Are we allowed to use the word jip? We’re gonna use it and we’re calling the news on other D.C. Comics film projects a total jip.
In May of this year, the trades reported that a few D.C./Warner Bros. super hero film properties were possibly headed towards some green lights and/or major announcements in the near future. The characters mentioned were “Aquaman,” “Wonder Woman” and “The Flash.” Many of us expected some kind of announcement at Comic-Con — and possibly some more news about “Superman: The Man Of Steel” under the aegis of Christopher Nolan and “Batman 3” — and we received squat.
So what’s the status then? Well, it’s obviously much slower than we all expected. Warner Bros. hired Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim, who worked together on the upcoming “Green Lantern” screenplay, to pen a “Green Lantern 2” treatment, as well as one for “The Flash” movie, but so far, no one’s been hired to write anything for “Wonder Woman” or “Aquaman” (though we heard one Amazonian rumors about, which we heard could still pan out).
Don’t ask him why, but this writer has a soft spot for Barry Allen and would like to see a non-embarrassing “Flash” film (though is it possible to have a non-embarrassing super hero movie these days if Nolan, Singer and Favreau aren’t involved?). So, status please. Marc Guggenhiem spoke to Newsarama and gave a little update (don’t get your hopes up too high). “We’ve turned in the treatment for Flash,” he said. “And we’re talking about Green Lantern 2. [But] We haven’t even written the script yet for The Flash. It’s very much one step at a time for [that project].”
The publication getting ahead of itself, perhaps not listening to the actual response, also asked about “Green Lantern 3.” Whoa, nelly. “It would be a quality problem to have, to think about a third. But one step at a time,” Guggenheim said, but noted that Berlanti did originally pitch it as a trilogy (Guggenheim also decided to neither deny nor confirm any ‘Flash’ or ‘Green Lantern’ film crossovers as rumored in geek circles).
And remember, this is just a treatment, not even a first draft of a script. Will the trio be hired to write the screenplay for “The Flash” as well? One presumes. Either way, they could tinker with this one for a while because “Green Lantern” will obviously be a priority since it hits first. Also, Berlanti has obviously been rumored to be helming “The Flash” for a while and while he’ll be doing press for the October 8 release of “Life as We Know It” with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel soon, we doubt he’s going to be saying anything concrete (and it already appears he’s just a writer/producer on the project anyhow). We’ll likely have to wait another few months before a director is hired. A script needs to come first, so all in good time and don’t expect any of these pictures before 2012.
