The Fate Of The DC Cinematic Universe will depend On The Success Of MAN OF STEEL

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You guys still want that Justice League movie, right? Well, in a piece about Jeff Robinov staying on as president of the Warner Bros. motion picture group, it's pointed out that the studio won't move ahead with Justice League until they see how Man of Steel performs. 

Green Lantern was a flop. With a budget of over $200 million, the fact that it grossed less than $220 million worldwide was not a good result for Warner Bros. While success was pretty much guaranteed for them with Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise, Green Lantern was the first real risk that the studio took when it comes to their superhero properties. For that reason, it should perhaps comes as no surprise that they are now extremely wary moving forward. While Marvel's The Avengers may have been a $1.5 billion success, they still aren't sure about whether or not they should move ahead with Justice League. Instead, it will be down to how well Man of Steel performs before they make a final decision on the fate of the superhero ensemble. 



Stakes are high for "Man of Steel." Other than Nolan's Batpics, Warners has not been able to effectively exploit the DC library. Its 2011 "Green Lantern" underperformed, and a "Justice League" film wouldn't likely be in theaters before 2015, as Warner's top brass has indicated that they are awaiting the results of "Man of Steel," which opens June 14, before moving further ahead.

Thanks to Variety for the information above. This is of course common sense to a certain extent, but the fact that a trade as reliable as this mention it means that we had best see Man of Steel as many times as possible if we want Justice League to finally become a reality!

Meet The Final 5 Members Of The ‘Justice League’ & See Who Didn’t Make The Final Cut!



So what’s the latest with DC Comics answer to The Avengers 2 now that both films are slated to go mano a mano in the summer of 2015?

As of this morning, they are STILL looking for a director. In the meantime, according to sources, the final cinematic Justice League roster will consist of five core members featuring:

1) Superman
2) Batman
3) Green Lantern
4) Wonder Woman
5) The Flash

There might be one or two cameos from the 2nd stringers. The Justice League Varsity B team consists of:

6) Martian Manhunter
7) Aquaman

The 3rd sting bum juice practice squad sole member with the weakest possibility of a cameo:
8) Hawkman

So there ya have it. Again, five core members and one or two possible cameo appearances. Think about it for a second, this film will most likely be almost three hours and even then that is still not enough time to give back stories to seven plus characters, have a plot, maybe a romantic entanglement, and throw in Darkseid’s evil plan to boot. It’s overkill.

Wouldn’t it be a cool cameo possibility instead if there is a human character throughout the film and during the climatic third act battle – twist – he turns into Martian Manhunter revealing his true identity! That would be badass!

My money is on Martian Manhunter scoring the cameo because after all, the threat to the Justice League is going to be cosmic, so they are probably going to need help from some good guy alien. Water is always expensive to shoot hence Aquaman might get no love unless the Justice League needs something at the bottom of the ocean that Vinny Chase (Aquaman) can provide. Ok, poor attempt at humor. I see Hawkman as the Tim Tebow of the bunch so the general manager should trade him or outright release him.

It makes sense concentrating on the core five, three of which already had movies and are pretty well known. Then maybe introduce a new member as a cameo that can be fully explored and fleshed out in a sequel if it happens. Looking forward to what you guys think so chime in below.

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Knights Of Badassdom Official Trailer #1 (2013) - Peter Dinklage Cosplay Movie HD

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Bryan Singer Talks X-Men: Days of Future Past

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Director Bryan Singer isn't messing around with the prospects of X-Men: Days of Future Past. The film is shaping up to be the most ambitious X-Men film to date. One reason for that is much of both casts from the original X-Men films and the most recent X-Men: First Class are coming together. In an interview with Empire, Singer spoke at length about the film and the prospects of such a big movie.

"It's epic. I don't think people realize how big this movie's going to be. We get to bring both casts together. We've cracked it in a way that it makes sense. I had a two-hour conversation with James Cameron about time travel, string theory, multiverses and all that. You have to create your rules and stick wtih them. That's why Terminator and Back To The Future work so well. And there are certain mechanisms in X-Men, certain powers, perceptions and characters, that make this possible."

With the inclusion of many characters that are not present in the original comic book storyline, some fans have wondered how close the film will stick to the source material. Singer assures us that, while different, it will honor the original comic.

"It has a lot of aspects of the comic. The actual comic of Days Of Future Past had a whole ton of stuff going on, so it’s like any of these things; you have to distill it. But I think the fans will be pleased that some of the most exciting parts of Days Of Future Past are going to be connected to this movie."

After all of the casting announcements for the film, many have speculated that the film will not acknowledge the events of X-Men: The Last Stand or X-Men Origilns: Wolverine due to continuity issues, but Singer says every film in the series is being considered canon.

"I’m taking into account every movie – I’m not just grabbing my first two movies and First Class and smashing them together. I’m taking into account the entire universe as it’s been laid out so far on the screen, and really respecting it and trying to work with that. People took things in various directions, so there’s some clean-up. But ultimately I’m not just ignoring them either."

Since the film's announcement, Singer has been slowly announcing the cast for the film via his Twitter account, and he doesn't plan on stopping.

"I’ll be using Twitter as an avenue. I think Twitter is an amazing thing. Very often something gets out there in the rumour-sphere, and people start building up an impression of something that might not be right. So what I want to do is just little by little drop out whatever information is official."

Scheduled for release on July 18, 2014, X-Men: Days of Future Past features a script by Simon Kinberg and is said to be inspired Chris Claremont and John Byrne's comic book storyline that ran in "Uncanny X-Men" #141 and 142 back in 1981. "Days of Future Past" introduced the idea of an alternate future for Marvel's mutants that grew out of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants killing an important senator, leading to a future where all mutants are hunted by Sentinels.

Confirmed cast members for the film include Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore and Hugh Jackman.

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WEEKEND BOX OFFICE!

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Weekend chart from Box Office Mojo

6 Ways J.J. Abrams Can Crossover ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek’

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Fanboys across the internet are suffering myocardial nerdfarctions at the news that J.J. Abrams is going to direct ‘Star Wars: Episode 7.’

After initial flashes of what that deal process must have been like (we’re fairly certain Abrams merely stomps around Hollywood shouting “Mine! Mine!”) we couldn’t help but wonder what this meant for the ‘Star Trek‘ franchise. With Abrams as the creative force behind both universes, might we finally get to see some ‘Wars’/'Trek’ crossover outside of the realm of fanfiction? If Mr. Abrams is up for some suggestions, here’s what we’ve got for him.

Ewoks Eat Roasted Tribbles Around a Campfire

Those reproductive nuisances never really served a purpose -- I don't care what Cyrano Jones says. Their origins have always been mysterious, and their appearance on the Forest Moon of Endor makes just as much sense as anything. Can modern audiences handle this much fuzzy cuteness? Ask your neighborhood Brony.

Leonard Nimoy As One Of Those Blue Ghosts

A Jedi can never die -- we learned that from the first time we heard Obi Wan shout, "Run, Luke, run!" As such, in 'Star Wars: Episode 7' it might be cool if our young man on a hero's journey should learn about the Force from one of the ancient, original Jedi from 'Star Wars' canon. We'd like to see Anavas Svag in the form of a glowing, elderly, mumbling Leonard Nimoy. Maybe he'll do some sort of hand salute and all the fans can pass out.

Horta Are Actually Exogorth Excrement

The big worms that live inside of the asteroids around Hoth? Turns out that they have a really unique digestive system. (I mean, my God, the Millennium Falcon can fly around in there and these beasts don't mind?) Their solid waste is actually silicon based, and these pieces of matter are actually the sentient beings known as the Horta. Man, talk about a life of "Pain!!!!"

R2-D2 Falls in Love With Nomad

Imagine the fun Ben Burtt clucks and whistles R2-D2 will make when his boyfriend zaps Uhura of all her memory (which she manages to get back the next week). Oh yeah, you didn't know R2-D2 was gay? He doesn't like to advertise it, but he's totally out to friends.

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Julian Assange Calls Bill Condon's Biopic The Fifth Estate A Massive Propadanda Attack

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Benedict Cumberbatch certainly looks the part in The Fifth Estate, in which he is playing notorious journalist Julian Assange, but apparently his subject is none too happy about the film. On Wednesday night Assange spoke during an Oxford Union debate via videolink and took part of his time to slam the upcoming movie, which is being directed by Oscar winning filmmaker Bill Condon.

According to Deadline, when the subject turned to the new DreamWorks film Assange called the project a "massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff." He claims to have read a copy of the script - though offered no evidence that he has one - and said that the project will be “fanning the flames” of international conflict due to the fact that the movie reportedly begins "inside a military complex in Iran with the suggestion a nuclear bomb is being built."

Production on the movie only began earlier this week, the studio also announcing that it will be coming out right in the heart of this year's Oscar race on November 15th of this year. In addition to Cumberbatch the film also stars Daniel Brühl, Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Dan Stevens, Alicia Vikander and Carice van Houten.

It's interesting that this would happen now, as just last week Prince Albert of Monaco and the rest of the royal family denounced the upcoming biopic Grace of Monaco, saying that the story is "pointlessly glamorized and contains important historical inaccuracies as well as scenes of pure fiction." I guess now is not the time to be in the business of making biopics.

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Neill Blomkamp: An Oddyssey Through District 9, and Why Elysium Will Be Brilliant

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After far too long away from the game, Neill Blomkamp returns this year with his highly anticipated follow-up to District 9: the Matt Damon-starring Elysium. Blomkamp exploded from out of nowhere in 2009 with his analogous, modern Sci-fi masterpiece, and it instantly marked him as one to watch for the future. With 4 (count ‘em!) Academy nods and heaps of praise from all quarters, excitement is understandably building for his second feature. Here are a few things we can expect from Elysium…

Turns out it was Earth all along. Blomkamp pulled an interesting little trick by using District 9‘s human/alien segregation to explore apartheid and themes of segregation. Some of the best Sci-fi works as a kind of defamiliarisation, in that it takes a facet of life as we know it and twists it into something simultaneously alien and eerily familiar. Look at something like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) – it encapsulates the paranoia of the era (Watergate, anyone?) perfectly, and in a way that is removed enough from its source to make for a non-preachy piece of entertainment. It’s a fine line of course, what with Avatar‘s gorgeous looks and pure entertainment value not quite distracting from its bludgeoning message of “Umm…the war in Iraq is bad mmkay?” It’s made fairly clear that apartheid is the major issue that is being examined in District 9, but it focuses upon the very issue itself, rather than having some gung-ho soldiers with a collective social conscience kicking against the injustices of a brutal ruling regime. Sure, protagonist Wikus (Sharlto Copley) does come around to the injustices, but only because he has been implicated in the alien struggle purely by accident. His transformation into one of the creatures is terrifying and visceral; an exaggerated comment on just how difficult it is for South Africa to face up to its past. It works because it distracts us with its winning combination of body-horror and emphasis on character over theme.

The first half-hour is unsettling to say the least. Forced evictions, slums, murdered non-conformists and the burning of alien spawn paint an uncomfortable picture. It is the novelty side of things that make the film so impressive: found-footage style, alien invaders who don’t really want to invade, and the Johannesburg setting seemingly make things too far removed from reality. Acknowledging the camera serves to heighten the fiction when we see it on a big screen, non-aggressive invaders seem somewhat silly and Johannesburg is so far away that it might as well be Oz. However, the things that initially alienate the film from the real world seem sinister when examined. The found-footage approach mostly gives way shortly after the initial eviction scene, shifting focus from the overarching theme to the human involvement therein, which feels a little more real. Those easily penned-in aliens seem a little too human in their weakness and compliance. Throw a vicious Nigerian gang into the slums of District 9 and you’ve got an analogy for every broken-down neighbourhood and slum ever to exist. Crime moves in and takes advantage, the government leaves things be until the issue gets too close to the “nicer” parts of town, and only then is action taken. You only have to look up District Six in South Africa’s recent history to see the kinds of things Blomkamp is getting at in District 9.

Such an assured approach to his debut suggests that Elysium‘s thematic ideas will be handled in a similarly impressive manner. The plot of Elysium seems loaded with allusion to the whole Occupy Movement, 99%-ers business etc. In the film, the wealthiest of the wealthy live on a space station, far away from the poor who have been left on a decaying planet Earth. That one line of plot screams “WE ARE THE 99%!”, doesn’t it? The issue may be a fairly cheap one to address right now. The Dark Knight Rises, for example, has already had a go at it. The problem with TDKR‘s attempt is simple: it all looks too familiar. Every man and his boy-wonder side-kick knows that Gotham City is just the gritty parts of New York on a bad day. That being said, it’s no stretch to imagine that there is also a “money” element to Gotham; a place where the rich can look down upon the poor with a grimace. You don’t have to squint too hard to make the Gotham Stock Exchange look a lot like Wall Street. The idea is generally undercooked, what with the comic book constraints that must ultimately limit even the greatest adaptations of the medium’s best work, yet it does make for intriguing viewing. With a more concerted effort and a script not restricted by the laws of adaptation, Neill Blomkamp should find himself with significantly more fertile ground to work from than his peers. We could potentially be looking at the first great Sci-fi film to address the financial state of our time.

The foundations that Blomkamp has laid down with District 9 seem to have attracted a veritable dream-team of talent and perks. First off, the reported $100,000,000 budget is a massive step up from the $30,000,000 that Blomkamp managed to do so much with in his debut feature. District 9 succeeded in its attempt at a tricky illusion: making a relatively low-budget Sci-fi look like a genuine Hollywood blockbuster. Just imagine what the people behind the undeniably visually-impressive District 9 can do with a massively inflated budget.

Of course, inflated budget does not necessarily mean a better movie. They gave Richard Kelly almost $20,000,000 to follow up the comparatively cheap Donnie Darko, and what happened? I’ll tell you what happened: the critical and commercial flop that is Southland Tales, which managed only around half a million dollars worldwide during its cinematic run. Personally, I don’t have too many qualms with it as a film, but it certainly is a disappointment when you consider just how good Donnie Darko was. The recent Transformers franchise proves that an ever-expanding budget doesn’t buy you a good movie. The first installment was grounded in humanity, the story of a boy buying his first car is timeless. Then came the robots, you know, that staple of adolescence. An extra $50,000,000 on each of the sequels did more harm than good, with the franchise leaning more upon the jaw-dropping special effects than any kind of humanity. I swear, Revenge of the Fallen had some of the worst character development I have ever seen. Megan Fox stand close to Shia LaBeouf, some moody music plays, then the camera runs around them in a circle. It’s not exactly expertly crafted dramatic framing, is it? Revenge of the Fallen acts as a cautionary tale for Sci-fi/action movies, in that it showed the results of what happens when special effects become the focus of a film. Sure, it’s great to look at, but you just don’t feel invested in the characters. The fact that I cared far more for the machines than any human character is pretty damning.

In contrast, take a look at District 9. Blomkamp has crafted a protagonist with an easily-identifiable persona and enough backstory-heft to make it easy to care for him. Wikus is flawed and very human, but he is also tragic. His Kafkaesque transformation is engaging, and even though the writing is deserving of praise, Sharlto Copley’s grounded and believable performance is the key to success. His dorky office worker is relatable (anyone who has ever worked in an office will know someone like him), and the familial touches – his birthday party, for example – are handled brilliantly by Copley. His desperation is palpable, and even his less-noble acts later on are made understandable by Copley’s natural translation of the character.

The follow-up to a debut hit is always tricky business. I mentioned Richard Kelly earlier, and he’s not the only director to stumble at the second picture. Rian Johnson burst onto the scene with high-school noir flick Brick, then lost a lot of goodwill with the throwaway The Brothers Bloom. He bounced back last year with Looper, but that doesn’t disguise the fact that his second film was not quite up to scratch. Then again, some directors have succeeded in impressively following-up, and even bettering, their debut. Tarantino is a startling example of this – somehow eclipsing the refreshing Reservoir Dogs with Pulp Fiction.

If you’re a fan of Sci-fi, you’ll know that there is some exciting talent out there. Alex Garland, who wrote screenplays for Dredd, Never Let Me Go and the criminally underrated Sunshine is a great example. It is important that new talent is encouraged within the genre. (An interesting note: Garland originally wrote a treatment for the long-awaited Halo movie, whilst Blomkamp has been rumoured as a possibility to direct). It’s genuinely inspiring to see that there are plenty of possible maestros being given their chance. Gareth Evans may be a controversial choice for the Godzilla reboot, but it is a great show of faith in young talent. Similarly, Josh Trank is attached to the latest attempt at a Fantastic Four movie, and after Chronicle, it seems that the sky is the limit for that young man.

Blomkamp has already shown flashes of a special talent, and Matt Damon has said of his director that he may well be this generation’s James Cameron. Hopefully Blomkamp will conduct himself with a higher degree of subtlety than Mr. Cameron, but it is high praise from a man who has worked with his fair share of quality directors. Elysium is, without doubt, a make-or-break moment, but with so much promise shown in District 9, it seems impossible to think that Blomkamp will waste his opportunity. Sci-fi is a genre ripe with potential for social commentary, philosophical debate and some good old-fashioned balls-to-the-wall action. Such a thrilling prospect is not often found in other genres due to their familiarity with the “real world”, and Neill Blomkamp could prove to be the leading light in one of the most talented batches of Sci-fi talent that has ever been.

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