Warner Bros Pushing Forward with DC Comic Book Movies including Superman and Batman 3

Venkman here - The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on what is going on over at Warner Bros. and DC with their movies and Comic book Characters. Here is a break down:

Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov wants the studio to release as many as eight such movies a year by 2011. "The long-term goal of the studio is to take advantage of what has become a very global market by focusing on bigger films that require a bigger commitment,"

So what it looks like they are doing is making less films so they can put more money and commitment into making bigger films better. I like it, the movies they end up making wont be done half assed. This gives them a better chance at making some amazing films. I like that they want to give these big projects more attention.

Mining the comic-book franchise is central to the success of Warner Bros.' strategy... Warner Bros. has been slow to capitalize on DC, and it now faces a rival in Marvel Entertainment Inc.'s Marvel Studios, the company behind box-office gusher "Iron Man."

I'm just baffled why they never dug into the properties they had to work with in the first place. They could have been ahead of Marvel the whole time. DC and WB had the opportunity to set the comic book movie trend but they missed out. Now everyone in Hollywood is trying to get a piece of the comic book action. It's not to late for them though seeing that they do own the rights to all of the DC Universe. I just think its funny that NOW they realize they have been sitting on a golden city of money and good movies. They were going to do 'Justice League' for next summer and push 'Green Lantern' into the main stream but those have been delayed due to script problems and other things.

Warner Bros. also put on hold plans for another movie starring multiple superheroes -- known as "Batman vs. Superman" -- after the $215 million "Superman Returns," which had disappointing box-office returns, didn't please executives. "'Superman' didn't quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to," says Mr. Robinov. "It didn't position the character the way he needed to be positioned." "Had 'Superman' worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009," he adds. "But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all."

Superman will be reintroduced to the world but that last I heard they had no idea how to do that sooooo. As for Bryan Singers Superman I just don't understand what he was trying to do. I mean he gave Superman a son. Whhaaaa? That aspect of the movie alone killed it.

With "Batman vs. Superman" and "Justice League" stalled, Warner Bros. has quietly adopted Marvel's model of releasing a single film for each character, and then using those movies and their sequels to build up to a multi character film. "Along those lines, we have been developing every DC character that we own," Mr. Robinov says.

I like how they have QUIETLY adopted Marvels comic book movie model. Just come out and say Mr. Robinov! "Damn it! Why didn't we think of that first!" Your not doing anything quietly we knew what you would do, we knew you would "adopt" what Marvel has already planned. It is interesting to note however that they are developing EVERY DC CHARACTER that they own. I gotta say that's pretty impressive if they are really doing that. So what do they plan on doing with these characters?

Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.' DC properties. "We're going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it," he says. That goes for the company's Superman franchise as well.

Whoa! Hold the freakin phone Fenster! Every character is going to be dark? Like 'The Dark Knight' dark? Not all comic book characters are dark like Batman. Batman is a dark character, which is why that style works, but to mimic that darkness with every other superhero they own? That could work. It sounds like they will set the limits of how dark they will go for each character. So now every superhero movie they do is going to be "dark" even Superman. It doesn't matter if the movie is dark or not what matters is the story and the script. A story doesn't have to be dark to be good. But I'm interested to see where they take it.

So what do they have planned?

The studio is set to announce its plans for future DC movies in the next month. For now, though, it is focused on releasing four comic-book films in the next three years, including a third Batman film, a new film reintroducing Superman, and two movies focusing on other DC Comics characters. Movies featuring Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman are all in active development.

Whoa! I guess I would call that a official announcement. A 'Dark Knight' sequel is going to happen! Sweet! Hopefully Nolan and Bale will return. Then we have 'Watchmen' coming out next year which looks utterly fantastic.

So there you have it Folks Warner Bros and DC Comics are on their way to making us Fanboys and Fangirls some great superhero films. It looks like DC and WB have got their act together. Do you think they would be putting in this kind of effort had Marvel not launched Iron Man like they did? Or was it just a matter of time?