1/ Look, I know we're a bunch of executive generations since CATWOMAN, but I think I can offer an educated guess why the DCU ain't working: nobody at that studio loves these films. hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/he… via @thr
2/ I mean, I spent 2.5 years of my life trying to write a Darwyn Cook version of the characters (honestly, we independently designed identical costumes) and every meeting was the same: the execs just hated being there. They were EMBARRASSED to be there.
3/ Every day, in this city, somebody wakes up and says "Holy fuck, I'm making a Marvel movie" or "A captain America Movie" or "A Black goddam Panther movie about goddam time."
4/ Even the arguably best DC movies, the Nolan trilogy, comprise THE "NOLAN" TRILOGY. Zach Snyder was making Zach Snyder movies, his style and moral ethos radiates off them. And hey, directors drive movies, I get that. But ...
5/ Patty Jenkins made a WONDER WOMAN movie. infused with her choices, but character first. This may be a unique combination of the sexism of Hollywood and the entertainment industrial complex that got us that balance, or also Patty Jenkins is a fucking genius or some combination.
6/ The thing I struggled with, and still occasionally struggle with, is that COOL and GOOFY are eternally snugged up against each other. A millimeter in the wrong direction, and you fucked up.
7/ Executives don't just fear losing their jobs, they fear looking foolish. They fear being uncool. Many are not fans of the work in ANY way. Or project their own ideas of cool onto them, which vary between "awkward outsider" and "hellish toxicity"
8/ There are a lot of great, talented people at Warner Brothers. But until you get the exec who says "I am going to make DC movies because goddam I love these characters, and you can absofuckingylutely fire me if I fail", it just aint gonna work.
9/ Which, ironically, reinforces the idea that even in the giant blockbuster billion-dollar corporate-whore world of franchise films ... it still boils down to the exact same passion some indie kid needs to finish their 16mm film. So that's cool, I guess. /fin
