JUSTICE LEAGUE Will be More 'Straightforward, Extremely Kinetic and Visual'
Over the weekend, I caught a very interesting article on Variety that talked about the future of Warner Bros. DC Films. They go into detail about how the studio is scrambling to catch up with Marvel; how the studio is panicking after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice saw a 69% drop at the box office; and how the studio wants Geoff Johns to take on a Kevin Feige type role. In regard to that, the report says:
"For a period, WB was keen on Geoff Johns for such a role. But that’s a tall order for DC’s chief creative officer, who is already stretched very thin. While he is currently writing the upcoming stand-alone Batman film with Affleck, he also wears a number of other hats. 'Geoff is really smart, but he’s got like 10 different jobs,' a source says. 'He’s writing comic books, controlling DC, writes on [TV’s] ‘The Flash’ — I would imagine Feige’s is a full-time job just managing this stuff. So I don’t know how you ask Geoff, in the best of both worlds, to do that.'"
I personally don’t think the guy is as talented as Feige, but the studio is trying to work with what they have. One of the most interesting parts in the report is when they talk about director Zack Snyder’s plans for Justice League and how he is going to take it in a different direction than what we’ve seen him do with Man of Steal and Batman v Superman. We’ve already heard that the film will have a lighter tone, and now it seems they want to make more of a “crowd pleaser.” The report goes on to say:
“As for 'Batman v Superman,' those involved weren’t prepared for the critical knives the film received, but they always knew it was going to be a transitional film, bridging the gap between 'Man of Steel' (which was produced with no plan in place to expand the universe) and anything approaching the Avengers/Super Friends mold. But I’m told 'Justice League' will be a crowd-pleaser more suited to Snyder’s talents, and that the upcoming two-part event is 'extremely kinetic and visual.' It will be far more straightforward than existential in its handling of superheroes.”
They don't say that this tonal shift in Justice League is in response to how people reacted to the darkness of Batman v Superman, but I’m pretty sure that it is. What do you think?