has been one of the few studios making money). But when comes the time to make something work they want to be left alone. And it’s bad for everybody when they could be something far greater. It’s only now with something extreme like a Batman movie making 1 Billion that these idiots finaly realise that “eh maybe Warner and DC could be good partners”. And even with that it remain to be seen if Warner does this properly if they will ever even consult the folks at DC.

And as for Hackman and Spacey… Two great actors, two lousy Luthors. I can forgive the 1978 Luthor since it was what it was for its time period. Hackman was pretty weak in that he wouldn’t go bald, but whatever. Spacey should’ve been an excellent Luthor, but he was saddled with a horrible script and Singer’s foolish decision to make sequel/homage/ripoff of the Donner films. So instead of the ruthless, powerful buisnessman of the comics, we got a petty crook with delusional real estate schemes (again). Yippie.

I am SO glad WB’s rebooting Superman. Maybe they’ll finally get it right next time.

As for the rest… Why wouldn’t GL be a bit “dark”? Not TDK dark, but in more of a hardcore scienc-fiction way? If you read The Sinestro Corps War, you know that it wasn’t a day in the park. Hal Jordan ‘s a troubled life too. Shazam!, no that shouldn’t be dark. When DC’s tried to make a darker, heavier Captain Marvel it’s sucked (aside from Kingdom Come). I still think they need to cast Patrick Warburton as Captain Marvel, and I doubt he could even play “dark.”

It really all depends on the characters… Some lend themselves to “dark” quite well, others less so. But forget the word “dark” for a moment… How about the word “serious” instead? I want to see comic book films taken seriously, with serious, intelligent stories that don’t devolve into camp. And good actors who look like adults. It’s hard enough to overcome the silly costumes, but good movies like TDK or Iron Man cause you to mostly forget about that.

Maybe that’s really what WB’s going for? Just rethinking their strategy about what they’re doing. TDK changed everything, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I don’t want every film to be a TDK clone, if TDK’s success means more properties done with care, and fewer crap-fests like Superman Returns, Spidey 3 or Fantastic Four. Or that planned JLA film that will hopefully not happen, at least not with the cast they wanted.

The article basically says, WB isn’t wasting people’s time by having them work on DC superhero films without a definitive direction at the moment. And they’re trying to figure out that direction. What’s wrong with that?

People are always complaining about WB having no direction. Now, when they pause to figure out a direction, people complain that they’re pausing. So, which is it?

If DC is capable of showing the Hal Jordan Green Lantern with all the psychological drama he developed in the 90′s, we will have a show equal to Batman.

Not all Comics based movies have Super Heroes in them… Comics Based movies have in fact become a Genre even if the general public aren’t always aware of the stories origins.

I’ve read the words “edgier” in a couple rumor stories about DC/WB properties now, which is cause for concern and possibly even disturbing (if true). I don’t think the tone of Dark Knight should be applied to every comic movie (like a GL or Shazam…) which is a possible reaction from the execs who see the returns on Dark Knight.

I really hope I’m wrong about that.

If they can get a movie where Superman fight a train that would be cool also. I like things.

Comics are NOT a genre! Comics are a story telling MEDIUM. Super-heros would be considered a genre.

the Tiki

Honestly, why does everyone look at this as a race to see who wins? we all win when we have a year with a batman, wanted, and iron man.

I love when comics are represented correctly . I think watchmen and Jonah hex and a few others off the radar coming will be awesome.

Goyer is smart, talented and knows what he is doing. we all have hits and misses and we learn.

I see this as a smart thing.

With rationale like that, they really don’t deserve to be in the movie business…

Putting the brakes on all the comics movies in the pipe MAY not be a bad idea. If they’re taking their time to make sure they’re the best they can be, that’s great news. If they’re trying to make sure they come up with a good release schedule and not just shotgun them all over the calendar, that’s also a good move.

It’s possible (remotely possible, but still) that they’re realizing that the genre might need and deserve some care and respect. The last thing we heard was they thought the solution was to make everything, up to and including Superman, all grim like dark knight was. Now they’re putting on the brakes from that plan, and we’re STILL complaining.

No two comics films can or should be written, produced and marketed the same way. Batman is a different animal from Green Lantern. Captain Marvel is different from Metal Men. They are not all “comic book movies”, and as such get put in the same machine to crank them out.

Jonah Hex is a Western that happens to be a comic. Green lantern is a science fiction story that happens to be told in a comic. Challengers of the Unknown can be a disaster film, an adventure film, or even a political thriller, depending on what story they write.

They are taking their time, presumably to make sure they don’t do a Spirit. It’s possible. This may not be the end of the world.