News ‘Swamp Thing’ series In works at DC Digital Service, ‘Metropolis’ in redevelopment

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Enterprise is Great, May 2, 2018.

  1. The Realist

    The Realist Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Seems to me this leaves a big hole in their roster that a redeveloped Metropolis would fill quite nicely. And if they wanted to repurpose Crystal Reed as Lois Lane, that'd be fine by me. :)
     
  2. OCD Geek

    OCD Geek Captain Captain

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    I don't know if that's gonna happen. There's been rumors for months now that DC Universe is struggling financially and will soon be folded into Warner Bros.'s upcoming streaming service later this year. The parent company may want them to just focus on the shows already in development that haven't been cancelled (Titans, Doom Patrol, Stargirl, Young Justice: Outsiders, Harley Quinn), and then they'll develop any new DC-related programming themselves after the merger.
     
  3. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    They were going to go from Swamp Thing to Titans to Stargirl IIRC. They could maybe move Doom Patrol season 2 after that without leaving too many gaps?

    It's always a shame when something like this get its wings clipped before it ever had a chance.
     
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  4. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    The mistake wasn't on the production's part. Rather, the NC House of Representatives slashed the film grant board's budget because they misunderstood the process and thought they had more money available than they did. https://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20190429/film-funding-nearly-cut-from-nc-house-budget
     
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  5. The Realist

    The Realist Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It was less a prediction than a happy daydream. I actually suspect Metropolis is dead on the vine and will be "redeveloped" never and nowhere. But imagining Reed as Lois was the highlight of my day so far.
     
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  6. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    It’s a money pit project now.

    WB doesn’t get the tax rebate now. The production costs mean they’re more in the hole now that when they first started.

    Relocating and cutting the budget wouldn’t even have helped
     
  7. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'm trying to parse the article that @Christopher posted because it sounds like the money was reinstated so maybe the cancellation was premature? Or maybe the already reportedly troubled production was just ready to be done with it?
     
  8. OCD Geek

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    I'm also now seeing speculation that the massive and intricate set that they built in a water tank (shooting a project on a TV show's shooting schedule in the extremely unpredictable and uncontrollable conditions of a real swamp is not an option) killed their changes of relocating. The cost of either moving that set to or building a similar set in another state would have been astronomically expensive.

    It was pragmatism that killed the beast.
     
  9. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    No, it sounds like even after the funds were restored, the amount the production could get in rebates was smaller than expected, though I don't know why.
     
  10. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Crazy to think the 1990 Swamp Thing series that went for three seasons and 72 episodes.
    (I know that doesn't really mean anything I just found it darkly amusing in contrast)
     
  11. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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  12. OCD Geek

    OCD Geek Captain Captain

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    Honestly, if they fold DC Universe into their upcoming streaming service and bundle my current HBO Now subscription into it, I will subscribe them so hard. I'll subscribe them all night long.
     
  13. Aragorn

    Aragorn Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    DC Streaming is too niche. Of course they're not going to be making enough money to pay for their original programming. It needs to be one big streaming platform for all things Warner.
     
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  14. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

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    This has nothing to do with DC Universe being too "niche".

    DC built the production of Swamp Thing around money that they were promised but that wasn't actually available, and, as a result, cannot afford to continue to produce the series - even if they relocated its production to another state - without a substantial decrease in the quality of the final product.
     
  15. OCD Geek

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    The "too niche" comment wasn't about the cancellation. It was about the reports coming from IGN and other sources that DC Universe is really struggling to get and keep subscribers, so Warner Bros. is thinking about shuttering DC Universe and folding it into the upcoming Warner streaming service.
     
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  16. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^ Ok.

    As an addendum to what I said above, though, I've since seen something from Cinemablend that says that while the cancellation of Swamp Thing is monetarily driven, it wasn't quite fair to place the blame on North Carolina because the show did in fact get everything that it asked for in terms of promised money from the state for the production of Season 1, so the reasons are probably more along the lines of DC looking at whether or not it could afford to produce the series going forward, even if they continued to receive every available penny of grant funding from North Carolina for future seasons, and deciding that the answer to that question was "no".
     
  17. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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  18. OCD Geek

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    That's fucking horseshit if it was due to a new lead executive preferring the CW Arrowverse approach. There's more than one valid formula and tone to create a TV series with. The reason people love DC and Marvel comics to begin with is their diversity in tone and storytelling techniques. If there was only one way to make a superhero comic, movie or TV series the genre would have died out decades ago.
     
  19. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^ I would trust Cinemablend's reporting far more than I would some Reddit thread.
     
  20. OCD Geek

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    They sourced it to Bloody Disgusting's reporting that executives at Warner Bros. & DC Universe had already lost faith in the show fearing that its darker, horror-based tone would limit the audience reach and keep them from bringing in new subscribers. A later update to Bloody Disgusting reported that one producer on the show was fighting for the horror serial approach while another producer was fighting for the lighter, procedural-with-a-seasonal-arc approach of the Arrowverse, Lucifer and Doom Patrol.

    It looks like you were right, though. Even without the funding issues, there was probably no happy ending for this show.