Slate of three DC animated movies for 2012 revealed

[JD]

It looks like Jay Oliva, who directed three of Lionsgate's Marvel animated movies and co-directed Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (the "Mogo Doesn't Socialize" and "Laira" segments), will step in as one of the main directors of the DC line. The bulk of the workload will probably be split between Oliva and Sam Liu.

I was hoping for Joaquim Dos Santos to take over, but the "Laira" segment of GL:EK was the most impressive one on the entire DVD, so that's good news.

Still, it'll be unfortunate if the DCU movie line is left without any women in key creative positions. It's hard enough as it is to avoid an overly male-dominated viewpoint in superhero comics and their adaptations.

Cool. Sam Liu has probably been my second favorite director or these movie after Ms. Montgomery, and I really liked the Laira story in EK. I do agree that it is disappointing that they're losing they're one female director. I was really happy when I saw that they actually had a woman directing the Wonder Woman movie, and I was hoping she might get to do more of the female heroes, like Batgirl or Powergirl.

 

[Broccoli]

Given that these films are approximately 70 to 75 minutes, couldn't they break the mold and just make a longer-than-usual animated feature?

No. It's just not practical from a budget or marketing standpoint to make a single animated DVD movie that's longer than 75 minutes. The beancounters won't go for it, because the return on the investment would be too low. The only way to do something that's twice as long (and costs twice as much, or thereabouts) is to do it as two separate installments, so that they can charge twice as much for the whole thing and thus recoup the expense of making it.

While I understand the fear execs have of taking a risk on something different, I don't fully buy into that. As someone who has done budget planning for (admittingly smaller) films and stage performances, I can't see how they couldn't pull it off if properly planned and budgeted for a longer than usual film. That being said, I don't mean to suggest the film be 2.5 hours long. I honestly don't see why the story needs to be that long. I can see something along the lines of maybe 90 minutes.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

^^^
Animation costs are fixed to a far greater extent than live action budgets, though, especially in the direct to DVD market. The cost per minute is really going to be set and largely immovable.

 

[Broccoli]

^ I understand that. I just believe that if they wanted to go longer than usual by giving it a larger budget, they could. But, I suppose it is all a moot point considering they are splitting the films.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

^ I understand that. I just believe that if they wanted to go longer than usual by giving it a larger budget, they could.

Your mention of budget planning and pulling it off if properly planned seemed to indicate you thought there were economies that could be achieved, but perhaps I misread you in that. Sure, they could simply increase the budget to make a longer movie, but that would obviously cut dramatically into their profit margin, and these are niche products without much room for that.

 

[Christopher]

^Right. If they increased the budget for the film, they'd have to increase its sales price, and that would mean fewer people would buy it.