- Dark Universe aka Justice League Dark (dir. TBA)
Team-ups are all the rage. Lately, however, there’s been little word on this off-kilter film about DC’s magical (and occasionally monstrous) antiheroes. Originating in the nascent days of the DCEU, it was one of Guillermo del Toro’s many passion projects. He worked on the film throughout 2013 and 2014 but left in mid-2015 after the DC Vertigo titles (such as it and Sandman) were shuffled to New Line Cinema.
Despite del Toro’s departure, producer Scott Rudin and WB were supposedly looking to “move quickly” on the property for production this year. The report, via The Tracking Board, likened it to a magical Suicide Squad, who operate separate from the main superteam of the Justice League (akin to the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Avengers). They also said the script “involves a series of ancient tomes stolen by a madman hellbent on the destruction of humanity. When he learns of this, occult detective John Constantine seeks out a group of heroes that specialize in the mystic and arcane in order to save the world.”
A Latino Review follow up a month later included the studio’s wishlist casting: Colin Farrell as Constantine, Ewan McGregor as Jason Blood / Etrigan, Ron Perlman as Swamp Thing, Ben Mendelsohn as Anton Arcane, Monica Bellucci as Madame Xanadu, with a black or Latina actress and a comedian desired for Zatanna and Deadman, respectively. Given that none of these rumors have panned out isn’t a good sign for champions of the film, though a glimmer of hope exists in the form an animated Dark Universe announced last June.
- Booster Gold (& Blue Beetle?) (dir. TBA)
Last September came word that Greg Berlanti, the mastermind behind The CW’s DC TV-verse, would helm a Booster Gold & Blue Beetle movie, described as a superhero buddy cop comedy. Some names were thrown around to write the script until Zack Stentz (of X-Men: First Class, Thor and ‘The Flash‘ fame) said in May he’d been hired to write it, though he referred to it as Booster Gold only. It was refreshing news in a gloomy post-BvS world and I said as much in a tweet about Stentz’s hire – a tweet he himself liked.
Since Superman is a scowling dick in the DCEU, I would actually love to see a Booster Gold film w/ a lot of heart https://t.co/UBxJj7PJZu
— Sam Flynn – MYSTERY OF THE PALE KING (OUT NOW!) (@Samflynn1992) May 15, 2016
Like Shazam, this lighter, more comedic DC feature is operating under the radar, especially in terms of how (or even if) it will fit into the DCEU.
- Harley Quinn/Birds of Prey spinoff (dir. TBA)
Of the many things wrong with Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn was not one of them. It’s a nice reflection of both the actress’s enthusiasm and the warm response to her portrayal that the studio wants to put her front-and-center of their gestating Birds of Prey film, signing her to star and produce. The film aims to unite a variety of DC heroines, antiheroines and villainesses. An unknown female writer is currently at work on a script.
The adaptation was in the works prior, with Umberto reporting an all-female DC film on Collider Heroes last October and then rumors sparking last November that Black Canary would appear in Justice League to prime audiences on the character. Abbey Lee and Alona Tal were rumored for the role by LR but with Lee joining The Dark Tower, I think Tal is likely for the part, if it appears.
When Geoff Johns came aboard DC Films, I imagine he gave a speech much like Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, “The night is darkest just before the dawn . . . and I promise you, the dawn is coming.”
Let’s hope Johns’ story ends better than Harvey’s. The good news? We have a lot of reasons to believe it will.
(*an earlier version of this post referred to this as a conference call. It has been corrected for accuracy)
