Woooooooah.
The turmoil in the DC cinematic universe continues with DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran out and former MCU exec Jeremy Latcham in. In some ways, the fact that we had a relatively stable four year run for a DCU regime is the most astonishing thing about all of this.
The Gunn/Safran duo continue in the brave tradition of Walter Hamada, Geoff Johns/Jon Berg, Kevin Tsujihara and Jeff Robinov – studio execs who got handed the DC cinematic universe hot potato and ran with it until the strangest things happened and there was a new studio head with a whole new set of plans. Zack Snyder. Joss Whedon, Ezra Miller. The Rock. Matt Reeves/Steven Soderbergh.
The insider reports on the studio shuffle that we were waiting for all day arrived late Monday: Matt Belloni’s brief remarks in What I’m Hearing, and a story that I could not hit “please allow ads on this site” fast enough to read: Inside James Gunn, Peter Safran’s DC Ouster: Exec Tensions and a Fateful David Ellison Visit by Borys Kit and Aaron Couch.
It seems confirmed that that the “Age of Monsters” will not be followed by a subsequent age. According to Belloni, “plans are already afoot to dismantle much of what Gunn and Safran had plotted out beyond next summer’s Gunn-directed Man of Tomorrow, the currently shooting The Batman: Part II, and an in-the-works HBO series.”
But while replacing the bleeding heart Gunn with the meemaw-loving Latcham has obvious benefits for Skydance (we’ll get to that), the main burr in the Skydance saddle with Gunn and Safran was logistical: their contract called for them to report directly to the studio head, as they had with Zaslav, and David Ellison didn’t want to get granular with a lot of studio heads:
Sources point to several points of tension between DC’s Gunn and Safran and Skydance’s [Josh] Greenstein and [Dana] Goldberg. Before Skydance’s acquisition, Gunn and Safran reported directly to Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav; their contracts stipulated they would maintain that kind of direct reporting structure in the event of a change of leadership, in this case Ellison. That set up a chafing with Greenstein and Goldberg, who are trying to consolidate all production of motion pictures under their leadership. Gunn and Safran, meanwhile, were accustomed to having strong control over every aspect of the rollout of DC products.
According to THR, Gunn and Safran thought everything was going fine in the new Skydance order, and Gunn was even thinking about completing his Superman trilogy. However they had also been slow to give details on upcoming projects to Skydance execs, so tensions were rising. Ellison and Ynon Kreiz paid a visit to Gunn and Safran late last week and the rest was history. Another factor in the change: the Gunniverse projects just weren’t successful enough at the box office.
This speedy switcheroo – only ONE MONTH AGO, Ellison was publicly saying how awesome it was to have Gunn and Safran aboard – is par for the course these days in skittery Hollywood, but will do nothing to assure other production shingles that had been doing business with Skydance that the good news they’re getting will last.
As for Latcham, THR describes him as “mild-mannered,” a description I’d already decided on after a day of deep diving Kremlinology. After being raised in a conservative Nazarene church, he got his start at the MCU as assistant to David Maisel, the Marvel exec who came up with the idea for them to become a movie studio in the first place. Quickly becoming a Kevin Feige favorite, Latcham was hands on with Iron Man 2 and, notably Guardians of the Galaxy, where he championed director Gunn, even when the Marvel Creative Council tried to veto the whole Walkman gimmick. He previously crossed paths with Skydance co-chair Josh Greenstein at both Paramount and Sony, the latter during production of Spider-Man: Homecoming – according to THR, it was Greenstein who reached out to him several weeks ago.
Notably, since leaving Marvel Studios, Latcham has produced three movies, Bad Times at the El Royale, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and The Breadwinner, all of which flopped at the box office. I know El Royale has a bit of a cult following, and I really liked D&D, which should have been a success. The Breadwinner was a Nate Bargatze vehicle that made $20 million and got a 19% on the Tomatometer critics scale. (Audiences liked it more with 85% to be fair.) Of late he had produced Christian-based TV fare, but before the move to DC Studios, his next big project was to be a live action Naruto movie for Sony/Lionsgate with Daniel Destin Cretton (Spider-Man Brand New Day) directing.
Latcham’s press tour for The Breadwinner included several stops on Christian podcasts, where he was open about his Christian faith, and wanting to make movies that reflect that.
“I had this nagging feeling that I needed to do more movies that had deeper meaning to me,” Latcham said of Wonder Project during an appearance on the Bible Bros podcast while promoting the Nate Bargatze comedy The Breadwinner. “Let’s be the HBO for the faith and family audience. Let’s try to make movies and television shows that restore faith in things worth believing in.”
Unfortunately for Latcham, his appearances contain multiple references to what was apparently one of his signature moves at Marvel: asking if the movie would appeal to his grandma. While this is shorthand for saying “will this play outside the fanboy belt?” I can tell you right now that “superheroes for grandma” is not a creative vision that is going to last long in the crucible of online nerd outrage. It also goes without saying that grandmas are not all alike, and some of them like challenging fare.
Latcham’s hiring is obviously a swing towards the kind of palatable family-fare and dumb-guy action that Ellison’s Paramount is known for, and away from a Superman who fights for indigenous peoples, a Supergirl who battles sex traffickers, and a Peacemaker who deals with a white supremacist dad.
But to be fair, it is also a move to an experienced, reliable studio executive. Latcham is known as a decent guy to make movies with, and a few folks I reached out to had positive thoughts about him. There are quotes being attributed to Latcham on social media that are, as far as I can tell, just not true (so far). You can watch for yourself. The guy seems to want to make uplifting old fashioned pablum, yes, and maybe there’s a reason audiences moved away from that, but he also wants to make box office successes.
All that said, say good-bye to R-rated movies like Clayface and THE Suicide Squad. Say goodbye (most likely) to the Tom King Hollywood Era. Say goodbye to Lanterns season two. Say good-bye to Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner and hello to Nate Bargatze’s Tomar-Re. Say goodbye to so much more.
I’ve written about it so many times here, but James Gunn truly loves comics, and knows all the deep continuity that fans craved. He thought the Creature Commandos were worthy of attention. He made Polka-Dot Man a hero. He made Mr. Terrific interesting. He made me like Hal Jordan. Gunn and Safran presented a slate that was daring, quirky and unexpected. For the first time the DCEU was being run by people who had an actual vision and a clean slate to start it with. It had some bumps along the way, but it was so much fun.
Gunn is undoubtedly relieved to now be unburdened by the grueling chores of running a studio, but he was also so accessible on social media, shooting down rumors and plainly stating what his goals were. He may have been TOO eternally online, but it was a refreshing break from the usual studio-speak. We won’t get that from Jeremy Latcham or anybody now.
Latcham’s experience at Marvel may have given him an idea of the churning abyss that is online superhero movie discourse, but back then there were only a few social media platforms and not the sprawling industry of outrage and bile that we have now. He’s in for a ride, and I suspect it is not one his grandma would enjoy.
Obviously we’re only a day in on the latest DC Movie Universe reboot, and we’re on a new path fraught with twists and turns. There will be a new Batman – the fate of The Gunniverse Batman: Brave and The Bold is now very much in doubt, and both Robert Pattinson AND Nicholas Hoult suddenly being available to audition for James Bond tells you they have some free time. Man of Tomorrow will debut a new Wonder Woman (worst kept secret in Hollywood) but that character’s fate is up in the air yet again. Suddenly the hesitancy to renew Lanterns, a certified critical and audience hit, makes sense. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern – a new age of rumored castings is about to dawn.
As always, this leaves us with the question of what will become of DC Comics? For now they are safely tucked away in consumer products, under a knowledgeable exec, and supposedly as yet untouched by Skydance’s planned $6 billion in cuts. But as the flip-flop on publicly praising Gunn/Safran and then firing them a month later shows, things can change fast in today’s business landscape.
