Topics

A sneak peak is up and running, with a nice little appearance of Spider-Man 2099 at the end.

Into the Spider-Verse was an animation feast, and I'm confident this one will be just as good. It's the only Spider-Man multiverse movie I'm interested in at the moment.

Somebody edited the Joker to make him resemble his look from BTAS, in this scene from the TNBA episode Holiday Knights. It's a great effort.

This is how his updated design for TNBA should've been. It retains the original look, while at the same time it still would've been just as simple to animate. The Joker's facial features still change without much reason, i.e. his chin going from squared to triangular, but this redesign would've had better continuity leading up to JL and BB:ROTJ than TNBA did.

Somebody uploaded these videos containing storyboard sequences for the episodes I Am The Night and Terror in the Sky. Both videos are only halfway through each episode, but it seems they haven't uploaded the rest yet. If I find them, or other storyboard sequences for other BTAS episodes, I'll post them here.

The choice of song could've been better, but it's a great video showcasing the visual continuity throughout MOS, BvS and ZSJL.

Here are a few more examples: this Superman contrast, looking like an angel from the perspective of the flood survivor in BvS, and a demonic figure from Flash's perspective in ZSJL.



Flash also raised his hand in a similar manner to interact with the Speed Force when the Unity was destroying the world. Had the military not intervened, he would've likely tried to turn back the clock as soon as Superman fired his heat vision.

Other nice visual consistencies include an over-the-shoulder view of Batman witnessing life-changing moments, and a Joker finger point with similar facial expressions.

Article: https://web.archive.org/web/20211031015102/https://screenrant.com/new-gods-movie-canceled-reason-snyder-cut/

I heard about New Gods getting cancelled together with The Trench, a planned Aquaman spin-off, back in April.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/ava-duvernays-new-gods-james-wans-the-trench-dc-movies-not-moving-forward-at-warner-bros-4159843/

I realise there is only one Darkseid in the entire DC multiverse, but since when did Warner Butchers start caring about continuity?

According to the Snyderverse community on Twitter, the cancellation of New Gods is believed to be the studio's petty way to trick idiotic haters to blame Snyder for "robbing" DuVernay the chance to direct her movie. According to Mikey Sutton, the decision to cancel it was because AT&T didn't want to confuse audiences with a new interpretation of Darkseid when we've already seen him in ZSJL. Much to WB's chagrin, allegedly.

All I know is I remember DuVernay liked one of these stupid tweets suggesting the Amazon costumes in JL were "sexist", so excuse me if I don't have much sympathy that her project is cancelled.

BTW: If you notice why I have the link appearing as an archive, it's because it's workaround to avoid giving Screen Rant a click.

She doesn't go into great detail, but Madonna confirmed on Jimmy Fallon that her decision to reject the Catwoman role in BR was one of her few career regrets.

https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/madonna-catwoman-the-matrix-regrets

I thought Madonna was fine in Dick Tracy, but I can't quite imagine she could've played Catwoman with the same level of intensity as Michelle Pfeiffer did. I doubt Burton would've chosen Madonna over Pfeiffer, and I don't even think the studio would've been willing to support her potential casting because her public image was very controversial. Her involvement in a film that was controversial itself at the time might've cast BR in an even more negative light.

With that all being said, I can't deny Madonna playing Catwoman could've had enormous marketing power.

I watched the second Mr Freeze-centric episode of BTAS a few weeks ago for the first time in years, and I've been reading about the parallels between the main villain Grant Walker and Walt Disney.

In Deep Freeze, Grant Walker is a theme park entrepreneur who wanted to be cryogenically frozen and become as strong as Mr Freeze, so he could live for practically eternity and fulfill his vision of ridding the world from chaos and disorder. In the end, his body is frozen and trapped underwater, sinking deep below the destroyed remains of his theme park. In real life, there was a crazy myth that Walt Disney had been cryogenically frozen and buried underneath the Pirates of the Carribean ride at Disneyland.

https://www.biography.com/news/walt-disney-frozen-after-death-myth

Despite being debunked by family members, there had been rumours about Disney showing interest in the idea of cryogenics and was afraid of dying, like Walker was in Deep Freeze. Even Walker's theme park sanctuary Oceania seems to be inspired by Disney's Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) - a concept by Disney to develop his vision of an ideal society, but it never came to fruition.

In hindsight, this is a pretty crazy episode and I believe the only reason it was created is because the showrunners wanted to do a twisted parody of Walt Disney. In terms of continuity, Bruce Timm appears to have either forgotten or ignored this episode, because he went on record insisting Nora Fries had been originally killed off in Heart of Ice. Not only does she appear alive but comatose in Deep Freeze, Timm himself was credited for co-creating the story with Paul Dini!

I think it's a decent episode, but it doesn't top Heart of Ice. In the grand scheme of things, it ties in well with SubZero, in spite of what Timm would've preferred otherwise.

In ZSJL, Mera speaks in a British accent in every scene she appears, even in the future Knightmare scene. But in Josstice L, and from what I remember watching the trailers for the first Aquaman movie, her accent was changed to sound more American.

Why the change? From what I understand, the studio douchebags wanted to change Aquaman as much as possible, so he has little in common with Snyder's take on the character. Mera's accent was not the only aspect of the Atlantean movie lore that got changed. I've never seen the Aquaman movie, but from what I heard, the Atlanteans in that movie don't communicate in an air bubble whenever they're underwater, like they do in JL.

Another change is the fate of Mera's parents. In ZSJL, Mera told Arthur his mother Atlanna took care of her after her parents died in the wars, while urging him to take up the responsibility to defend Atlantis and stop Steppenwolf. In Josstice L, her lines were changed, and she says Atlanna adopted her while her parents fought in the wars. In Aquaman, only Mera's father is still alive.

There is even the change in Vulko's costume and hairstyle, but I suppose it's not as drastic compared to other factors I've mentioned.

So with that in mind, in addition to the studio constantly being in denial about the Snyder cut's existence for three years and wanting to stray away from what he was doing, everything to do with Aquaman's world was rebooted, basically. You have to be willfully ignorant to believe this is still somehow connected to ZSJL.

If the deadbeats at Warner Butchers had more time when they were making Josstice L, they definitely would've reshot Mera and Aquaman's scene together so they didn't speak inside an air bubble. Hell, if you ask me, I'm rather surprised they didn't kick up a fuss about Amber Heard restoring her British accent as Mera when she filmed the Knightmare scene. Remember, these are spiteful bastards we're talking about here. If continuity wasn't an issue, Snyder would've been allowed to include Green Lantern in the end of ZSJL. Prohibiting Mera's original accent could've been another way to push Snyder out of the project, just as he nearly came close to doing so after he was prohibited from using GL.

With Gavin O'Connor's "Warrior" recently celebrating its tenth anniversary, we recently sat down for an interview on The Playlist Podcast to talk about the writer-directors standout sports drama. And while the focus was on "Warrior" and its potential television spinoff, the conversation did turn to past and future projects: including a discarded adaptation of "Suicide Squad" and an upcoming drama with O'Connor's "Mare of Easttown" collaborator.

Before James Gunn was attached to direct the sequel-slash-reboot of David Ayer's 2016 film, O'Connor had been asked to write a script for a "Suicide Squad" movie. Originally, the studio had wanted something a little darker in tone, and O'Connor had been tasked with creating something serious. "What happened there was I wrote a deal to write a script, and they knew what I was writing. At that level, with those kinds of movies, with that budget, no one's just going off and writing something without walking them through what the movie's gonna be," the director explained. "And everyone was cool with it."

But when O'Connor was in the final stages of the scriptwriting process, there was a regime change at DC Films, and suddenly the studio was asking him for a distinctly different take than the one he was writing. "What happened was during the latter part of writing the script there was a whole regime change at DC, and when that happened, they wanted it to be a comedy," he recalled. "And I'm like, 'i'm not writing a comedy.' I mean, It [was] fun, but it's not a yuk-fest. And the new regime wanted a different movie than I was writing."

Asked if he's seen the new "The Suicide Squad" movie by James Gunn or has any other comic-book characters in mind, the answer was a firm no. "I have no interest [to see it], to be honest," he said, and as for additional comic book movies, he said, "I'm just doing my own thing."

https://web.archive.org/web/20210912141652/https://theplaylist.net/gavin-oconnor-suicide-sq-20210912/

It seems Geoff Johns was partly responsible for another DC movie casualty.

O'Connor directed some damn good films such as Warrior and The Way Back, I would've loved have to seen his take on Task Force X. Instead, Toxic WB had to continue copying that Deadpool-esque comedy template, and as a result, Suicide Squad as a box office name is in ruins and its future as a franchise is arguably in limbo.

Joe Manganiello revealed O'Connor was out of five different ideas for a sequel to the first Suicide Squad from 2016. Another idea would've included Manganiello's Deathstroke take on Will Smith's Deadshot. That would've been awesome.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210311155605/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/joe-manganiello-deathstroke-suicide-squad-sequel
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/03/ray-fisher-justice-league-joe-manganiello-batman-deathstroke-cyborg

Ayer cut and a Gavin O'Connor-directed sequel would've been a far greater alternative to what we have at the moment.

I saw this guy editing B89 in 4K, and he came back to show off his editing skills for BR.

No BS, I've never once noticed any of these little quirks and mistakes before. It goes to show the difference between a general movie goer/watcher compared to an editor with Eagle Eye vision. Still, some of these edits such as the wobbly sewer bars and the fire breather are simply "blink-once-and-you'll-miss-it" moments. They don't break the movie.

You know WB is a laughing stock when Stephen Colbert, and ViacomCBS, are taking the piss out of them for trying to ignore ZSJL's success. 

No further details as of yet.

https://sirusgaming.com/2021/05/21/injustice-gods-among-us-animated-movie/

Unless they will be adapting the prequel comic storyline, I don't see the point in adapting the video game itself. I consider it as a DC animated film transformed into an interactive experience, so making an adaptation would be redundant.

But there is a lot to explore in the comic book tie-ins, from Joker murdering Lois and Superman's descent into madness to Batman's devastation over Dick Grayson's death and disowning Damian Wayne as his son. As a prequel film, it could definitely work.

We've heard about this rumour for quite some time now, so why not create a thread that's dedicated to the topic?

I remember hearing about The Cultured Nerd claiming a mini-series was being discussed and even planned several months ago, and now Mikey Sutton of Geekosity is claiming AT&T is negotiating a deal with Ben Affleck for a Batman mini-series. Surprisingly, the rumoured project is inspired by Arkham Knight.

https://geekositymag.com/att-interested-in-batman-arkham-knight-series-for-ben-affleck/

In my opinion, I do believe it's possible that AT&T wants to take advantage of fan demand to boost up the subscription numbers for HBO Max, which is a service that's screaming for original content. But assuming these rumours are true, it's going to depend on these critical factors:

• If Affleck wants to do it. Obviously.
• If AT&T can finally clean up their Warner subsidiaries and remove all the toxic naysayers who are against the Snyderverse. Theoretically, they should have a much better chance now that they have agreed to a merger with Discovery, whose CEO has declared he wants to rebuild relationships with creators and fans. Having said that, talk is cheap so we'll have to wait and see if he lives up to his promise.

I do have a hard time believing Sutton's scoop, however. His website goes back and forth about whether the Snyderverse has any hope in continuing. For example, it was only a month ago that Geekosity reported The Flash was going to erase the timeline, but now Sutton is claiming his sources have told him that AT&T have blocked The Flash production from doing such a thing. Either his sources are taking the piss out of him, or he's making it all up himself.

Another skepticism I have is the alleged Arkham Knight influence and the whole limited series format. If Affleck already has a script that was highly endorsed by Jay Oliva and Joe Manganiello on social media, why would he want to do a new project that's inspired by a different source material? And there is also the availability factor too. At the time of writing, Affleck has five more projects lined up for the next few years, according to his IMDB profile page. Two of which he is expected to direct.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000255/

Sure, none of them have a release date yet, but it doesn't sound like he'd be available for a limited series. Let alone another Batman-related project.

As much as I'd love for these rumours to be true, I'd think it's much safer to take everything with a grain of salt. Let's see how this all turns out.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/toby-emmerich-floated-for-a-new-job-1234947641/

This dropped on the same day as THR ran a puff piece on the black Superman film project. I'm not surprised, now that WB has a pattern of running stories to distract bigger news.

Emmerich is one of the of the biggest culprits behind the whole JL fiasco, which includes lying to the entire world about how the reshoots would honour Snyder's vision. Rumour has it he not only caused further problems behind the scenes for ZSJL i.e. removing GL, leaking the film on HBO Max etc, it's believed he is the biggest stumbling block for any chance of the Snyderverse to continue in any shape or form.

Interesting how Emmerich wasn't aware his contact inquired about a position at Netflix on his behalf. Even more interesting is his idea to send the entire 2021 film slate to HBO Max - without telling all relevant creative parties - alienated people like Nolan and Villeneuve.

What's odd is the article mentioned about rumours that he and that other crook Sarnoff don't get along. What rumours? I thought they both share the same agenda, unless Emmerich craves even more power than what he already has.

There is no guarantee that somebody else who could replace will be better or worse, but the sooner this jerkoff gets booted out of WB, the better. If this was any other industry that had projects engulfed in mismanagement and disastrous PR scandals, he would've been blacklisted a long time ago.

I watched a Superman character featurette the other day. To my surprise, costume designer Michael Wilkinson confirmed Superman's costume in BvS is embedded with Kryptonian writing. The script translates a quote from writer Joseph Campbell, known for his theory of the Hero's Journey.

Snyder references Campbell a lot when talking about his DCEU films. As I understand, the Hero's Journey sets a guideline and template for character development, starting from their backstory to their awakening, progressing with their struggles and defeats to concluding with their redemptions and triumphs. Clark is the foundation of the DCEU. From the moment he embarked on his journey to discover his Kryptonian heritage and how it alerted the world about the possibility of alien existence, to then becoming the focus of debate and how his death set off a beacon for metahumans to join forces to prepare a far greater threat. Which would ultimately result in his resurrection, only to later have him fall victim of Darkseid's brainwashing, as we were given a glimpse of the future during ZSJL, and then making his redemption again at the end of the planned five film story arc.

The Kryptonian language was created by linguist anthropologist Dr. Christine Schreyer. The image below contains a picture of Superman with the Campbell quotes pinpointed around his suit for reference.



Dr. Schreyer confirmed she worked on creating the Atlantean language for ZSJL too.

https://twitter.com/C_Schreyer/status/1388931586788237319

It may not be noticeable soemtimes, but I love the sort of detail Snyder puts into these characters.

Rather than posting the latest news in separate threads, I'm going to keep things organised and create a new thread that's dedicated to this topic.

ICYMI, here is a recap: Wayne T. Carr was cast as John Stewart and he was meant to appear in the end of ZSJL, but WB forced him out of the final cut. Carr got the role thanks to Ray Fisher, who is a friend of his.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.insider.com/who-was-green-lantern-in-justice-league-supposed-to-be%3famp

A month before Snyder confirmed who played his version of GL, he revealed he came very close to quitting production, but he eventually compromised and completed the rest of the film for the sake of the fans.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.indiewire.com/2021/03/zack-snyder-quit-snyder-cut-green-lantern-1234625613/amp/

Carr first spoke publicly about GL in an interview with the LightCast YouTube channel. In this snippet, he explains his reaction to the film and his gratitude for the fans' support.

Now here is where we get to discussing the latest news: today, Carr and Snyder released BTS images of the deleted scene on social media. This was shot at the director's very own driveway.

In addition to #RestoreTheSnyderVerse, we now have #ReleaseTheGreenLanternScene as a new hashtag. So even though the Snyder cut came out, it's still compromised.

I'm fine with the Martian Manhunter epilogue scene, even love it knowing MM is a telepath who comforts Bruce over his parents. But it irritates me how that scene was still a result of further compromise, and another JL character was removed entirely thanks to studio pettiness. Warner Butchers would've loved it if Snyder walked away from the project. I bet they were even betting on it, the bastards.

I hope Snyder releases the deleted GL scene one day.

Barry's use of the Speed Force to undo the Unity's destruction has got to be not only one of the best moments of the entire DCEU, but one of the best superhero film moments I've ever seen.

I'd say the moment is enriched even further when Barry uses Henry's earlier advice to keep him focused as he turns back time, and the scene is topped off with Victor's heartfelt and defiant moment of breaking through the Mother Boxes. It's fascinating that Barry and Victor's dads had played significant parts in leading up to both heroes' most emotional moments. Good men, whatever their imperfections were, certainly inspired their sons to achieve wonders. As Chris Terrio said in the Justice Con interview, "it's pure cinema".

Yet Warner Butchers, among with so many scenes in ZSJL they discarded, didn't want this spectacular scene because they thought it would've been too confusing for the audience. GTFO.

The only "confusing" part one may argue is Flash might be creating new timelines whenever he interacts with the Speed Force, but that sort of paradox is part of the character. You'd think for a comic book guy like Johns would've appreciated that. Evidently not, as you can see what he helped produce in Josstice League.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/04/chris-terrio-justice-league-batman-v-superman

Terrio doesn't hold back. From expressing his frustrations over BvS's running time getting reduced to two and a half hours, to wanting to take his name off the credits of Josstice League, he clearly has a lot of resentment towards Warner Butchers for exacerbating the criticisms leveled against him.

I love how Terrio called out Warner for having an earlier draft of Batman branding Lex in BvS, and I'm glad that he was against the idea. Such an ending would've undermined Batman's entire character arc, and yet, Warner has the nerve to think Terrio's writing is "too dark". How rich.

I recommend everyone to read this interview.

In a series of social media campaigns for calls to restore the Snyderverse, Joe Manganiello joined the chorusfor his take on Deathstroke to star in his own project. The #DeathstrokeHBOMax hashtag trended up to 102K tweets, while Marv Wolfman gave his approval for the actor to play the character again.

Check out the video below for more info.

This is a pretty good edit, but my only complaint is Dafoe is missing the red lips.

Fun fact: Dafoe was considered for the role but was never given an offer. I've read that Sam Hamm thought he would've been perfect.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cinemablend.com/news/2308232/willem-dafoe-had-some-conversations-about-playing-the-joker-in-1989s-batman