Tag: warner bros

Ava DuVernay tapped to direct New Gods for DC/Warner Bros.

Ava DuVernay is the director of A Wrinkle In Time, but I’m not trying to hold that against her. There is some indication that she actually wishes to direct this particular superhero movie, which is good; and New Gods is of course Jack Kirby at his Kirby-ish.  If it’s walled off from the rest of the DCEU — if, indeed, it can even be said to be part of the DCEU, Steppenwolf or no — that may very well be for the best.  I have high hopes for the Aquaman movie, but we’re still trying to get a director who can really understand Superman as a concept. Or who can be allowed to show that concept, I suppose.

So I hope DuVernay can make it work. But — speaking as a DC comics kid — I really wish that DC had somebody like Kevin Feige directing traffic. It’s not so much that all of the MCU movies flow into each other; it’s that the Marvel movies are all being watched over by somebody who fundamentally cares about the source material. Then again, I have no idea who that might be, so what do I know? I guess that the best that we can hope for is the occasional good standalone. May this be one of them.

Warner Bros.’ Jon Berg expiates dishonor for Justice League.

Jon Berg’s the guy who was keeping an eye on the production of the DCEU on behalf of Warner Bros. And he’s been removed.

 

Jon Berg, co-president of production at Warner Bros. Pictures, will leave his post at the studio to become a producer with filmmaker Roy Lee, who has produced successful movies for the studio including “It” and “The Lego Movie.” Berg, who ran point on DC movies and was credited as a producer on “Justice League,” has been an executive at the studio for about a decade. Toby Emmerich, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, said it was Berg’s decision to step down.

Continue reading Warner Bros.’ Jon Berg expiates dishonor for Justice League.

Warner Bros. to do a Willy Wonka movie for no discernible reason.

Clearly they decided to wait until Gene Wilder was safely dead before announcing this: “…it looks like Warner Bros. is going to take another shot at telling another story about Mr. Wonka. This time, the studio is teaming with producer David Heyman, whose recent work includes Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The movie will be about an early adventure that Willy Wonka goes on.”  I feel safe in asserting that the CGI will saturate the film, and I am using ‘saturate’ in the physical chemistry sense.

It’s not so much that it’s a remake. Remakes can be tolerable. I actually enjoyed seeing how the Wilder Willy Wonka and the Depp Willy Wonka took two distinct takes on the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, not least because the people who ran both of the productions actually liked the original book, and wanted to make a movie that was evocative of it. And, before you ask: I’m not concerned that Warner Bros. wants to create a new cinematic cash cow.  No, what concerns me is that they’re possibly all right with creating a fairly pointless and generic cash cow. There’s a limited number of movies that the big studios can make every year. If they must try to cash in on my nostalgia, the least that they can do is make the effort to produce something I’d like in spite of myself.