For this week’s installment of Most Heroic, I’d originally planned to take the time to talk a bit more in depth about Man of Steel and what it meant for the future of Superman and the DC Movie Universe as a whole. But I’m afraid I’ll have to wait another time to write about that one. Sometimes the news of the day trumps our best laid plans, and this week we got some really big news. Maybe I’ll pick up my original topic at another time.
On Monday, Shawn wrote a piece based on a story that was published by the Wall Street Journal. Since Man of Steel has now become the #1 movie in the entire world and made its place in the record books, it seems that Warner Bros. could very well decide to fast-track a sequel for a release NEXT YEAR, with a Justice League film following in 2015. Now keep in mind, this is not being reported by a some Podunk paper. This came from the freaking Wall Street Journal. So, it’s a pretty reliable source.
However, Shawn did point out that the source was probably closer to the studio’s financial department. It very well may turn out to just be a red herring. But let’s take a few minutes and imagine that it is not, just to analyze how this idea of fast-tracking Man of Steel 2 and Justice League is a godawful idea.
The idea that a Man of Steel sequel could be done in one year is asinine. The only way we could get a decent movie made in that time would be if the filmmakers had pulled a Peter Jackson and filmed both films at the same time, and there has been no indication that this has happened. Goyer needs to craft a strong script to show what happens next for Clark Kent and Superman, they need to cast the new characters that he’ll add in the script, and they would have to scout locations immediately. You expect to do all that in a year, when Man of Steel had over two years of production? Someone’s going to have to explain the math to me on that one.
2. We Wouldn’t Get A Good Movie
Even if they somehow managed to get a movie made in that time, it more than likely wouldn’t be a movie that we would really like. If production is rushed the film won’t be given the level of detail and care that it deserves, and the next stage of DC movies depends on it being really good.
From working at a movie theater for years and studying film, I’ve developed my own philosophy on cinema. I’ve noticed that when a movie is good, it performs better at the box office. When it’s not so good, it won’t do as well as it could have. The secret is repeat viewings. I saw dozens of people return for movies like The Dark Knight and The Avengers. Almost nobody came to re-watch flicks like The Spirit.
For a movie to really make the money that Warner Bros. wants, they’ll need maybe a year or two more to get all the ducks in the same row.
It’s been very frustrating for me to watch the development of DC movies over the past five years. Certainly we did get Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, but we also got an awful Green Lantern movie and Superman Returns. I actually like Superman Returns, but I can’t deny that it helped set the development of the future DC movie universe back by years. By giving the Donner films a loving coda like they did, they put a heck of a block up to
By contrast, Marvel is now miles ahead of DC. In five years, they’ve had hit film after hit film and while quality hasn’t always been stellar, they haven’t had a flop yet. DC has had much more of a hit or miss record, and they’re hours late to the party. Marvel gave us an Avengers film that turned out better than we ever could have expected, and DC gave us a Superman movie that wasn’t as good as it should have been.
If they make another bad movie, DC will be set back even further. At this point, if that happens, I wonder if we’ll ever get to see the Justice League. Warner Bros. may decide that they’re tired of losing money over superhero films and just stop doing them all together.
I would like nothing more than to find out that this fast-tracking story is just a big dumb rumor that got too big for its britches and made a mess of itself in public. I’d love to find out that it originated from a joke told out of context at the premiere’s after party. I’m going to be praying that’s the case.
Next week on Most Heroic, we’ll be resuming our series on Superman.