Last summer director Zack Synder (Man of Steel, 300) and company announced to the world that they would be making a sequel to Man of Steel featuring Batman. Screenwriter David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Blade) even joked whether it would be called “Superman vs Batman” or “Batman vs Superman.” Nobody really took them seriously that they were going with those suggestions. Well it appears they have settled on the official title of the 2016 release, it’s called Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It is a curious title choice. There is no doubt that they added Batman to the title to entice casual movie goers and create a buzz by simple uttering the movie’s name. It does seem a little haphazard though… What is the sequel going to be called? Justice League: Justice League?
Clearly the upcoming film will be opening up the cinematic world so that more fantastical occurrences and characters can be introduced. This makes sense given they will be filming the actual Justice League movie back-to-back. Hopefully this world-building will enrich the characters of the DC library, as opposed to minimizing their presence and individual power. The knee-jerk reaction is to think that the introductions will be rushed and we will get empty caricatures of the heroes most of us have only dreamed of seeing on-screen. (“Here is Wonder Woman and she is like Superman but a girl! Here is Flash. He is really funny and can’t sit still.”)
It seems that Synder’s plan is actually kind of unique. Putting aside Man of Steel or thinking of it as a prequel of sorts. It seems that Synder isn’t going the typical trilogy arc, but making a movie over the course of two films (A la Kill Bill: Volume 1 & 2). It might actually work in creating a avalanche of momentum that begins with Batman and ends with the Justice League battling a threat such as Darkseid.
Meanwhile we have already started to get a flavor of what to expect in Dawn of Justice (Eh… that actually doesn’t sound as messy on it’s own.) Synder recently released the first image of Ben Affleck in the newest bat-suit and his new bat-mobile. Check it out.
For the most part, fans only audible concern was that it was all one tone or color and the ears were shorter than any cinematic interpretation, since Adam West in the 1960’s. Director Kevin Smith is a friend of the film production and was granted early access to the concept art and costumes. This is what he had to say about this latest photo on his Hollywood Babble On podcast (via i09):
No, that is a very cool picture, but that is not the picture I saw. They put it on a fake rooftop, and they lit it up. But it was in color, and you could see every piece of detail. So I’ve seen some people online go, ‘Why is this f***ing suit any different than the Chris Nolan Batsuit, it’s all one f***ing color.’ It’s like, ‘Dude, that’s a monochrome photo. You know what that means, one chrome. …
“That’s not a representation of what the suit looks like. So what the suit looks like, and I was always kind of keeping it quiet until they revealed it, but they’ve revealed it. And you can kind of see, and anybody that… you’ve seen some people take the picture and color it online. If you want to see what this f***ing suit looks like, you just go to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, go to the third book, Hunt the Dark Knight…it’s the exact f***ing outfit he’s wearing.”
It seems that Snyder isn’t shying away from a literal translation of Batman’s look. This would honestly be the first time since the 1960’s show that the color scheme in the comics would be put on the big screen. Snyder was extremely faithful to the look of the characters in Watchmen. All signs point to the same type of respect and modernization in Dawn of Justice. Curious of the look that Smith was referring to? Take a look.
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Sources: Warner Bros, Hollywood Babble On, io9