Not long ago I was pretty harsh in my criticism of Diane Nelson’s handling of the DC Universe so far in her tenure as the President of DC Entertainment, largely in part to their failure to package Green Lantern: The Animated Series in such a way that it could be successful despite the lack of a toy line to help finance the production budget or in finding another way to keep the highly rated and critically praised series alive through other media outlets. But my disappointment with DC Entertainment goes further than that in their failing to make the right moves in establishing a serious film presence for DC’s stable of heroes and using major events like the San Diego Comic Con to announce plans for their future more than three years into their existence.
My opinion still stands, although the rumor is that this year at last we’ll get some information, however the recent departure of Warner Brothers executive Jeff Rubinov casts some doubts over whether or not we’ll actually get an announcement at all given the studio politics that surround the exit of the man who spearheaded the creation of DC Entertainment. The ending of the studios relationship with Legendary Entertainment doesn’t bode well, either.
But at long last Diane Nelson has emerged from the shadows to talk a little about the state of DC films in the Hollywood Reporter and she even addresses the disappointment performance of the Green Lantern film head on. When asked directly about how the results of Green Lantern contrast with the success of Man of Steel she said, “That balance of what matters wasn’t quite right on Green Lantern. I know everyone involved with the project wanted it to work as much as everyone involved with Man of Steel wanted it to work. In the debate of art versus science, sometimes the mix isn’t just right. But we will find some other way to bring that character to the screen.”
That other way would be what many fans, myself included, have been saying for some time with regard to using a Justice League film to soft reboot the cinematic version of Hal Jordan with or without Ryan Reynolds as well as to introduce audiences to modern versions of Wonder Woman, the Flash and Aquaman and use audience reaction to the characters to help shape films based on the individual characters. My long held opinion is that DC’s characters have a distinct advantage of having a long history of being in the social consciousness and really don’t need to have films of their own to build towards a team film.
Should that be the case and we actually get some concrete news coming out of San Diego then perhaps at last we’ll get the forward momentum that fans have been waiting for since DC Entertainment was launched.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter