Where there is smoke, there is fire. There has most definitely been movement in the halls of Warner Bros Studios. In the past few weeks we have gotten very interesting statements from writers, actors and the CEO of Warner Bros, all strongly hinting that “a secret” project will soon be unveiled. So lets dig into it!

In just the past few weeks, at least three notable people have brought up the possibility of bringing the Green Lantern back to film. Man of Steel and Batman Begins screenwriter recently said that he would “love” to do the film to Collider. Considering he is masterminding the revival of DC on film for Warner Bros. this shouldn’t go unnoticed. While actor Chadwick Boseman (Draft Day and 42) recently coyly questioned reporters if they are interested in seeing John Stewart/Green Lantern brought to the big screen. There is too much name dropping for this to be so coincidental. There were strong rumors from a few months ago that DC had approached Denzel Washington about a role. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has continually used Twitter to tease fans about his negotiations with Warner Bros. All of these “rumors” signal that WB is testing the waters and potentially looking for iconic actors to take part in these new projects.

Dwayne Johnson has been making a lot of headlines recently by teasing fans with his involvement in a DC franchise. Over the years Johnson has been rumored to be just about every comic book character, due to his larger than life persona and physical size. However, talks between him and Warner Bros is indeed real and they have been targeting a character for a film franchise. In an interview with IGN he had this to say:

The first quality we were looking for was that he had to be extremely complex and have a lot going on. What that does for me as an actor and the studio is it gives us space that we can explore; his complexities. The other quality was that he had to — the character we were looking for had to be well-known but never brought to life. Then what that does again as an actor, it gives me a little bit of space, and we talked about personality. It just gives me a chance to put an imprint into his personality, with the set of tools that I could bring to the table and put a very unique twist on his personality, but still pay homage to who he is. The third thing — and most important — is he had to be a badass alwaysvaltrexonline.com motherfucker, okay, and on a Superman level of power, where could throw down. In those three qualities, I’m happy we’ve found that character. Right now, we’re out to a lot of writers.

Speculation on who he is referring to has gone from the Shazaam/Black Adam to Lobo. It is still unclear if portraying John Stewart, another character who goes on to helm the Green Lantern, would qualify under his stipulations. In any case, it does seem that he is in cahoots with whatever project that WB has been working on. It should be noted that they pushed their entire shooting schedule an entire year for the Man of Steel 2 (aka Batman v Superman) so the filmmakers had the “time to realize fully their vision, given the complex visual nature of the story.”

There has been a restructuring in WB and a new mandate spearheaded by Warner Bros CEO Kevin Tsujihara to better utilize their enormous library of DC characters and content. In an recent interview with the NY Times, the new direction of the studio is explained:

As for DC Entertainment, cross-studio collaboration to make better use of its comic book characters appears to have accelerated considerably since Mr. Tsujihara took over, in part because he eliminated some management layers…Two new television shows are coming to the CW and Fox, including one based on the Flash and another on a young Batman, and a film series will be announced in the near future, Mr. Tsujihara said. It is expected to include a “Justice League” movie.

So unlike the past, it seems WB really does have a multi-picture plan to feature their comic book properties on-screen. Arrow is already a huge success on the CW network. The Flash and the young Batman show, Gotham, have already gotten casting together and have begun principal photography for a fall tv premiere. So the final domino to fall would seem to be the Justice League film which looks to be the center piece of their new plan. When can we expect a formal announcement? Judging by the bullish manner in which they took the same release date as Marvel in 2016, expect them to try to steal some of their competitor’s thunder at either Comic-con, Cinema Con, or during a really good news day for Marvel studios. With Captain America: The Winter Solider having the look and smell of a summer smash hit and Guardians of the Galaxy debuting a few months later, an announcement could be coming sooner than we expect…

 

SOURCES: NY Times, Collider, Blackfilm, IGN,

 

-Braxter Timberlake-