Solely three months into his tenure as DC Studios head alongside Peter Safran, filmmaker James Gunn isn’t mincing phrases concerning the firm’s future. In an action-packed press convention held from the Warner Bros. lot, Gunn expanded on his lately unveiled plans for DC, together with new Superman and Batman movies.
“As everybody right here most likely is aware of, the historical past of DC is fairly tousled. It was fucked up,” Gunn stated earlier than a gaggle of journalists this week, in accordance with The Hollywood Reporter. “Nobody was minding the mint. They have been giving freely IP like they have been occasion favors at any creator who smiled at them.”
The author-director, who helmed 2021’s The Suicide Squad and HBO Max’s Peacemaker sequence, was tapped by Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav to run the revamped DC Studios alongside Safran late final 12 months. Key firm figures together with Walter Hamada, Toby Emmerich, and Zack Snyder had all departed their roles previous to the shift. “There may be the Arrowverse, there was the DCEU, which then cut up and have become the Joss Whedon Justice League at one level and the Snyderverse. At one other level, there may be Superman & Lois, there may be Reevesverse, there are all these various things,” Gunn stated of a challenge lineup that included The CW’s TV exhibits and Matt Reeves’s The Batman. “And even us—we got here and did Suicide Squad, and that turned Peacemaker, and Bat-Mite is an actual factor.”
One sufferer of the altering of the guard, as Gunn sees it, was former Superman Henry Cavill. “I like Henry, I feel he’s an ideal man,” he stated. “I feel he’s getting dicked round by lots of people, together with the previous regime at this firm. However this Superman isn’t Henry, for various causes.” (Cavill’s ouster in favor of a youthful Clark Kent and the halting of Patty Jenkins’s in-development Marvel Girl 3 have been amongst early strikes in Gunn and Safran’s reign.)
In the course of the press convention, Gunn additionally railed towards mad sprint launch dates. “We aren’t going to place tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} into a movie the place a screenplay is just two thirds of the best way accomplished and we’ve got to complete it whereas we’re making the film. I’ve seen it occur many times, and it’s a large number,” he stated. “I feel it’s the first motive for the deterioration of high quality of movies at this time versus 20, 30 years in the past.”
Gunn, who has weathered his personal share of controversy, additionally addressed two tumultuous figures underneath the DC Studios umbrella. Ezra Miller, who lately pleaded responsible to misdemeanor illegal trespass and is receiving psychological well being therapy, will lead The Flash when it opens in theaters on June 16. Not solely are firm heads not shying away from Miller’s film—they’re wholeheartedly hyping it. “I’ll say right here that Flash might be one of many biggest superhero films ever made,” Gunn stated, as reported by Selection. Added Safran: “Ezra is totally dedicated to their restoration, and we’re totally supportive of that journey that they’re on proper now. When the time is correct, once they really feel like they’re able to have the dialogue, we’ll all determine what the very best path ahead is. However proper now they’re fully centered on their restoration. And in our conversations with them over the past couple of months, it seems like they’re making monumental progress.”
Then there may be the matter of Zachary Levi, who sparked backlash on January 29 after he responded to a Twitter person who wrote, “Do you agree or not, that Pfizer is an actual hazard to the world?” “Hardcore agree,” Levi wrote in response. Many assumed Levi was airing anti-vaccine beliefs, though the actor has not provided further context for his tweet.
“Simply actual merely: Actors and filmmakers that I work with are going to say issues that I agree with and issues that I don’t agree with,” Gunn stated when requested about Levi, per Selection. “And that’s going to occur. I don’t have an inventory of issues that any individual ought to say due to what I feel. And you realize, I can’t be altering my plans on a regular basis as a result of an actor says one thing that I don’t agree with.”
He continued: “By the identical token, if any individual’s doing one thing morally reprehensible, then that’s a special story. Now we have to take all that stuff under consideration. It’s a stability. It’s trendy world and it’s a special place.” Levi will quickly embark on press duties for Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which will likely be launched on March 17. Plans for future movies centered on his superhero haven’t been introduced.
