Tag: DC

First Set Photos Drop from Upcoming Joaquin Phoenix Joker Movie, and Maybe There’s Hope for DC Yet

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Image result for the joker comics

For those who haven’t heard, the Clown Prince of Crime is going to get his own standalone origin movie next year, with Joaquin Phoenix set to play the lead role and Todd Phillips set to direct.

The movie isn’t scheduled to be released until October 2019, but we were already treated to a few interesting set photos this past weekend (h/t Just Jared) as well as a close-up of what a pre-Joker Joaquin Phoenix will look like:

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(His name will also apparently be “Arthur.”)

Let me just start off by saying that I am totally on board with Phoenix as the Joker. Not only is he a brilliant and extremely talented actor – seriously, he’s probably one of the very best alive at the moment – but he’s also just batshit crazy enough to pull off a performance that could actually rival Heath Ledger’s iteration of the legendary villain from The Dark Knight.

(Side note: Jared Leto has failed MISERABLY so far in the DCEU, like embarrassingly so. If you even try to defend his portrayal of the Joker in any way, you are plain wrong and we’re not going to be friends.)

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However, I’m not as sold on the director.

Todd Phillips, a guy known for making cheeky, frat-boy-humor comedies like Road Trip, Old School, and the Hangover trilogy, is going to be in charge of building the backstory for one of the most compelling, sinister, and vicious villains in entertainment history. Though many may not like to admit it, a large part of the Joker’s ubiquitous appeal is his truly perverse, malicious, and downright sociopathic nature, and any story focused on what made him that way is going to have to be quite dark. Is Phillips up to the task?

Fortunately, Scott Silver, who wrote 8 Mile and helped write The Fighter, is helping Phillips co-write the Joker movie. Not only were both of those films pretty excellent, but they also both feature main characters who are dealing with some pretty serious personal demons and unfortunate life circumstances which ultimately end up molding them into the person they eventually become.

OK. Fine. I’ll keep the faith that the two of them together can get the job done.

It was also reported back in March (h/t Screen Rant) that the movie would indeed be an origin story, showing the Joker’s – aka Arthur Fleck’s – demise as a failed comedian and the path he ultimately took toward a life of crime. This is derived from Alan Moore’s and Brian Bolland’s 1988 classic Joker tale The Killing Joke, easily one of the most dark and macabre (and best!) Batman graphic novels of all time. The alleged theme of the film is making me hopeful that the movie will be as “super dark and real” as Brendan Schaub (h/t Batman-News) said it was going to be during an interview last summer.

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If you still haven’t read this one, do so immediately.

What makes this movie even more interesting and appealing is the fact that it is truly a “standalone.” It will not be a part of the current DCEU, which is in a state of flux at the moment, and it will instead fall under a new banner at Warner Brothers which will focus more on origin stories and other spinoffs from the universe’s main entities going forward.

Back in December 2016 (h/t Hollywood Reporter), a future Gotham City Sirens movie focusing on Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy was announced. The studio has also already confirmed a Harley-Quinn-centric Birds of Prey movie, and there’s potentially even another Harley solo movie being discussed as well. Each of those films will star Margot Robbie, who was excellent as the Joker’s main gal in Suicide Squad.

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We love you, Margot, and fortunately Warner Bros. does, too.

They will also be making a Batgirl movie, too, which makes a lot of sense considering Barbara Gordon’s pivotal role in The Killing Joke storyline. Hopefully, we could even start to see other awesome and super underappreciated characters like Nightwing and Red Hood – and, eventually, Oracle – finally make their way onto the big screen as well.

So wait…what about Leto, though?

As much as I would love for his character to fade completely into obscurity, it seems as though Warner Brothers is still going to give him plenty more screen time. As first mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter, Leto is getting another chance to be the Joker in what looks like a weird, edgy (and probably entirely unnecessary) romantic comedy with Harley Quinn, which is set to come out after the Suicide Squad sequel. (So, wait, we now have to see him at least TWO more times??!!) Fortunately, this was reported last summer with virtual radio silence on the topic since, so here’s to hoping DC scraps the idea entirely and sticks with the other much better projects in process. For now, though, it seems like Leto’s sticking around, at least in the main DCEU.

Regardless, at least it seems as though the first Joker movie set to come out has some pretty solid potential, and I’m now actually pretty excited to see the finished product. And as confusing as all the DC movie “announcements” have been over the past year or so, at least the gears are turning over at Warner Bros. and things no longer seem quite so dire for DC.

The untitled Joker movie is officially set to hit theaters on October 4, 2019.

Henry Cavill Quits Role of Superman as DC Universe Collapses on Itself

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IGN – Henry Cavill has reportedly quit the role of Superman. Per the Hollywood Reporter, the actor has apparently parted ways with Warner Bros. after three films in the role.

Following Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, Cavill was in talks to cameo in the upcoming Shazam! According to THR, contract talks broke down, and the chances for a further appearance are all but through. Apparently, scheduling conflicts have become an issue for Cavill and the studio, which is supported by the actor’s new role as Geralt in Netflix’s The Witcher.

I’d like to say I took this news better than I actually did, but I looked more like this while reading the news that Henry Cavill is out as Superman

We already saw the demise of the DC Entertainment Universe coming after Justice League came out to very “meh” reactions from fans and that was before Jennifer Garner sent the Batfleck to rehab.

Thanks a lot, Elektra.

It was already a pretty well known secret that Ben Affleck’s time as Batman was nearing its end, especially after his Batman standalone project got canned. Now, as the article mentions, Affleck will likely play a small role in Suicide Squad 2 before hanging up his batarang.

(Despite the jumbled plot, the weak villain, and the terrible ending, Suicide Squad was actually very entertaining, which is why Margot Robbie and Will Smith are billionaire movie stars.)

Now it comes out that Henry Cavill is likely out as Superman and it’s a goddamn shame because Cavill was the best Superman since Christopher Reeve. (Sorry Dean Cain) With Tom Welling as an honorable mention, mostly because he played more Clark Kent than Superman and also because Smallville will forever be branded as the show that sex slavery cult leader Allison Mack was on in the 2000s.

But seriously Cavill was great, albeit the movies were not. Man of Steel was pretty good, maybe a little slow as yet another origin story, but an entertaining entry that kicked off the DCEU and even prominently featured Detective Stabler.

Always a plus.

Batman vs Superman looked super promising as it had an excellent teaser trailer, but when the movie finally came out it was a nearly 3 hour confused mess. Not to mention Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luther is one of the worst casting decisions in recent memory.

Let us not forget though, arguably the best 60 seconds in the entire DCEU history; Bruce Wayne shit talking Superman right to his face.

Then came Justice League, which as mentioned above, was very meh. Not terrible, not great. Lets put it this way; I skipped seeing it in theaters and ultimately ended up watching it on a 5 inch screen on a plane.

I was looking forward to seeing what Cavill and DC could do to salvage this property though. They were never going to compete with Marvel; that ship sailed a long time ago. But they could have carved out a very interesting niche with some of the most popular comic book stories of all time. Some of which Cavill himself mentioned, such as “Superman: Red Son” where in an alternate reality Superman grew up in the Soviet Union instead of the good old USA and how that affects world history as we now know it. I would see the shit out of that.

Or a buddy cop film with the Green Lanterns? Stop trying to build exactly what Marvel has built in giant ensemble films because what Marvel had going for it was a decade plus of great movies leading up to the Avengers. DC had Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern..

Anyways…

I have yet to see the new Mission Impossible, but Cavill looked like a goddamn snack in the trailers so I’ll have to check that out.

You won’t be without Cavill too long though as he recently signed on to play Geralt in the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher. I am stoked for that. I only got into the Witcher when the 3rd game dropped, but that is something that is dripping with potential for Cavill.

Playing Geralt of Rivia will allow Cavill to continue being the action star that he clearly is, but The Witcher is a lot sexier than Superman ever was. He’s basically a dangerous, cocky, wandering demon slayer that always has some time for the ladies in his life.

Poor Khal Drogo though, huh? Aquaman hasn’t even come out yet and Cavill has already put an expiration date on Momoa’s superhero career unless his upcoming solo film turns out to be even bigger than Vinny Chase’s premiere.

So When Are We Getting This Aquaman Trailer?

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All signs point to the Aquaman trailer finally dropping at San Diego Comic Con on July 21st, which feels late because we haven’t seen *anything* from this movie and it comes out on December 21st. So to have not even seen a teaser yet feels odd, but its done a pretty good job of building up the hype train. James Wan did technically tease an Aquaman fight scene while promoting his own Funko Pop figure, but that hardly counts.

The DCEU has been super hit or miss with Man of Steel (55 Metascore), Batman v Superman (44 Metascore), Suicide Squad (40 Metascore) Wonder Woman (76 Metascore), and Justice League (45 Metascore). Wonder Woman is the only one of that group to even crack 56 on Metacritic so its been a mixed bag. They’ve all been entertaining if nothing else, but the majority of these movies have been plagued by their tone. Do we want to be dark? Was that too dark? Should we do mass reshoots to be less dark and more cheeky (i.e. Suicide Squad) or just try and be everything to everyone?

With all that being said Momoa brought a welcome comic relief to the film.

But he also can still throw the hands.

So I for one am very excited about this movie, and with that I think DC has already achieved the No. 1 goal, which was to make Aquaman not look soft. After years of getting roasted on everything from internet message boards to Robot Chicken, it could have been a tall task to make the King of Atlantis cool again.

Having Khal Drogo, son of Khal Bharbo, leader of his khalisar and the Great Khal was a good start. Maybe I’m biased because I’m a huge Game of Thrones guy, but Jason Mamoa has been a perfect choice to give this IP a jump start. They could have easily picked some clean cut skinny dude to slip into a green and gold costume and that would have been an easy choice, a disaster, but an easy choice.

Instead they doubled down on the head of the Dothraki. Really it was already an uphill battle trying to best the OG Aquaman as portrayed by one Vincent Chase.

Good luck topping that.

So I am looking forward to this trailer and I’m hoping DC has learned something useful from the massive hit Wonder Woman was coupled with the mostly disappointing other entries. Just let Momoa do his thing and get out of the way.