I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Lock Guillermo del Toro in a room and tell him he can’t have any supper until he finishes his work. In this case, his work being the countless projects he’s currently juggling. More fuel was added to that fire back in November of last year when a rumor was reported about the director working on a superhero project for Warner Bros., one that would be based on DC Comics’ magic characters. Well guess what? Del Toro says it’s definitely happening and he even shared a few small details, including that of an impending DC film continuity that involves Batman and Superman.
Just yesterday we reported del Toro turning down the chance to direct Star Wars VII. Could this project be the reason? Sure, we know he’s the kind of guy to work on five things at once but if you commit to Star Wars, you really need to commit.
In a video interview with IGN.com (which we’ve transcribed) del Toro said that yes, he is working on this DC magic film, previously referred to as Heaven Sent.
Yeah I’m doing it, I’m working on it. I’m writing the outline and we already are in talks with a writer. A very, very good writer. I think people are going to be happy with who we have chosen. And he accepted. I’ve been courting this writer because I think he is the perfect guy for this job. And we’re doing it. Hopefully it will happen. We don’t know until they greenlight the movie.
Del Toro says the working title is Dark Universe. If you ask me, that strays a bit to close to Thor: The Dark World but again, working title.
“Oh my god, those are…you’re talking about my childhood,” he said when asked if he had a favorite character from the magic realm. “I mean, Swamp Thing, for me, is a rock star. You know demon, the Jack Kirby demon, Etrigan, is amazing. And then you know, you go to Constantine, who I thought was an amazing creation, and I want to do the Constantine of the comics. Deadman. You know it’s really, really a lot of work but a lot of fun.”
He also mentioned The Spectre but tried to hold back after that. “I don’t want to say because then you’ll know the plot a little bit but there’s…who am I gonna say? I can say Zatanna, Zatara, Deadman.”
As if all of that information weren’t juicy enough, del Toro also spoke on the overarching planning that’s gone into the DC Comics films.
The movements for this happened before [The Avengers]. They were already galvanized to launch Justice League and they were galvanized to make their universe cohesive. So it’s really, what I feel now is that they are really, really with Superman they feel very, very confident with what they have and they are now feeling like they can…they have two pilars – Batman and Superman for the DC Universe. And internally, now they are finding they are, they have a darker tone. A more urban and sophisticated tone you know? So I think now they can build up, build the foundation and now they can build a building.
This is the first (would we call it definitive?) information we’ve heard as to the direction of Warner Bros. on their superhero projects. They have a few in production but it wasn’t clear whether or not they were going to go the Marvel Entertainment route of tying them all together. Now it seems as if that is the case.
As for Dark Universe, del Toro said he’s hopeful it will be greenlit but, “I don’t control my own destiny as I have proven time and time again.”
(via IGN, image via Mikel Janin)
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