Suzannah Pearce
With today’s announcement that Warner Bros is moving the untitled “Batman vs Superman” movie from summer 2015 to 6 May 2016, the off-screen story has the potential to become more interesting than any on-screen antics. Let’s see if we can follow:
- Production has been pushed to the second quarter of 2014.
- The script is currently undergoing a re-write by Oscar-winning Argo writer Chris Terrio.
- Casting for “Batman vs Superman” is far from over, with sources telling Variety that Joaquin Phoenix looks like lead villain material. As reported yesterday by Moviehole, Michael Rosenbaum would gladly take the Lex Luthor role (well.. duh!).
- The 17 July 2015 slot will be taken by the newest Peter Pan adaptation “Pan”, starring Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard.
- Warners/DC look like they want to take on Disney/Marvel, who also have an untitled movie booked in for 6 May 2016.
The internet is divided into pro- and anti-Batfleck camps, so those against Ben Affleck as the Dark Knight will be holding out some hope that he might not make it to the starting line. Affleck is scheduled to direct “Live by Night”, also for Warners, which has a December 2015 release date. It makes for a very tight back-to-back production schedule.
It’s worth noting that May is comic territory, with Spiderman (2002), X2 (2003), X-Men 3 (2006), Spiderman 3 (2007), Iron Man (2008), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), The Amazing Spiderman 2 (2014), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) all featuring in this prime position. Warners must be feeling confident that the “Man of Steel” sequel will be able to hold its own.
