How Warner Bros. Is Giving Me an Ulcer

How Warner Bros. Is Giving Me an Ulcer

I have long been a DC fan. I love Marvel, but DC is it for me. However, Warner Bros. or more specifically Time-Warner owns DC and this is where the problems begin. I can’t take the business decisions of Warner Bros. anymore without saying something.

Editorial Opinion
By Tevii - Jun 06, 2012 12:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Other




I have long been a DC fan. I love Marvel, but DC is it for me. However, Warner Bros. or more specifically Time-Warner owns DC and this is where the problems begin. I can’t take the business decisions of Warner Bros. anymore without saying something. There are too many issues historically I have with Warner Bros. to go back too far, so I will just go back a few years at the most.

Lobo was recently greenlit and one can only wonder why that character over any other DC character, the answer lies with Wolverine’s success. It tells me the corporate mentality at Warner Bros. was “well Wolverine was a success, what does DC have that is similar?” Well Lobo would be it. He was created at a time where X-men and Wolverine books dominated the comics Top 10 charts as an attempt to cash in on that type of character. Is Lobo cool? Sure. Does he deserve a movie? Sure, maybe. Does he deserve a movie now? Hell no, not before Flash, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman or Aquaman. But the corporate minds at WB don’t see what fans might want; they are too busy trying to play catch up and just follow in Marvel’s footsteps, punching out similar, but inferior projects, rather than setting the standard.

What are the two most successful Warner Bros. franchises? Batman and Harry Potter. So, continuing with the “corporate mentality” this can be the only explanation for them doing a “Mandrake the Magician” film before more JLA members. Corporate mentality: “Well he’s a comic hero, so he’s like Batman, check, he does magic so he’s like Harry Potter, check. How could we go wrong? It’s a gold mine!” This of course is ridiculous. So now we have two movies “Lobo” and “Mandrake the Magician” before more JLA members. Stupid choice Warner Bros. I smell another “Catwoman” and “Steel”, not another “Harry Potter” and “The Dark Knight.”

The Man of Steel, this movie so far looks great. Cavill is an excellent choice. But Zod as the main villain? Really? What an opportunity missed. They need to let go of the Donner films already. They were great but move on. Zod was never a major character in the comics. Brainiac is the ideal choice for a Superman movie that shows any portion of his origin. Not only could Brainiac give the big reveal to Superman of his birthright, but he could also give the fans a physical battle. Something Superman fans have wanted ever since Superman II. The jury is still out on this one, like I said it looks good so far, but that doesn’t mean anything at this point.

“Green Lantern.” This movie had such potential. It could’ve easily been as good as “The Avengers” in my opinion. Was it? Not even close. It was lousy. Green Lantern is my personal all-time favorite superhero, so this movie not only wounded me, but then they poured salt all over the wound. The budget was inexcusable. To put it into perspective “The Avengers” cost only $20 million more to make and look how much more epic that was. “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” cost $5 million LESS than “Green Lantern” and the effects blew GL away and it felt more epic as well. The worst thing about the movie was the writing. It was horrible. It was rushed, the character whined a lot, he trained on Oa for about five minutes, etc. I could go on forever about the writing problems. Of course having so many writers didn’t help. But the franchise could still be saved if done correctly. There were some fans of the movie and now the animated series is doing well so a sequel with major tweaks could work and be profitable. Hell I could do it, I see where to take the story and fix everything in the first one. But now they have basically abandoned it. Warner has convinced themselves their only viable property is Batman, and its only true because they screw everything else up, not because they don’t have the potential.

Warner Bros. apparently still don’t see what went wrong with Green Lantern because now they hired one of the Green Lantern writers to write Wonder Woman. They don’t learn from their mistakes. Joss Whedon just made the 3rd most successful movie and he was dying to do a Wonder Woman movie. Let him. He’s proven and has a passion for the character. But no that’s too easy. Let’s make another dud instead.



Now the latest news they are preparing a JLA movie. Great. Just hearing those words is exciting. This is potentially the greatest news ever in the comic book world. But then reality sets in. It’s still Warner Bros. Even worse, they have a nobody attached to write. Now, this of course might not mean anything, he may very well be an amazing writer. But it seems odd to put such an important project into an unproven writer. But hey at least the writer is giving it a “dark and mature” tone. Ever since Nolan did Batman, Warner Bros. has become obsessed with the “dark and mature” formula. That doesn’t lend itself to many characters other than Batman, and most certainly not a JLA movie. That is not the winning formula. Staying true to the source material is the answer. Look at Marvel’s success right now. Hello. The realistic thing doesn’t work either. It works for Batman because he has no powers, but how can you do that with a man that flies? It is fantasy, let it be fantasy.

Warner Bros. needs to stop putting all their hope in Nolan. Nolan may be great, but he doesn’t want to do superhero movies forever. Other great directors and writers are dying to take a stab at it. But they need to stick to the source and WB needs to give the creators more freedom to give the fans the product that they want. This will in turn get WB the profits they are begging for. Being that they are a corporation, it is impossible to escape the corporate mentality, but there are answers, they need better consultants or liaisons with DC, ones that really know the characters and they actually need to heed the advice of those consultants. Once they do any of this they can be setting the standard, rather than playing catch up and copycat all the time with the Marvel movies. I love DC and really want great DC movies, but Warner Bros. needs to change their strategy.
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incrediblesuperbatspider
incrediblesuperbatspider - 6/6/2012, 9:15 AM
I agree good write up
Dc can still make up for green lantern with an amazing man of steel movie.
2012-dark knight rises
2013-man of steel

Then what? Wonder woman can still start production this year and.be on track for a summer 2014 release as can the flash
2014-flash or wonderwoman
2015-man of steel sequel and a possible green lantern or lobo film
2016-justice league
incrediblesuperbatspider
incrediblesuperbatspider - 6/6/2012, 9:18 AM
And forget a Batman solo film reboot. The justice league film will be his reboot/reintroduction
incrediblesuperbatspider
incrediblesuperbatspider - 6/6/2012, 9:19 AM
Maybe same for green lantern...no reboot necessary, just reintroduce hum in the JLA film
incrediblesuperbatspider
incrediblesuperbatspider - 6/6/2012, 9:22 AM
But let's just wait and see how MOS does first
golden123
golden123 - 6/6/2012, 10:02 AM
I think WB/DC should concentrate on releasing quality films of the big five. I would like to see Green Lantern, The Flash, and Wonder Woman each starring in their very own successful franchise, and then maybey Aquaman, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, and Green Arrow. I would say they are actually trying to do this, but they are also planning side projects like Lobo, Mandrake the Magician, and Sgt. Rock. I don't see a whole lot wrong with that if their quality. I prefer quality over all else. I mean it's not like those smaller projects are keeping more popular comic book movies from coming out the same year.
The executives aren't thinking, "Well, we have a low budget Mandrake the Magician movie coming out in 2014, along with a war movie called Sgt. Rock, so I guess it's too crowded for this The Flash film to come out that Summer. After all, we have a rule preventing us from having three live-action comic book movies a year. Despite the fact that the movies are completely different".
Don't worry WB's plan isn't as bad as it seems.

P.S. I don't believe the number of writers, normally, has much to do with the quality of the film. Green Lantern had four writers, but Ironman had four, Thor and X2 had five, and X-Men: First Class had six. I'm just saying.
Tevii
Tevii - 6/6/2012, 10:08 AM
@golden123 - I think Warner Bros. doesnt HAVE a solid plan at all. They are reactive to whatever is successful. they are not Proactive with anything. Whatever is successful they try to hop on the bandwagon. They were at first agianst a shared univers, then they werent when marvel was so successful. They were against a JLA movie, now they arent becasue of Avengers. EVERYTHING they do is reactive
Hellsing
Hellsing - 6/6/2012, 10:15 AM
Its got nothing to do with the number of writers, it had too many producers or execs with there own views trying to make the script to work with there own vision you need one coherent voice. Hate him or love him Kevin Feige has been able to do that, I don't agree with every thing he's done but you can tell that theres a coherent voice guiding these movies. DC fans were jumping up and down when Johns was made head of the entertainment division, well he clearly didn't exert any power or influence.
Hellsing
Hellsing - 6/6/2012, 10:21 AM
Honestly WB's main goal is trying to find a franchise that can replace HP.
AlexdoxA
AlexdoxA - 6/6/2012, 10:23 AM
Bring "Steel 2" first!! Shaq isn't getting younger you know
Tevii
Tevii - 6/6/2012, 10:23 AM
@hellsing - and the sad thing is they have the option for Robotech, Elfquest, Akira, and all the DC characters.... they have the replacement for Harry Potter in that list. They just need to do any one of them correctly
golden123
golden123 - 6/6/2012, 10:28 AM
As for your paragraph on "The Man of Steel", General Zod may have not been a major villain before "Superman II", but he most certainly became one after. Look up General Zod's wikipedia page. You might be amazed at the number of times the characters has been used in the last thirty years. Quite recently he was the major villain of the Superman event, "New Krypton". Also, Using the same villain in two different movie continuities doesn't mean it's going to be the same movie or a "missed oppurtunity" as you worded it. A character, especially a comic book character, can be portrayed many different ways by different writers and actors. Was Jack Nicholson's Joker the same as Heath Ledger's Joker? No, the writer and actors were different. Was "The Dark Knight" the same movie as Batman because they both featured Joker as the main villain? No, Joker was written differently therefor the character had different plans, so the plot of the two movies gave the audience something different from the other. Will "The Man of Steel" be a missed oppurtunity because General Zod is used once more? No, Michael Shannon is a different actor than Terrence Stamp, and David Goyer and co. are a different writers than Mario Puzo and co.
Just for the record Superman IV featured a fist fight, and General Zod is just as capable of a character as Brainiac to show us a good fist fight.
Tevii
Tevii - 6/6/2012, 10:30 AM
@golden123 - thats exactly why i said the jury is out on this one still. We will just have to see the end product. I hope for the best.
golden123
golden123 - 6/6/2012, 10:41 AM
@Tevii: They were working on a movie called "Justice League: Mortal" before The Avengers was even announced. I believe they scrapped it because it was going to be a bad movie, so I respect the fact that they included quality in their decision making. Now that The Avengers is here they are more more interested in a Justice League movie, but it's not like they have never been interested in one. The shared universe part is irrelevant since there is no evidence that this Justice League movie is going to be connected by continuity to other DC movies. If I'm mistaken about that last part then please provide the link (or just simply the url) to the article that explains DC is interested in a shared universe. My undersanding was that the JL film will have nothing to do with any other DC films. I could be wrong, though. Anyways, do you understand my main point of my original comment?
Tevii
Tevii - 6/6/2012, 10:47 AM
@golden - i see what you are saying. but I just dont agree with everything you are saying. Corporate suits dont make the sense that you are. They dont think in terms like that. they think in terms of money only.
And i never read anywhere Mandrake was going to be low budget.
golden123
golden123 - 6/6/2012, 10:53 AM
@Tevii: This is my last post before I go to the gym.
I never read anywhere that Mandrake was going to be low-budget either. I guess I accidentally made an assumption without realising it. I figured it was going to be like Jonah Hex or something. Either way a heavily fantasy based Mandrake film would not get in the way of a mythological wonder Woman film or a CSI-like science fiction film such as Flash.
Tevii
Tevii - 6/6/2012, 10:55 AM
@golden - SHOULD they concentrate on the Big 5. Absolutely. But as long as Green Arrow is on TV there will not be a Green Arrow movie. WB does not allow that kind of thing. That is why Bruce Wayne/Batman was forbidden from being on Smallville.
There are only so many tent pole movies a Studio can produce in a year. Lobo and Mandrake are meant to be Tent pole movies from my understanding. If they make them GREAT. But they should not be a priority over the big 5.
golden123
golden123 - 6/6/2012, 10:59 AM
@Tevii: I lied, this is my last post. Superman Returns came out while Smallville was airing, highly successfully. I'm not sure if that is the reason Batman wasn't in Smallville. I thought Smallville just couldn't have any of DC's big five except for Superman, obviously. True they had Bart Allen, but he was called "Impulse". True, they had Green Lantern, but it was Alan Scott. They didn't have Batman or Wonder Woman, and Wonder Woman didn't have a movie. She still doesn't have a movie. If that isn't the reason, then why did the show not include Wonder woman either?
Tevii
Tevii - 6/6/2012, 11:05 AM
Superman came out because it actually had Superman, Smallville never did until the last scene. And some would consider Martian Manhunter to be a major JLA member that some consider in the Big 5. Superman, Batman, GL, Wonder Woman Martian Manhunter if you follow JLA animated. otherwise replace MM with Aquaman
Tevii
Tevii - 6/6/2012, 11:05 AM
And Aquaman was in Smallville as well for that matter
95
95 - 6/6/2012, 12:16 PM
I agree with you. Except: General Zod is a great villain choice. And I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to save Brainiac for JL.
CaptainObvious
CaptainObvious - 6/6/2012, 12:53 PM
Warner Bros. is the most incompetent studio on the planet. These are the idiots that gave Steel and Catwoman their movies before Flash and Wonder Woman. They can't do a good superhero movie unless Nolan comes in and does it for them and I don't think he wants to spend the rest of his career with comic book movies. I wouldn't either.

As for the JL and WW movies, I'm more worried about WW than JL. They got the writer who butchered the great Green Lantern script for the most iconic female superhero of all time. That is enough to cause worry. JL on the other hand, from what I've seen of Gangster Squad, they have a good writer on their hands. But they need to give all the heroes their own movies before JL. If they just rush into it to try and match the success of the Avengers and introduce all of them at once, I will have no hope for this movie.

After GL, I'm just going to hope for the best and expect the worst.
dezdigi
dezdigi - 6/6/2012, 2:16 PM
I read some comments yesterday suggesting that Bruce Timm or Paul Dini should be the creative drive behind the DCCU. This is the only good idea I've heard so far.
golden123
golden123 - 6/6/2012, 2:21 PM
@Tevii: Ummmm....it's pretty universally known by comic book fans that DC's big five are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and The Flash. Neither, Aquaman or Martian Manhunter has at any point been more popular than The Flash. The Flash has always sold more comics than the other two, and The Flash has had a live-action tv show. The other two have not had a live-action tv show. The Flash has always been portrayed as a founding member of the Justice League although Aquaman and Martian Manhunter have had a shifting position in that role throughout the years. The Justice League animated tv series replaced Aquaman with Hawkgirl, and the new 52 has replaced Martian Manhunter with Cyborg. The Flash is one of DC's big five. It's all good, though. Either way, I definitly think that a tv show of a superhero can come out at the same time as a movie of the same superhero. I can't really prove that theory, if you won't except my Superman example, but I think it can work.
plasticman
plasticman - 6/6/2012, 2:28 PM
I wrote about this yesterday. I can't agree more. Good work!
FlixMentallo21
FlixMentallo21 - 6/6/2012, 2:45 PM
@CaptainObvious
It's not Warner Bros. who is incompetent, its the dopes in charge that should take the blame. BLAME THE DOPES IN CHARGE. All we need is a changing of the guard, get in some new people who are more willing to do some of the stuff this editorial suggests.
musicsuperhero1
musicsuperhero1 - 6/6/2012, 2:52 PM
Goyer wrote a script for a Flash movie with Ryan Reynolds as Wally West. Ryan Reynolds should only ever be given two roles: Deadpool and Wally West Flash. They turned him down.
Whedon wrote a dark, gritty Greek Mythology-based WonderWoman movie...Joss Whedon who is know for writing strong female characters. They turned him down.

But we did get Steel, Constantine, Catwoman, Superman Returns, Jonah Hex, and Green Lantern.

*palm-to-forehead*

oh and lets not forget, they're already planning to reboot their one successful franchise (Batman), right after Nolan is done.

*rolls eyes*

This is all so frustrating...

*dry heaves*
Tevii
Tevii - 6/6/2012, 2:55 PM
@golden - fair enough on the big 5. The point im making is WB will not allow a character to be on TV as a show the same time as a movie. Their reason is sound though. They believe people wont pay for the movie when they are getting the character at home for free. When you are spending $200 mil per movie, they will NOT take that risk. That is WHY they have the rule. I didnt make it up
Tevii
Tevii - 6/6/2012, 2:58 PM
@golden - for the record I agree with you, you can have a Live Action show and a movie at the same time, they wont because of the financial risk.

Maybe if and when Marvel does a new Hulk movie and the new TV show Warner will once again change and try it. but until then REactive WB will not do it.
edwardshiro
edwardshiro - 6/6/2012, 8:54 PM
You really are a fan of DC Comics? Let me laugh.
Do you think that Green Lantern was a failure? The box office was poor, but as a movie, no.
It happens that this website is a double edged sword. There is much information, but also a weapon to disenchant people.
You are now ensuring that Warner Bros. does not learn from their failures. You begin to create a climate of distrust doubt that will be good movies because their writers and failed with Green Lantern. You saw a flop. Others saw a good movie.
I do not want to dwell, but I think you're not a fan of DC Comics.
Do you want to create confusion? I would not let me manipulate. I see the final result, then I can say if it is good, fair or poor.
I laugh at the critics who look at everything from square one mind and have never been objective.
The results of a film does not depend only on the scripts, there are so many elements that affect the attractiveness to the public.
For example, the release dates. In my country was released nearly two months after the United States, after the trade of piracy sold throughout the country and the download links on the Internet were the order.
Tevii
Tevii - 6/6/2012, 10:29 PM
@edwardshiro - nice baiting. Take it how you will. The ridiculous budget for that as an end result speaks for itself.
and i am a HUGE DC fan... being a fan doesnt mean you cant acknowledge the flaws in hopes they improve upon them. Only sheep follow unconditionally.
Have a good night
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