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cjlasky7Took the day off yesterday to attend my son's ring ceremony. He's going to graduate from his elementary school in June (already?) and the entire eighth grade class had a special assembly in church to receive their class rings.
After the ceremony, my wife and I stood to the side in the school gymnasium, watching as our son laughed with his buddies and scarfed down cake. We wondered how two anti-social misfits like us could produce such a social creature. (He is so like us and yet so different. I find that to be one of the great fascinations of parenthood.)
Coming home from that highly emotional rite of passage (cue "Sunrise, Sunset"), we took a few hours to pull ourselves together for the next leap forward: checking out his new high school. After barely surviving a parking apocalypse, we toured the classrooms and the library, D. scoped out the photography club (he'll be running it inside of a year) and we grabbed the paperwork for the shuttle bus. (But if he's going to make it to the shuttle bus in the morning, the lazy bones in our house are going to have get up a bit earlier. I hope they're ready for that....)
Geez. He's going to high school. [Voice cracking, tear-streaked face] Sunrise, Sunset....
***********************
James Gunn has revealed part one (titled "Gods and Monsters")of his plan to restructure the DC cinematic and TV universe--and while there are the usual suspects (Superman Legacy, Supergirl, Lanterns, and Viola Davis in the Amanda Waller spinoff), there are some real curveballs too:
1. A Wonder Woman prequel set on the Amazon island of Themyscira, before Diana's birth/creation (Paradise Lost);
2. Creature Commandos (animated), a WWII action series featuring a squadron of famous monsters(!);
3. Booster Gold, a time-traveling con man who uses advanced technology to impersonate a superhero--for the fame, money and chicks (and maybe, occasionally, to do the whole "save the day" thing);
4. Swamp Thing, DC's pre-eminent horror comic (presumably based on Alan Moore's groundbreaking run); and
5. The Brave and the Bold, a Batman and Robin series reframed as a father/son (Bruce and Damian Wayne) headbutting contest.
Matt Reaves' Batman sequel and the next Aquaman and Shazam movies will go on as scheduled. Todd Phillips' Joker musical extravaganza will be presented as an "Elseworlds" saga. (It has been rumored that the extremely troubled Flash movie will be used to reset the timeline, leading into the new era.)
It'll be interesting to see how Gunn will connect the dots here. Some fascinating possibilities...
After the ceremony, my wife and I stood to the side in the school gymnasium, watching as our son laughed with his buddies and scarfed down cake. We wondered how two anti-social misfits like us could produce such a social creature. (He is so like us and yet so different. I find that to be one of the great fascinations of parenthood.)
Coming home from that highly emotional rite of passage (cue "Sunrise, Sunset"), we took a few hours to pull ourselves together for the next leap forward: checking out his new high school. After barely surviving a parking apocalypse, we toured the classrooms and the library, D. scoped out the photography club (he'll be running it inside of a year) and we grabbed the paperwork for the shuttle bus. (But if he's going to make it to the shuttle bus in the morning, the lazy bones in our house are going to have get up a bit earlier. I hope they're ready for that....)
Geez. He's going to high school. [Voice cracking, tear-streaked face] Sunrise, Sunset....
***********************
James Gunn has revealed part one (titled "Gods and Monsters")of his plan to restructure the DC cinematic and TV universe--and while there are the usual suspects (Superman Legacy, Supergirl, Lanterns, and Viola Davis in the Amanda Waller spinoff), there are some real curveballs too:
1. A Wonder Woman prequel set on the Amazon island of Themyscira, before Diana's birth/creation (Paradise Lost);
2. Creature Commandos (animated), a WWII action series featuring a squadron of famous monsters(!);
3. Booster Gold, a time-traveling con man who uses advanced technology to impersonate a superhero--for the fame, money and chicks (and maybe, occasionally, to do the whole "save the day" thing);
4. Swamp Thing, DC's pre-eminent horror comic (presumably based on Alan Moore's groundbreaking run); and
5. The Brave and the Bold, a Batman and Robin series reframed as a father/son (Bruce and Damian Wayne) headbutting contest.
Matt Reaves' Batman sequel and the next Aquaman and Shazam movies will go on as scheduled. Todd Phillips' Joker musical extravaganza will be presented as an "Elseworlds" saga. (It has been rumored that the extremely troubled Flash movie will be used to reset the timeline, leading into the new era.)
It'll be interesting to see how Gunn will connect the dots here. Some fascinating possibilities...
no subject
Date: 2023-02-02 06:54 pm (UTC)1. WW prequel: Sounds a bit like Baywatch without Hasselhoff. That could work!
2. Creature Commandos: I keep imagining grandparents of Mutant Ninja Turtles.
3. Booster Gold: Sounds like Quantum Leap Thief.
4. Swamp Thing, you make my heart sing. No wrong song.
5. The Brave and the Bold: sounds like a soap opera.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-02 07:44 pm (UTC)2. Much weirder and goofier than TMNT. Created by my fellow Brooklyn College alumnus J. Marc DeMatteis (when he was high?). Could be a nice backdoor entry point to some of DC comics' other supernatural characters.
3. Booster Gold in the comics is a huge fan favorite, and I really shouldn't be surprised he got called up to the big leagues. I think people like him because he does what we would if we had superpowers: make a butt load of cash. (Yeah, yeah, and help people too, I guess....)
4. Do not mock Swamp Thing. It started out as a great horror comic (by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson); then Alan Moore took over and turned it into this amazing exploration of memory, identity (and ecology). If either version hits the screen relatively intact, it could be fucking incredible.
5. The Brave and the Bold (and the Beautiful) was one of my favorite comics when I was a kid. Each issue featured Batman teaming up with a different hero, from Aquaman to Zatanna. (The animated series from the 2010s had the same format.)
This seems to be a straight on Batman and Robin series, except this Robin is a little different: he's Batman's biological son, trained since birth to be a compassionless assassin by his mother's criminal organization. Gunn called Damian a "vicious little stinker." Could be fun...
no subject
Date: 2023-02-03 12:58 am (UTC)(I still want a Nightwing film.)
And didn't they already do a television series or something with Swamp Thing?
Booster Gold sounds like a Bruce Campbell film, shame he's too old for the part, or Guardians of the Galaxy by way of DC (it may well be that - since James Gunn).
I'm leery of the WW prequel. They better hire a woman to pull it off - and maybe enlist Robin Wright.
Casting is everything here.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-03 01:43 am (UTC)Since it's under the "Brave and Bold" umbrella, I get the feeling the entire Bat-family will have a role here, including Nightwing. (Damian and Dick Grayson developed a close friendship in the comics, maybe better than their relationships with Bruce.)
Campbell would have been perfect for Booster Gold... in 1985. Joel McHale would have been perfect... twenty years ago. (There will be soon be a worldwide search for a good-looking 28-year old actor who has also mastered the ancient art of sarcasm....)
Definitely bring back Robin Wright. (In fact, the main reason for this prequel may have been to bring back Robin Wright!) What the hell, bring back Lynda Carter too! (IMO, she was the only winner in WW84.) Have Gail Simone write the miniseries. This could be great!
Swamp Thing was one of those DC Universe series that got chopped after one season. It was sort of based on the Alan Moore run, but it didn't quite hit with the same impact. In terms of Moore adaptations, more toward Watchmen (movie) than V for Vendetta.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-03 05:37 pm (UTC)And can totally see why Damian and Dick Grayson might bond - over nothing more than having to deal with "comics" Bruce. Comics Bruce is a bit of a prick, television Bruce (as portrayed by Adam West) wasn't. But comics Bruce doesn't deal with people well. I actually liked Robert Patterson's take on him as the reclusive wounded rock star. Bale and Keaton got across the menace the best, and Afleck the world-weariness.
Curious as to who they cast and where they go with that. Gunn likes "family" relationships over romantic ones.
I'm not sure there is anyone else that can play Booster Gold but Campbell. Maybe Downey Jr - but he already did Iron Man and is too old. And it really requires Campbell's good looks, stature, and snark for it. That's hard to do all in one. They could maybe get Ryan Renyolds - but he's already doing Dead Bolt and Marvel has him tied up. Ryan Reynolds is the only one I can think of, to be honest.
Gail Simone would be perfect for the WW series. And yep Lynda Carter was the best thing about WW84. I think Gail Gadot is out as WW. And they may be doing the prequel to reboot the whole thing.
(The Flash film is supposed to reboot the Time Line, kind of like Days of Future Past rebooted the X-men timeline.)
Swamp Thing is really hard to do well. It's too easy to go campy or cheesy with it. They did do a movie with it - ages ago - way way back in the 1980s. I know I saw it. It was horrible, and I've only vague memories of it. The villain was portrayed by the late Louis Jourdan, who played the lead in the film adaptation of the musical Gigi.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-03 07:02 pm (UTC)I'm not too worried about casting Booster Gold. The actor has to project unwarranted confidence disguising deep insecurity. Somebody out there will nail it.
Oh, I do remember the 1980s Swamp Thing movies, with Louis Jourdan and Adrienne Barbeau on full display as Abby Arcane.
A camped-up version of the Wein/Wrightson stuff, not to be taken too seriously. The recent TV show took a shot at the Alan Moore version, but didn't commit totally. It even did "The Anatomy Lesson"--but cut away from Swamp Thing's existential crisis with too many extraneous subplots. If you tell your hero that he's not and never was human, you stay with him and let that shit SINK IN.