So we like to joke and post links to those “Im a Marvel/Im a DC” videos, but why is it that DC is having such a hard time getting their properties made into films?
Well, actually, there is one big difference, as comic experts like Voiles are quick point out: Marvel is its own entity, cutting its own deals, and even financing its own movies. DC Comics is a subsidiary of Warner Bros.”Even higher profile DC properties have to fight through other Warner priorities and projects to get made,” Voiles wrote.
To Jim Littler, webmaster of ComicBookMovie.com, the long-planned Wonder Woman movie is a prime example of the superhuman challenges a DC superhero can face.
“Warner Bros. was able to get Joss Whedon at the helm—AND THEN THEY REJECTED HIS SCRIPT! Joss Whedon of Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and more!” Littler wrote in an email. “I’ll bet the DC people were crying when that fell apart.”
I hadn’t considered this before. I had simply assumed they were on the same playing field and one team just couldn’t get it together!
Case and point, we talk about the projected efforts to bring us an Avengers film, and we shout from the sidelines that DC is getting it wrong.
Maybe the solution for WarnerBros is to follow the success of the Marvel Films model and start their own studio. Of course WB is their own studio, but perhaps they should open a sub imprint on their title that focuses its effort to bring its DC properties to the big screen. DC Films.
In my opinion, WB has been leaning in the right direction with their hero franchises that HAVE reached completion (yes, I liked Superman despite its faults) and I include the continued failure of the proposed Justice League film as a “step in the right direction”.
But imagine what could have been accomplished if DC had its own studio?
Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Aquaman…. all franchises that are not only in limbo, but all of which were competing with Speed Racer and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 for a slice of the WB budget. Marvel films has a budget that is for Marvel Films. If they want to make a film, they don’t need permission. They schedule it and make it happen.
If they followed a structure like Marvel Films and set a goal of putting out two DC movies a year under their own imprint, they could accelerate their presence in the big picture. Yes, it is a risk, but I think Marvel has proven that there is a market for these films.
What do you think? Should WB open a DC Films Division?
