This one made me cough up a perfectly good bottle of Dew, folks. ALL over my keyboard. It was vile.
See, I was cruising the news sites, looking for something interesting to talk about. What do I find? I find that none other than Guy Ritchie has been detailed to handle directing duties for the upcoming Lobo movie.
First, I’m amazed, because I never thought anyone would try and bring The Main Man into things. If there was ever a comic book movie I wanted quite so badly as a Venom / Carnage, Deadpool or Transmetropolitan movie, it was clearly Lobo. Better yet, shooting’s going to start early next year by last report.
Okay, sure…so putting Guy Ritchie in charge pretty much ensures that it’s going to turn into Lock Stock and Two Fraggin’ Barrels O’ Fun, but it’s Lobo. How bad can it be with The Main Man on the scene? You know you can’t go anywhere with the Last Czarnian without lots of things blowing up and some choice one-liners. Even with Guy Ritchie it can’t be too highbrow.
I’ll take bets right now–two to one Ron Perlman gets an offer to play Lobo.
Talking to Sci-fi Wire, Green Lantern screenwriter Marc Guggenheim said that the production is moving forward and that he recently submitted a draft of the script.
He confirmed that the script focuses n Hal Jordan, based on the silver age DC Comics incarnation of the superhero, telling the story of how he got to be in the Green Lantern Corps.
It is expected to be directed by Martin Campbell and is set to begin production this summer for release in 2011.
From Mania comes word that Chris Evans (Fantastic Four, Push) is in talks to join the film adaptation of DC Comics series The Losers.
The series focused on an elite group of Special Forces operatives who are betrayed by their handlers and left for dead. They survive the setup and embark on a series of missions to clear their names and bring down the government agency that sold them out.
Evans will play Jensen, the fast-talking tech wiz of the team. Other cast members include Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba and Zoe Saldana.
Shooting starts later this year.
Following the failure of Punisher: War Zone and the major drop-off of Watchmen at the box office, Warner Brothers has announced that they won’t be doing any more R-rated superhero and possibly tentpole films in general.
The studio owns rights to all DC properties, including Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Flash, all of which have films in the making.
Interestingly, one exception appears to be the upcoming Jonah Hex film, which will be rated R as it is not seen as a superhero or tentpole feature.
Having finished writing Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li and Greyskull, Justin Marks is now moving to his next project – to adapt the DC Comics property Suicide Squad for Warner Bros. and Lin Pictures.
The series was originally a backup feature in the ‘60s focusing on a team of non-super-powered people fighting monstrous menaces. It was relaunched in the ‘80s as a team of supervillains given one last shot at redemption by the government by accomplishing missions that will most likely kill them. The latter setup is the one Marks will work from.
The villains are yet to be chosen, though many are speculating that Deadshot is a strong candidate.
I am delighted to see John Malkovich take on a role of a missled demonic character. He will be countering against Josh Brolin in Jonah Hex, the Warner Bros. adaptation of the DC Comics property that begins production in April.
Malkovich is set to play Turnbull, a wealthy Southern plantation owner whose son is killed by Union soldiers during the Civil War. He blames Hex, a former confederate soldier-turned-hardened bounty hunter and gunslinger.
Unlike Marvel, DC Comics properties haven’t been as wildly successful on the big-screen. And maybe that’s why Warner Bros. Pictures put on hold the various properties that were being developed, according to writer/director David Goyer.
“A lot of the DC movies at Warner Brothers are all on hold while the figure out, they’re going to come up with some new plan, methodology, things like that so everything has just been pressed pause on at the moment,” he revealed. “It was the double header of both Iron Man and The Dark Knight coming out, so more than ever I think they’ve realized, I think DC was responsible for 15% of Warner Brother’s revenue this year, something crazy like that, so they realized that comic books, it’s become a new genre, one of the most successful genres.”
Hopefully Warner will come up with rewarding films. I would die to see a great Flash or Wonder Woman movie.
From Variety comes word that director Peter Segal (Get Smart) and his partner Michael Ewing have signed a three-year first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures.
The first output of this deal is the John August-scripted Captain Marvel film, which Segal will direct. An adaptation of the DC Comics series, the film will tell the story of teenaged Billy Batson, who transforms into a superhero when he says the word “Shazam”.
Captain Marvel was originally being developed over at New Line, but has now moved over to Warner Bros. No starting date for production was given.
DC Comics head honcho Paul Levitz talked to Latino Review about upcoming film projects at the company, noting that it all depends on the third Batman movie.
"Everyone is waiting for Nolan to sign on for another Batman, once that happens, the release date for Superman and all other future projects will follow,” he said. The first two movies have done extremely well, with the second movie going on to break box office records.
Levitz also revealed that Brandon Routh may be attached to play the Kryptonian in the Superman Returns sequel. "Last week Brandon Routh has come around the offices in New York and Los Angeles as of late to talk about Superman and what we want to do,” he stated.
He also talked about the Green Lantern and Green Arrow movies, stating that the Lantern movie is moving forward pretty fast.
The long in-development Green Lantern movie will soon start shooting, according to producer Donald De Line. This comes from FirstShowing.net, who caught up with the producer who is developing the film.
“A new draft of the script came in,” he had revealed. “[We’re] gearing up to start shooting early spring."
The DC Comics project at Warner Bros. is expected to be out sometime late 2009 or 2010. It is based on the popular comic series created back in the ‘40s by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell.