About this date change for the Man of Steel sequel...

The consensus supports this decision by Warner Brothers, because it shows that the studio cares about the product.

I agree...but I've got a gripe.

No, not that one,

not that one either.
My gripe is with DC/WB's film schedule.

Between now and when this film comes out, Marvel will have released at least eight.
Four of them coming from Marvel Studios and the rest from FOX and Sony.
I'm all for quality over quantity,  but what Warner Bro's needs to do is get more stuff in the hopper.

Arrow is a good show, and they're working towards at least one spin-off.
That's wonderful.
But that's all they've got aside from animation...which I don't count because that's its own thing.
There's been rumors for a while of other stuff going on,

but rumors don't make product...or money.
I'm just saying that we need more movies from the house of DC/WB.

No no...I said movies.

A word about the DCMU vs. the MMU...

There's talk of the definite title of Man of Steel 2 and it really got me thinking about Marvel and DC.

Not only do the publishing companies have different philosophies, but their film productions too.

You have to understand: DC Comics is like the Borg.

Up until the mid-eighties, they went around buying out their competition...but that wasn't enough.

They assimilated their newly-purchased characters into the existing DC Universe.

The biggest example of this?

Captain Marvel was published by Fawcett Publications - until the character outsold Superman.

So DC sued copyright infringement.

And won.

Then they bought the character...and Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Junior, etc.

And then they brought a whole other Earth into the DCU with these characters.

And madness ensued.

Another more recent example involves Watchmen and Charlton Comics...

Anyway - Marvel on the other hand - started essentially with one guy:

Stan the Man Lee.

I say essentially, because some Marvel characters started out at Timely Comics before Lee was hired...

...Captain America...

...the Original Human Torch and Sub-Mariner.

The difference here is that these characters (and some others) were merely the beginnings of what is now the Marvel Universe.

Marvel expanded...not unlike the Federation.

Back to the films.

DC and Warner Brothers are finally getting around to giving us fans what we've wanted for decades...

...but we'll have to wait and see exactly how.

Marvel can't put Jackman and Evans in the same film because different companies own the film rights,

but the only thing holding them back is money.

Want to know what you'll never see on film?

Why? Because problems exist within their own company.

And that's a damn shame.

A few thoughts on the Wonder Woman movie...

I've mentioned before how I think Wonder Woman will be introduced into the DCMU (that's DC Movie Universe by the way) but seeing as how this is a hot topic for discussion, I decided to throw my two-cents in...

The strongest argument...to which I agree...is that Hollywood (specifically Warner Brothers, but Hollywood in general) needs to make a 'good' comic-film with a strong female lead and Wonder Woman should be that project.

The problem isn't that they don't know that...the problem is that they don't know how to do it.

Looking back, many people like me can come up with lists of examples showing what movie-makers have done wrong. But how many movies can make the list of films done right?

In my opinion, these few successes fall into one of two categories:

Films with Strong Female Lead(s) (which WW should be) would include Kill Bill, Kill Bill 2, Nikita (1990), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009) and Thelma & Louise...

...and Films with Strong Female Character(s) in an Ensemble Cast (which is most likely how WW will be introduced) such as A League of their Own, Alien, Aliens, the first Star Wars trilogy, and Marvel's The Avengers.

It's well known that Alien was based on the novel...which never mentioned the gender of main character Ripley...and the script kept the character gender neutral until casting. While that philosophy could work on other projects, with Wonder Woman certainly not.

Another approach that's been mentioned is for writers to simply come up with a script featuring a strong male character like Superman or Thor and then switch out the names for Wonder Woman, but since Wonder Woman has her own supporting cast, beginnings, abilities and...well...history, there'd have to be a lot more changes to the story than just the name for it to make sense.

Hollywood needs to take a look at what's worked and incorporate those elements into this growing genre, because Women Love Movies, Women Love Comics, and (Wonder) Women Deserve Good Comic-Movies.

'Nuff said!

Poor...Poor...DC...

Apparently nobody over there at DC or Warner Brothers took my advice about how to get their movies going because they've gotten talent from such works as Gangster Squad...and Green Lantern...to (re-)write the Justice League and Wonder Woman projects.

W...T...F...?


Look guys...as I've said before...just focus on getting one really good movie made. Maybe tie it in with GL, maybe not. Just do one goddamn movie right! (Outside of Nolan's work.)


I still believe that DC and WB should part ways. There's at least five different film projects at various stages of development over there right now...not including JL and WW.


SLOW YOUR GODAMN ROLL!!!

I'll give you the fact that Marvel Studios were rushed somewhat to get The Incredible Hulk out...Kevin Feige said as much...but it did what it had to do, and was a better movie than it probably should have been.

But you haven't even gotten to THAT point with Green Lantern.


DC...say goodbye to Warner. Warner...say goodbye to DC. Just cut your losses and move on...

Flash…the Movie

Okay, there’s word that DC/WB are getting their shit together and working on making Flash their next big movie.

On the surface, this is scary news. But upon further examination, this makes perfect sense. Here’s why:

1) The Big Three have had more than their fair share of chances at the big screen. The only reason Wonder Woman was never made is because nobody involved had the cajones to take that risk. Everyone thought it would never work. (People said the same thing about Thor, but we’ll let that slide…) My point is that if DC ever wants to make it out of the gate, they must look beyond their holy trinity. This brings me to…

2) Green Lantern was a decent attempt; it was the execution that failed. There was too much stuff and not enough direction so the film wound up all over the place. The people behind Flash would learn from GL’s mistakes and work towards a cleaner, crisper script with better pacing and ease the heavier stuff in through sequels.

3) Lest we forget…Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman may have come first, but it was Flash that brought forth the Silver Age of comics…single-handedly I might add. Thanks to Showcase #4, we got Earths -1, -2, -3,-4, -5 (etc…). So it makes perfect sense that a Flash movie could put DC/WB back on the cinematic landscape.

So what they need now…is a script…

(Now keep in mind, all I truly know of Flash comes from the various cartoons and television episodes I’ve watched, and the occasional comic book I’ve read - which can help since one of the points of a project like this is to (re)introduce the character to a large(r) audience so here goes…)

First, break down the story into three acts (what I call the Mank method) and in simplest terms they are: 1) Flash gets his powers, 2) Flash learns about his powers, 3) Flash uses his powers.

That’s it. How the story develops from there is entirely due to which version of the Flash you go with.

There’s always talk about “the love interest”, “the setting” and “the villain(s)” in films like this, and things can get very confusing and sloppy very fast *Spider-Man 3* but again they are completely dependent upon which Flash is used.

So in the end, everything rides on which f**king version of The Flash is used!!!

Thus the debate begins…

I’d LOVE to see Wally, because he’s my favorite, but truthfully…it should be Barry because his story would make the best movie.

As a police scientist, he’d have the easiest means to study the effects of his powers, how they work, and the physics behind them. It would also explain his continual vanishing acts (because really – how much attention are given to those guys in all of those forensics television shows?)

He’s also got a potential girlfriend in Iris. Will they get together/married or won’t they? One of the big problems I had with Fantastic Four 2 was that it started with Sue and Reed’s wedding right away…little too rushed for me. It would be better if Barry and Iris’ courtship ran through both the first and (potentially) second films, and their wedding take place in the third. In fact, having Iris learn Barry’s secret at the end of movie #2 would be a great cliffhanger.

Then there’s “the threat”. What happens in the third act of film #1 to make Flash don his newly developed suit and make his grand entrance? (By the way…the Flash ring doesn’t appear until film #2.) Gorilla Grodd is too “out there” for the average moviegoer. It may have worked if it wasn’t for that Planet of the Apes remake. Captain Cold? Trickster? They’d be seen as the “Batman villain knock-offs” they are. Captain Boomerang? Yeah – there’s a reason why Hawkeye is being introduced in The Avengers and not in his own film. Weather Wizard is a possibility, but I’ll come back to him in a minute. Of all the Flash villains (that I know of) there are two frontrunners: Mirror Master and Professor Zoom.

Mirror Master would work because there are a lot of visuals that could be used with his powers. Mirror imaging, reflection and all that. There’s also the scientific angle between him and Barry (get it?...reflection?...scientific angle?...hello?)

Professor Zoom would also work because there would be similar visual effects for both him and Flash. The story here would be about how two people with basically the same powers use them in completely different ways. The point being - it’s the man that makes the hero, not the powers.

As for Weather Wizard, he would be more “behind the scenes” like Mandarin has been in the Iron Man films. In the first movie, Flash would use his powers to save “the city” (Central, not Keystone) from a natural disaster – a freak storm or earthquake or volcano – that has never happened there before. The point here is that Flash would have to be everywhere at once, saving lots of people (including Iris) from various crises (get it?). Which he does, and that puts him in the public eye. It’s only at the very end of the film that viewers learn the Weather Wizard was behind the disaster, and we learn about him in film #2.

In film #3, Iris (who by now knows Barry’s secret and may or may not have told him she knows) gets a visit from her nephew Wally. He stays with his aunt and her live-in fiancée and attends their wedding. Then “something happens”, Barry disappears, and Wally winds up in an accident identical to Barry’s in film #1 and gets similar powers. This sets up film #4, in which Iris…now a widow…helps train Wally as the “New” Flash.

Now, these are just rough ideas that I’m jotting down on the fly. I have no experience with movie writing and very little knowledge of the DC universe and Flash. My point is that a Flash movie could be done, and more importantly could be done well if the right minds are behind it and enough care and attention are brought to the table.

So we’ll see. I’m all for a thriving DC/WB movie universe, that way they can keep Marvel Studios on their toes, who in turn raise the bar for DC/WB to meet. In the end, we all get the fantastic super-hero movie franchises we’ve been craving forever for.

Verisimilitude and “Nuff Said!