Warner Bros to Hold a Superhero Movie Summit with DC Comics

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Taking their cue from Marvel's recent success at the movie house, Warner Brothers is planning some intense meetings with comics publisher DC--whom the WB owns. They’re having high-level, super secret get-togethers to cement a master plan for comic book movies based on DC's huge stable of superhero characters.

Reports say Warner Bros is looking to, not only reboot the Superman franchise a la The Incredible Hulk, but also to exploit the cross-over idea started by Marvel movies the likes of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Between the two movies, Marvel has kick started several other potential "team-up" movies where mutliple characters either will share screen time, or be getting their own big screen adaptation.

Teasing applicable movies within movies is a good idea simply because it allows for streamlining another character's origin story. Captain America's origin was hinted at in the Hulk, and Shield's existence is covered in Iron Man. Together they lay the groundwork for at least two more movies greenlighting "The Avengers" and "Captain America."

Till now that sort of connected strategy has never been done with DC’s characters, which makes no sense when you consider that WB owns the rights to all DC properties. Marvel, on the other hand, is having to buy back their characters, several of which will not be included in near-future "team-ups" due to the fact that their license is still owned by other production companies. Sony/Columbia just renewed Marvel's most popular superhero in Spider-Man. So, you won't be seeing him in an ensemble, neither will any of the Mutant X-Men, who are still under contract by FOX.

With the exception of the newly rebooted Batman franchise, every superhero based movie announced coming out of WB has been botched. "Justice League" is the best case in point. Yet, most would agree that DC has a better stable of characters that could work well in theaters. Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash are all fairly well known to most people. Where Marvel has to introduce less-well-known characters such as Iron Man, DC could feasibly bring out some of theirs without the initial origin story taking up the first movie.

As is common in Hollywood, now that Marvel has shown the way, everybody is going to try and copy their success. Let's just hope they get it right and provide a decent product that doesn't talk down to the comics fans. Making meetings with the creatives at DC is a good sign. Nothing good ever comes about when the suits push out the creatives. This initial step of communal conferencing bodes well.

Jim Littler
7/11/2008
Source: Comic Book Movie

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