Director Doug Liman Discusses JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK and Turning the Comic Book Genre on Its Head
When I first learned that Doug Liman was hired to direct Warner Bros. Dark Universe, a.k.a. Justice League Dark, I thought he was a solid choice. I had really hoped that Guillermo del Toro's version of the film would happen, but I think Liman will give fans something fun and exciting. This is the guy who brought us films such as Edge of Tomorrow, Swingers, Go, The Bourne Identity, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
For the first time since the director was brought on to work on the film, he talked about it in an interview with IGN. He explained that he's the guy the studio wants because he is the one who will turn the comic book genre on its head. When asked if he was excited to be working on the project he said:
"Yeah, I mean first of all, I love those characters, and I love Warner Bros., and I love [producer] Scott Rudin, and it’s -- and you know, I get asked to come in and do things that are 'unconventional.' If people want conventional, they don’t come to me. It’s why doing Invisible was like right up my alley -- because how can you be conventional when there aren’t even conventions that exist? And so you know when Warner Bros. wants to sort of turn the comic book genre on its head, they call me."
When asked if that was the goal for Dark Universe, the director explained what the studios expect from him with the films he makes:
"Yeah. It’s like how do you fundamentally reinvent what people are doing? And that’s the good and the bad news of this sort of box I’ve been put in. I mean, you’d think it was by design, but it wasn’t. It is exactly what I should be doing, but I’m just so grateful that -- you know sometimes I’m working on a project and I pitch an idea that’s too conventional, and the producers will say back to me 'That’s not Doug Liman enough.' Which is like a weird thing, because I’m like 'Well that -- it was my idea! How can you say it’s not me?' And they’re like 'No, because when we think of you, we think of like, you know -- that just seems too ordinary.'
"So even if I wanted to be a little bit more conventional, like, the system doesn’t want me to be. But since I do treat every project as a form of a film school, 'OK I haven’t done that genre and how am I going to do it and how am I going to do it in a way that no one’s done it before,' so that’s, you know, I haven’t done a comic book film, and that’s -- am I going to do it in a new way that’s unlike what anyone else has ever done, and come up with a couple of rules for myself of what we’re not going to do that other people do."
Liman has always had a fun and unique style to his storytelling. I really like what he's done with most of his films, especially Edge of Tomorrow. That movie was so freakin' good! I'm sure he'll end up doing some great things with Dark Universe, and I'm looking forward to seeing what that will be. But will he really be able to turn the comic book genre on its head? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.