Anmol Ahuja
7. A different kind of “Fight Night”
While the clash of the two titans, Batman and Superman was only brought to fruition last year in BvS, it’s not like nobody thought of having them square off against each other wasn’t a good idea for raking in the bucks. A film having Batman square off against Superman was first proposed in 2001 to be directed by Wolfgang Peterson (‘Troy’, ‘Das Boot’) and scripted by Akiva Goldsman (‘A Beautiful Mind’, ‘I am Legend’). The script involved the Joker killing Bruce’s love interest, sending Batman on a revenge spree and putting him on a collision course with Superman. The project was shelved but in the 2007 film ‘I am Legend’ starring Will Smith with a screenplay by Goldsman, a similar idea was teased near the opening scene. The tease included the Superman shield inside the Bat symbol, akin to the present day logo for BvS.
8. What a lovely day!
George Miller, acclaimed director of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015), was signed on to direct a Justice League film in 2007, titled “Mortal”; even the casting for all league members was complete. However, the project faced difficulties and delays owing to the Writers Guild of America’s strike that year, and the project was initially put on indefinite hold. As of today, the project was shelved by WB in favour of developing a shared universe. While the casting didn’t get me hyped, it would have been interesting to see what George Miller would have brought to the table.
9. The Standalone Paradox
Ironically enough, the standalone film of ‘the fastest man alive’ appears to be proceeding at snail’s pace, with the film slowly receding into development hell following a series of fallouts and departures. While the confirmed cast only includes Ezra Miller as the titular character, Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, and Billy Crudup as Henry Allen, the film unfortunately struggles to settle on a director to helm the film. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (‘The Lego Movie’) were initially attached to direct, but were replaced by Seth Grahame Smith. However, Smith left too and was replaced by Rick Famuyiwa (‘Dope’). Earlier this year, Famuyiva too announced his departure from the project following creative differences with the studio executives. ‘The Flash’ that was originally slated for a 2019 release, as of now, hangs in the balance.
10. Reconsider, Mr.Zimmer?
It’s true. DC Movies may never sound the same. Following last year’s ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’ that he scored in collaboration with Junkie XL, Hans Zimmer announced his retirement from the superhero business. For those of you who don’t know, Hans Zimmer is the maestro responsible for producing iconic scores to almost every Nolan film including the Dark Knight Trilogy, ‘The Lion King’, and ‘The Gladiator’, to name a few. Among his most recent works, he composed scores for two DCEU films, ‘Man of Steel’ and ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’, following which he stepped back from scoring for superhero films altogether.
For those of you still wondering, listen to ‘Flight’ from the soundtrack of ‘Man of Steel’ or ‘Beautiful Lie’ and ‘Is She With You’ from BvS, and you’ll understand how big a loss this is for the DCEU. Apparently, scoring for two Batman films over a short period of time and the tiresome process of “trying to find new language” did it for him. Here is seriously hoping he would reconsider his stand, the DCEU sure won’t be the same without his iconic scores!
11. God is in the Details!
Gotta show DC some love for the amount of detail they put in each of their movies and character designs on screen. A lot of you may not have noticed it, but Kal-El’s supersuit first shown in ‘Man of Steel’ and later in ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’ contains Kryptonian hieroglyphs based on Kryptonian scripts developed specifically for the film. The modified suit from BvS infact contained quotes regarding the use of power and the responsibility it entails, as quoted by the film’s costume designer, Michael Wilkinson, which Zack Snyder loved.
Along similar lines, Wonder Woman’s costume, sword and shield too contained Amazonian script embedded in them, adding to the character’s depth and mythos. Such intricacy, much wow.
12. A Method to the Madness!
Jared Leto is an actor who is known for getting into the skin of the characters he portrays, committing himself to the part completely. Naturally, when he was signed on to play The Joker in ‘Suicide Squad’, the actor went on to do some really crazy stuff as part of his preparation. From trying to perfect the Joker’s laugh by trying it on unsuspecting people, to watching loads of actual crime footage on youtube to understand the criminal psyche, shaving his eyebrows and sending straight out weird presents to his fellow cast and crew members including a dead pig, a rat, anal beads, a dead hog and used condoms, Leto went to great lengths with his obsession of the character. Many crew members exclaimed that Leto didn’t break character even after shooting wrapped up, and that his behaviour frightened them.
While the outcome may be judged differently, I am ready to give Leto the benefit of the doubt until he gets more screen-time as the manic villain and a more fleshed out role in the hands of a better director. He had known from day one that he had humongous shoes to fill following Ledger’s performance in ‘The Dark Knight’. The standalone Batman film, perhaps?
