The Flash (2022)

[The Laughing Fish]

Also, it should be noted that the unveiling of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah as the directors of Batgirl has resurrected the rumor that the DCEU is getting at least partially reset and that Keaton is essentially a 'post crisis' Batman who will costar in the Batgirl movie.

fml

Batgirl is a film that's expected to go straight to streaming.

The most expensive DC movies (up to four a year, starting in 2022) are designed for release in theaters, Mr. Hamada said. Additional superhero films (two annually is the goal, perhaps focused on riskier characters like Batgirl and Static Shock) will arrive exclusively on HBO Max, the fledgling streaming service owned by WarnerMedia.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210609155644/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/27/business/media/dc-superheroes-movies.html

Warner Bros. has mid-budget DC movies on the way for streaming, "Batgirl" and "Blue Beetle."

https://web.archive.org/web/20210610002030/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-06-08/can-warner-bros-keep-movie-dreams-alive

I'm not enthused about any of the upcoming DC film prospects, but I don't see how Batgirl is any more of a risk than making a black Superman movie for theaters. Especially if Keaton is co-starring.

It goes to show how Toxic WB's perspective is skewed. They'll insist on making a race-swapped Superman reboot to deflect any allegations of racism and discrimination and make hollow PR statements promoting diversity and equality. Yet, they think Batgirl and Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle is too risky for theaters. How laughable.

What's even more laughable is the LA Times article in the second link I posted is nothing more than a puff piece for under fire executives.

But as the $43-billion Discovery merger ambles toward regulatory approval next year, Warner Bros.' risky release strategy, internally dubbed "Project Popcorn," appears to be working. Movies such as "Godzilla vs. Kong" and "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It" have done better than expected at the box office and brought millions of subscribers to HBO Max, according to executives.

"I'm both happy and relieved, because it has ultimately played out almost exactly as we hoped it would," said Carolyn Blackwood, chief operating officer of Warner Bros. Pictures Group. "We've got filmmakers and talent who are now happy, we've got exhibitors that are happy, we've got audiences that are happy, and our partners at HBO Max are thrilled."

Give us a goddamn break, Carolyn. You and Emmerich are not fooling anyone:

It's been a challenging several months for Warners, particularly for Emmerich. As THR previously reported, Emmerich — along with COO Carolyn Blackwood — was a key player in Warners' surprise December move to put the studio's entire 2021 slate of films on the HBO Max streaming service the same day they open in theaters. The studio faced backlash — including rebukes from directors Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve. Sources say Warners wrote big checks to some of those who had movies affected by the decision, such as Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves. For some talent reps, resentment lingers. One agent with important movie clients says that when he challenged Emmerich about the move, "His answer was, 'Are we supposed to have called above-the-line people from 17 movies?' The answer is yes."

In explaining its decision, the company said its analysis was that theaters could not open meaningfully before the end of 2021. Not even two weeks later, the first vaccine shipments went out in the U.S. In April, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar told Recode's Peter Kafka that certain 2022 movies will have an exclusive theatrical window and Cineworld said the studio had struck a deal to show certain films exclusively in theaters for 45 days before streaming, though the terms of that agreement are not clear.

Calling the episode "bumpy," Kilar said, "If I had the chance to do it over again, I think it's very fair to say that we would have taken a couple more days to see if we could have had even more conversations than we were able to have." (It is not clear that the studio had conversations with any of its creative partners.)

Warner Bros. higher-ups are also concerned about the performance of the studio's critically important DC movies. Warners had also faced negative publicity from the studio's response to Joss Whedon's alleged abusive behavior on the set of Justice League. Stars including Ray Fisher, Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa have said publicly that there were issues during Whedon's tenure on the film, which he finished after Zack Snyder left the production.

The March release of the Snyder version (at a cost of at least $70 million) renewed attention to the claims, with Fisher, who played Cyborg in the film, continuing to allege abusive, racist conduct on the project and accusing the studio of not seriously investigating his claims (which WarnerMedia fiercely denies).

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/toby-emmerich-floated-for-a-new-job-1234947641/

[thecolorsblend]

I truly don't know what an ideal outcome even looks like here. WB is getting woke and so they will most probably go broke. Sometimes wokeness pays off but it's pretty rare.

I can't get my head around the Discovery acquisition. AT&T was already bathing in red ink before. Maybe there's an angle here I'm just missing. There probably is. It's not like I'm Mr. Bigshot Business Guy or something.

Snyder alluded to a possible gamechanger with the Discovery deal. Either way tho, a Discovery-buyout won't help much until after it's been approved.

I just don't get it. Any of it.

[The Laughing Fish]

I truly don't know what an ideal outcome even looks like here. WB is getting woke and so they will most probably go broke. Sometimes wokeness pays off but it's pretty rare.

When it comes to Superman, they're getting woke to just cover their asses after their JL-related controversies. For that reason alone, they will go broke.

I've read many comments on social media complaining about Toxic WB's lack of faith in their diversity characters appearing on the big screen. One fan said they hope this doesn't mean the new Supergirl debuting in The Flash will go straight to HBO Max. Toxic WB is so bad at PR to the point they clearly don't care. Which is why you can't take anything they say seriously.

I can't get my head around the Discovery acquisition. AT&T was already bathing in red ink before. Maybe there's an angle here I'm just missing. There probably is. It's not like I'm Mr. Bigshot Business Guy or something.

Snyder alluded to a possible gamechanger with the Discovery deal. Either way tho, a Discovery-buyout won't help much until after it's been approved.

I just don't get it. Any of it.

The merger was announced, but it will take a year to finalise. All I know is the problems at WB are becoming bigger than the Snyderverse.

While I do think the same day releases on HBO Max was a good idea under the circumstances relating to the pandemic, Emmerich and Blackwood thinking they could get away with announcing such a radical plan without even consulting anyone involved with these productions is an extremely bad look. Emmerich allegedly getting exasperated at the idea of needing to inform people about his decision goes to show how arrogant and clueless he is. There was even talk that Legendary Pictures even considered taking legal action against WB because they were at risk of losing money they heavily produced on Godzilla vs Kong and Dune. WB can say GvK was a huge success in theaters and on streaming all they want, but I have no doubt money was still lost because of the pandemic situation, and they would've had to write a huge check to compensate Legendary.

The Discovery CEO mentioned his agenda to rebuild relationships with creators, but let's see if he puts his money where his mouth is. If positive change comes at WB, let's hope the Snyderverse is involved too.

[thecolorsblend]

Emmerich allegedly getting exasperated at the idea of needing to inform people about his decision goes to show how arrogant and clueless he is.

Emmerich rly should've known better. Any idiot can tell you that Hollywood is all about ego. The minute some clown starts making these gigantic decisions that affect A-list talents' livelihoods and perceptions of their work, he should expect some major league blowback.

I have a lot of respect for Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker. He's got a lot of credibility with me. But at the end of the day, he's just another Hollywood mogul with an ego. I like him. But he has a huge ego the same as anybody else in that town. Nolan was simply the guy who could get away with publicly firing shots at WB. Make no mistake about it, tons of other WB darlings in more vulnerable positions were ALL saying the same thing in private because they didn't dare speak up publicly.

If Emmerich didn't expect that or if those stories about him getting snippy about people pushing back on his galaxy-brained ideas are true, that's a pretty big sign of immaturity on his part. If his head had been in the game, he would've contacted the heavy hitters' various agents and managers, explained that Dune (or whatever) was going to HBO Max, the reasons why, thrown someone else under the bus and promised to make it up to EVERYBODY later on, he MIGHT have mitigated at least some of the vitriol.

It would've been easy to do too. "Hey, my orders are coming from up top. I mean, the VERY top. AT&T is strong-arming us into doing this. But you know how much we love Denis. We have a great partnership with Denis! And we'll find a way to make this right together. We just need to stick together on this."

There's very little coming from WB nowadays that isn't one bungled decision after another.

There was even talk that Legendary Pictures even considered taking legal action against WB because they were at risk of losing money they heavily produced on Godzilla vs Kong and Dune. WB can say GvK was a huge success in theaters and on streaming all they want, but I have no doubt money was still lost because of the pandemic situation, and they would've had to write a huge check to compensate Legendary.

Maybe I'm wrong. But I put that stuff down to bluster on Legendary's part. There's just no way that WB's partnership(s) with Legendary include some type of force majeure clause precisely for these kinds of unforeseeable events.

Maybe I'm wrong tho, like I say.

The Discovery CEO mentioned his agenda to rebuild relationships with creators, but let's see if he puts his money where his mouth is. If positive change comes at WB, let's hope the Snyderverse is involved too.

I reassert that there could be an angle here that I'm missing with the Discovery buyout. But Zaslav does prioritize building fanbases and giving consumers what they say they want. The "unscripted", reality TV world is pretty competitive but he's been able to carve out a niche there. Which is not small potatoes. His remarks about building bridges with The Talent are also revealing. Because, to hear Snyder tell it, he doesn't think there's much of a bridge between him and WB, which up to now has been his home base. Ditto Nolan, ditto Vilaneuve, etc.

Bringing Zaslav into the WB/AT&T fold makes perfect sense to me. But the most I can figure for buying out Discovery is their vast repertoire of media brands and back catalog of content is meant to be grist for HBO Max. Zaslav was one of the key players behind Discovery+, their streaming service. He's got experience making that stuff work. So, if the buyout goes through, I wouldn't be shocked if Discovery+ gets mothballed, its content folded into the larger WB media empire and Discovery+'s subscribers all migrated over to HBO Max. That's a good value proposition for a lot of Discover+ subscribers, I'd imagine. It gives those subscribers more content at probably a similar price.

Anything more than that, I have no idea. The above is literally the only explanation I can come up with. But like I say, AT&T works in the world of business. So, even if I'm wrong, I still have to believe there's some kind of play they're going for here that I just haven't figured out yet.

[Silver Nemesis]

I was just listening to the song 'Berserker' from Gunship and Tyler Bates, which is part of DC's Dark Nights: Death Metal soundtrack to tie in with the comic book miniseries by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, and I was thinking that it might make an appropriate addition to The Flash (2022) soundtrack. Certain themes from the Flashpoint storyline – the warping of reality, metamorphosis and the apocalyptic death and rebirth of a universe – are suggested in the lyrics. The eighties synthwave influence is appropriate for the return of the eighties movie Batman, and the grungy tone is well suited to both Keaton and Affleck's versions of the Dark Knight. Since the song was specifically written for the DC universe anyway, why not use it in the new movie?

'Scandalous' played over the B89 end credits. 'Face to Face' played over the BR end credits. 'Berserker' could play over the end credits of The Flash.

[Gotham Knight]

I was just listening to the song 'Berserker' from Gunship and Tyler Bates, which is part of DC's Dark Nights: Death Metal soundtrack to tie in with the comic book miniseries by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, and I was thinking that it might make an appropriate addition to The Flash (2022) soundtrack. Certain themes from the Flashpoint storyline – the warping of reality, metamorphosis and the apocalyptic death and rebirth of a universe – are suggested in the lyrics. The eighties synthwave influence is appropriate for the return of the eighties movie Batman, and the grungy tone is well suited to both Keaton and Affleck's versions of the Dark Knight. Since the song was specifically written for the DC universe anyway, why not use it in the new movie?

'Scandalous' played over the B89 end credits. 'Face to Face' played over the BR end credits. 'Berserker' could play over the end credits of The Flash.

I really loved this one and I have to admit it really fits an end credits post script. It also feels very in line with what might have been the next Keaton installment. You mention the 80s influences and it's funny because despite that being obviously true about the track it struck me as suck a late 90s/early 2000s vibe.

[Silver Nemesis]

You mention the 80s influences and it's funny because despite that being obviously true about the track it struck me as suck a late 90s/early 2000s vibe.

That mixture of different musical styles and eras – eighties synth, late nineties/early noughties metal, contemporary retrowave – is another reason it's perfect for The Flash, which is a movie about mixing different cinematic universes created in different decades. I miss the days when Batman movies had memorable songs on the end credits, and this song is perfect for the harsh gothic melancholy tone of the Keaton Batman. It sounds new and yet strangely nostalgic at the same time, which is the same feeling I get when I look at the following picture.

[Gotham Knight]

You mention the 80s influences and it's funny because despite that being obviously true about the track it struck me as suck a late 90s/early 2000s vibe.

That mixture of different musical styles and eras – eighties synth, late nineties/early noughties metal, contemporary retrowave – is another reason it's perfect for The Flash, which is a movie about mixing different cinematic universes created in different decades. I miss the days when Batman movies had memorable songs on the end credits, and this song is perfect for the harsh gothic melancholy tone of the Keaton Batman. It sounds new and yet strangely nostalgic at the same time, which is the same feeling I get when I look at the following picture.

I agree. I've also listened to a bunch of the tracks on this album and I'm smitten wit it. Wow! Thank you!

[Silver Nemesis]

Andy Muschietti has posted a preview of Supergirl's costume.

It looks like they're taking some visual cues from the Lara Lane-Kent Supergirl that appeared in Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Three.

Actress Sasha Calle recently cut her dark hair short, which adds further fuel to this theory.

The Lara Lane-Kent Supergirl was the child of Lois and Clark from an alternate reality. Considering the 'Knightmare' reality is heavily influenced by Injustice, I'm now wondering if Calle's Supergirl might be the future daughter of Cavill's Superman and Adams' Lois Lane. The texturing and chest emblem on her costume are consistent with Cavill's, and we know the plot of The Flash is going to involve Barry travelling across multiple realities spanning the Multiverse. Alternatively, this Supergirl might simply be Superman's replacement in the rebooted DCEU that this movie is intended to launch.

Earlier reports indicated that the production would be moving to Scotland for the Gotham City scenes in late June. We're entering late June now, so there's a good chance we'll be seeing some location pics of the Burtonverse Batman, or at least the Burtonverse Gotham City, any day now.

[Gotham Knight]

Video: https://twitter.com/i/status/1406319900470116355

Bruce Mobile and set stuff:





Keaton and Miller in London: