Tag: DC

In for a penny in for a pound: Despite bad reviews, and a 66 percent decline at the box office this weekend, Warner Bros. is still planning a sequel to Green Lantern, THR reports. A WB spokesman admits that the studio was "somewhat disappointed” with the box office, but they still believe in it as a franchise.

DC has cited its changes and additions to the Super-verse as grounds for reducing the Siegel heirs’s share of Superman material produced since 1999. A recent Variety article takes this even further, reporting thatNeil Gaiman’s success in winning co-ownership of Medieval Spawn provides legal precedent for giving DC complete ownership of the contemporary Superman, limiting the Siegels’ interest to the far less lucrative 1938 version of the character. Does DC have strong legal grounds for splitting Superman between The Man of Tomorrow and The Man of Yesterday? Click below to see if Gaiman v. McFarlane is legal kryptonite for creators' rights--or whether that's just another misconceived retcon.

Comics-savvy (aren't they all?) movie beat reporter Borys Kit has a succinct wrap-up, of lessons to be learned from the GREEN LANTERN experience. And they are many; a sequel -- already in the writing stages -- was supposed to have been greenlit if the film did over $60 million, but the $53 million opening and bad word of mouth may have stopped that. Kit suggests that comic book movies based on a singular vision tend to do better -- something GL did not have:

DC Entertainment is an important part of the Warners Stable, and although they won't be headquartered on the lot, they are getting offices in a swanky new building just up the street, THR reports. An unnamed number of employees will be moving into the second floor of The Pointe, at 2900 Alameda Ave., conveniently located between the Warners lot and the Disney lot and catty-corner to NBC.

The rejected Wonder Woman pilot, starring Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman, is making the rounds on the mysterious black market of such things in Hollywood. But until the omerta it is being supplied with is lifted, we'll have to do with these dribs and drabs. Thoughts: Palicki loooks fine. The costume looks okay. Maybe this could have worked?

Did Rich Johnston get burned on one of the most outrageous stories of the month? Or is DC really afraid of Superman saving kittens?

In all the uproar over DC's relaunch, what was once a somewhat robust program for original graphic novels seems to have been lost: no talk of any more Earth One books, and Vertigo's OGN line is limping along in purgatory. Thus an Amazon listing for WONDER WOMAN: HAND OF THE GODS by Margaret Weis, Lizz Baldwin, Justiniano and Walden Wong is of some interest.

David Goyer, co-creator of Flash Forward and the regular story collaborator with Chris Nolan on DARK KNGHT and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is looking to produce 100 BULLETS as a TV series for Showtime.

Meanwhile, back at the box office, GREEN LANTERN debuted at #1 with $52.6 million, less than THOR and even X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. As the Times put it: "An all-hands-on-deck effort by Warner Brothers to turn “Green Lantern” into a box office superpower fizzled over the weekend." With a budget of a reported $300 million, dreadful reviews and a big Friday-to-Saturday drop-off, GL's task as the advance guard for a new generation of movies based on DC characters has been made much more difficult.

If you had asked me if I had wanted to see a movie about Green Lantern, I would have been neutral, but if you had asked me if I wanted to see a movie about a giant space octopus made of fear and smoldering owl fewmets busting loose from green chains, I would have said hell yes! GREEN LANTERN is probably the most comic-book comic book movie since SPIDER-MAN. All the imagery and spirit come straight from the yellowing pages of some old comic by John Broome and Gil Kane -- a boldly colored, nuance-challenged world of wonder and battle in the stars.

Designing the Green Lantern Corps for the screen left veteran designer Neville Page spent with exertion -- it dwarfed his previous projects AVATAR, SUPER 8 and STAR TREK. To solve the problem, Page turned to the work of the comics giants who paved the way:

As the film GREEN LANTERN opens nationwide, a segment of the population, mostly male, is wildly excited because their favorite superhero is finally getting a lavish and respectful big screen treatment. Yes the reviews have been mixed, but under the watchful eye of Lantern's flamekeeper Geoff Johns, the whole mythology has been faithfully brought to the screen in expansive CGI splendor. For the Lantern fans out there—and there are many -- this is a treat. But are they really a cult within a cult, as this Onion video suggests? I admit to being completely unable to answer this question myself; I'm completely immune to the Lantern's power, and I find this highly puzzling. Everyone's life has gaps, memory holes that remain a mystery. In my case, one such example is learning to swim. One moment, I seem to recall, I was learning how to float as a tot. The next I'm a full grown adult standing on the beach and afraid of the water. Something must have happened...but what?