DC Comics Tagged Articles at Cinematical

By: John Gholson

It's strictly a rumor until he signs on the dotted line, but Ain't It Cool News reports that Jackie Earle Haley is the frontrunner to play Sinestro in Martin Campbell's upcoming Green Lantern movie. It's an interesting casting choice, but as a longtime Green Lantern fan, I think I pictured someone a little more slick--not as rugged as Haley--to play Green Lantern's arch-enemy.

For those that are unfamiliar with the character, Sinestro is a power-hungry member of the space-faring Green Lantern Corps, chosen to train Hal Jordan (played in the upcoming film by Ryan Reynolds). Sinestro eventually turns against the Corps and faces off against his pupil.

Read the rest at SciFi Squad

If you're not a fan of comic book flicks, it's going to be an interesting couple of years at the movies for you. Between Marvel and Disney joining forces, and DC having started their own media conglomerate (as Elisabeth told us just last week), there is no escaping the ink and panel crowd. But there's an upside if you're especially sick of superheroes, because during a conversation between MTV and the head of the newly formed DC Entertainment, Diane Nelson, she hinted that DC is planning something a little different in the world of comic book movies. Splashpage recently spoke with the woman of the hour, and she told them that not only will DC be putting some lapsed titles back into the pipeline (leaving us to speculate on whether or not Wonder Woman will get her film debut), but that the so-called 'lesser known' titles of the Vertigo universe could be getting a big-screen makeover as well.

According to Nelson, Warners will be the main arm of the film component of the new initiative, but like most business dealings in the Dream Factory, Nelson was pretty light on the details. What she did say was the following: "Vertigo is an area of great interest to me. It is even less well tapped than other parts of DC, and could potentially offer amazing stories" Now, a few of Vertigo's titles are already in movie development (like Preacher and the occasional rumblings of a Constantine aka Hellblazer sequel), but most of those projects haven't made much progress.

After the jump: the trouble with Vertigo, and some of the titles I would like to see on the big screen...

The dust hasn't even begun to settle on the Marvel / Disney deal before DC Comics decided to engage in some major overhauling on their own. Deadline Hollywood Daily broke the news that Warner Bros had taken over DC Comics and created a new brand called DC Entertainment. DC Comics' president Paul Levitz will step down, and Diane Nelson will head up DCE. She's a name moviegoers wouldn't know, but you know her results, as she's the other woman who helped make Harry Potter such a worldwide phenomenon.

While you might think the timing is a knee-jerk reaction to what Marvel and Disney just did, the truth is that Warner Bros and DC have been working on this revamp for a long time. That's apparent in the slow and steady changes we've seen lately, like the studio reaching out and bringing notable DC writers on board to oversee their movie development. According to Variety, one of the ongoing problems with Warner Bros developing DC titles was that they didn't have an executive "inside the comic book company with the right sensibility for producing tentpoles, or at least the experience of managing all aspects of a major franchise." Finke notes that the uneven relationship between the two companies produced all those pre-production stops and starts that annoy fans so much, and caused the Watchmen lawsuit that nearly delayed the film this past spring.

One thing I'm loving about Warner Bros and their DC collection is that they aren't neglecting the boys and girls of their Strange Adventures and Weird Western Tales in favor of flashier and more marketable superheroes. So, all should be suitably intrigued by Variety reporting that Warner Bros is bringing Deadman to the bigscreen. The studio has brought Nikolaj Arcel on to direct, and Guillermo Del Toro will produce alongside Don Murphy. Those who follow the exhaustive properties Del Toro has lined up for himself probably remember that he was eying the director's chair for himself a few years back.

So, who is Deadman? Well, he's that pale fellow to your right, and was once a circus acrobat named Boston Brand. His happy life on the high wire was cut short by an assailant known only as The Hook, but he was given a second life courtesy of Hindu goddess Rama Kushna. She gave his spirit the power to possess any living person he chose in order to find his assailant, and assist in the ongoing battle against evil. With his circus past, he's naturally brushed crossovers with the unfortunate Graysons, and he's met up with lots of dead DC heroes. He's most recently popped up in that Green Lantern arc everyone's talking about, Blackest Night, and is helping fight the good fight. Despite not being that well known, Deadman is an intriguing, eerie hero and very movie worthy.

No start date has been set for Deadman, and I'm ashamed to say that I'm unfamiliar with Arcel's work. But with Warner Bros, DC, and Del Toro backing him, I'm expecting good things. They seem unable to do wrong at the WB.

Disney's $4 billion purchase of Marvel means the gloves are coming off when it comes to comic books and all the possibilities for making money off of them, from toys and cartoons to movies and video games – and video game movies.

Disney is just one of the media conglomerates that's digging deeper into the video game world, and while that does include some rather unfortunate tie-in titles like "Hannah Montana: Rock Out the Show," it also includes really good games like "Kingdom Hearts," a role-playing game featuring classic Disney characters like Goofy, Donald Duck, and Mickey Mouse. And while I haven't played it myself, at least one video game girl professional told me I absolutely must play "G-Force." Seriously.

Right now Warner Bros. is definitely beating the other media giants, both with movie/comic book tie-ins like "Batman: Arkham Asylum" and innovative new games like "Scribblenauts." Now that Disney has its mitts on Marvel, we can expect plenty of Marvel superheroes and villains getting the Disney (well, hopefully Pixar) treatment. Is it possible that Disney will step up its game, so to speak, when it comes to competing with WB and DC's superior titles?

Things are looking pretty grim for the Man of Steel, at least when it comes to his future on the silver screen. As you might remember, Warner Bros, DC Comics, and the Siegel family have been tied up in court over who is entitled to what when it comes to the Man of Steel. While Warner Bros tentatively won the first round, they only have until 2011 to make a Superman movie before being sued for damages.

But a new ruling has cost Warner Bros and DC Comics pieces of the character. Superman is literally chopped into pieces between the Siegels, DC Comics, and Warner Bros which will do nothing but hurt in the long run. According to Variety, the Siegels have recaptured the rights to the first two weeks of the daily Superman newspaper strips, and portions of Action Comics and Superman comics. They apparently now control all depictions of Superman's origin story, which means they now own Krypton, its fiery destruction, Jor-El and Lora, and Kal El. In 2008, the Siegels recaptured the rights to the Superman character (which includes his costume and his alter-ego of Clark Kent), Lois Lane, the Daily Planet, its gruff editor, and their love triangle. DC still owns Jimmy Olson, his ability to fly, Lex Luthor, kryptonite, and Superman's expanded powers and origins.

You know, I think Morgan Freeman likes playing in the comic book world. After turns in Wanted, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight, Freeman is currently in talks to join another DC production. According to Variety, he's in talks to costar with Bruce Willis in Red, an adaptation of Warren Ellis' 3-book series.

Ellis' series centers on a former black-ops CIA agent named Moses. He's retired and enjoying the quiet life, and the CIA is happy to let him do so, until a new director is hired, and decides to pull up his file. When the director finds out what Moses actually did, he decides that he's a liability, and sends a high tech assassin to kill him. When the book was optioned last year, it was reported they'd added a love interest, and that Moses would be getting the old team back together. There would also be a generational divide as Moses contends with younger agents who rely on new and improved gadgets. Variety doesn't say whether all those new twists and turns have been kept, but I suspect they have, as three issues aren't quite enough to make a movie out of.

Red is one of the only DC Comics to jump the Warner Bros. ship, and is being produced at Summit Entertainment. Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber are penning the script, and the movie doesn't yet have a director. Maybe Freeman can lure in his Invictus boss, and break him into the comic book world?

Remember earlier this year when I pondered just what the heck was taking so long when it came to DC's big screen adaptations? Well, all we had to do was give them a few months, and they started kicking ass and taking names. The Hollywood Reporter has a big piece all about how DC and Warner Bros have united in a creative partnership that rivals the continuity-happy gang at Marvel Entertainment, and it's a relationship that is hoping to yield some wonderful surprises.

In a show of just how serious they are, Warner Bros quietly brought on comic supermen Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, and Marv Wolfman to act as creative consultants for their major properties such as The Flash, Teen Titans, and anything else the studio might throw at them. Even now, Wolfman and Morrison are working on super secret productions the likes of which fans can only dream about.

Wait, what was that -- The Flash? Yep, Johns is in the producer chair on the project, and worked up a new treatment for the character. Dan Mazeau is currently writing the script, and the hunt for a director is in the works. There's no Wonder Woman, Superman, or Justice League in the works, but you will be getting Bizarro Superman, which is being penned by David Howard and Robert Gordon. Also in the works is a sequel to Constantine, a solo Green Arrow movie, the Green Arrow prison lark, Supermax, and still-alive Shazam. Plus, if you've got pitches for Adam Strange or Aquaman, the studio would very much like to hear them!

Joe Shuster's dark artistic fantasies are about to hit the big screen. Variety reports that the Gotham Group has optioned Craig Yoe's Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster with plans to turn it into a historical drama.

Yoe's collection was just published this year, and revealed that Shuster as the artist behind a 16-volume series of underground comics titled The Nights of Horror. They depicted scenes of S&M and brutal torture, all starring heroes and heroines who looked remarkably like Shuster's famous Superman characters. (If you'd like to see Superman getting whipped, check out the book's official website.) As Shuster lost his DC gig in 1946, and all rights to Superman, everyone has always wondered if he was working out a few issues ...

As if Shuster's legal wranglings and descent into underground comics wasn't intriguing enough, there's even more to the Nights of Horror. The series was financed by the Mob, and were sold under the counter of Times Square bookstores. After supposedly inspiring the crime spree of the neo-Nazi Brooklyn Thrill Killers, Horror was the focus of a crackdown on comics, and a Supreme Court censorship trial in 1954. The film will tackle Shuster as an artist and the crime spree that his naughty pictures were said to inspire, and the project is currently out to writers.

Could this be L.A. Confidential with Superman porn? I hope so. As we wait to find out, let's marvel at the quirky timing that brought this news out a mere week after Jerome Siegel's heirs lost their Superman case ...