Why doesnt DC Comics want continuity between movie Franchises??

[Myasishchev]

Geoff Johns is kind of head of their live action development division or whatever it's called.

Apparently our unemployment rate can be in large part pinned on Geoff Johns. Dude has, what, like fifty jobs?

WRITER: Aquaman.
WRITER: Justice League.
CREATIVE EMPEROR: DC Universe.
LIVE ACTION DICTATOR: DC Entertainment films.
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: U.S. government.
COSMETOLOGIST: check your local stylist for availability.
PHARMACIST: Grant Morrison.

 

[N-121973]

The previous screen versions of Batman were all fanciful enough that they could easily have launched spinoffs with other DC heroes in the same universe -- though it's uncertain whether we'd have wanted to see them.

Indeed I've always gotten the impression from both the Joel Schumacher (and possibly Tim Burton) Batman films and seasons 3 and 4 of Lois and Clark: The New adventures of Superman that they were set in the same universe, particularly on the L & C side of things there were references in those last two seasons. In fact I think I read that there was talk of a two part episode of L & C featuring Batman and a reformed Catwoman but nothing came of it.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Seems to be working fine with MARVEL!!!! I dig CONTINUITY!!

I hate it. It's the death of real creativity.

 

[Christopher]

Indeed I've always gotten the impression from both the Joel Schumacher (and possibly Tim Burton) Batman films and seasons 3 and 4 of Lois and Clark: The New adventures of Superman that they were set in the same universe, particularly on the L & C side of things there were references in those last two seasons. In fact I think I read that there was talk of a two part episode of L & C featuring Batman and a reformed Catwoman but nothing came of it.

Well, if L&C included passing references to Gotham City or whatever, they were probably just Easter-egg in-jokes rather than actual assertions of continuity. I recall George Clooney (or was it Kilmer?) having a line "This is why Superman works alone" in his Batman movie, but that wasn't specifically a reference to L&C, just to the idea that a version of Superman exists in that movie universe. Given how many different incarnations of both characters there have been, it would take more to suggest that the references in the show and films were specifically to one another.

 

[stonester1]

I for one am enjoying Marvel's shared universe and disagree there is "sameness" between the films. They very much are their own style, reflecting their characters and the styles of their directors.

Now, does DC need to do the same kind of "joint" universe? Not necessarily. But I definitely do like it when they do own up to the fact that they are part of a bigger universe, and little nods have been seen throughout all the DC/Warner products.

I just ask them to tell me good superhero stories, however they decide to do it.

 

[Broccoli]

Geoff Johns is kind of head of their live action development division or whatever it's called.

Apparently our unemployment rate can be in large part pinned on Geoff Johns. Dude has, what, like fifty jobs?

He and James Franco have a running competition.

 

[Admiral_Young]

James Franco has a lot of jobs?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Seems to be working fine with MARVEL!!!! I dig CONTINUITY!!

I hate it. It's the death of real creativity.

Truth.

 

[Broccoli]

James Franco has a lot of jobs?

Yes.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I can't view that video in my country...

 

[Stevil2001]

I don't know about jobs, but he loves graduate school:

He moved to New York to simultaneously attend graduate school at Columbia University's MFA writing program, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for filmmaking, and Brooklyn College for fiction writing, while occasionally commuting to North Carolina's Warren Wilson College for poetry. He received his MFA from Columbia in 2010. Franco is a PhD student in English at Yale University and will also attend the Rhode Island School of Design. The actor opted against watching the 2011 Academy Award nominees be announced (where he was a top contender) in favor of attending class. "I’m not gonna miss class to go and presume that I’m going to be nominated, but if you want to bring out a camera crew to Yale and wait and see if I get nominated, I’d be happy to step out of class and say I’m very grateful", he commented.

 

[Sindatur]

Geoff Johns is kind of head of their live action development division or whatever it's called.

Apparently our unemployment rate can be in large part pinned on Geoff Johns. Dude has, what, like fifty jobs?

He and James Franco have a running competition.

Heh, reminds me of the Buttmans from In Living Color. "You lazy man with only 3 jobs. By the time I 10 year old, I have 5 jobs" [paraphrased]

It would be great if the DC Superheroes Movies could form a cohesive continuity amongst themselves, as Marvel has done with the Avengers. Maybe Man of Steel could be the beginning and maybe a Green Lantern Sequel (if it happens) could be better received, now that the origin story is out of the way, and build towards a continuity with Man of Steel and perhaps the Batman reboot as well.

 

[Methos]

i suspect it's mainly because they don't need to at the moment...

Marvel pulled their intermovie continuity thing as a gimic originally, and it worked well for them, great, nothing against that... but trying to link the kick ass Batman movies with the utterly abysmal Green Lantern movie would be a nightmare, and working with the new Superman movie on top of that would just be a pain in the ass...

just because it works for Marvel doesn't mean every other company has to do it... i'm happy if DC can just get one decent superhero movie out every 5 years, and sometimes even thats a push lol

M

 

[Christopher]

^I don't think Marvel's intermovie continuity was a gimmick. The sense of a shared universe has been one of the defining traits of the Marvel Universe since at least the '60s, part of its core character, but something that's always been missing from its live-action adaptations (though there's been a lot of crossover or superhero guest appearances in their animated shows since the '80s at least). Once Marvel started up its own filmmaking unit with multiple properties under their control, it seems pretty natural that they'd start working in that sense of interconnection that's intrinsic to the MU.

 

[Methos]

about the first time it was done in Iron Man...

Director Jon Favreau said that he included the scene because, "We wanted something for the fans" and detailed how the scene was made. "I turned to the Kevin Feige and said, 'You know what would blow their minds? Should we do this?' Kevin was like, 'Let's try.' And then we actually pulled it together. It was just a little scene, just a little tip of the hat for the fans that we were paying attention to what had been established, and a way to sort of tee up The Avengers. We brought [Jackson] in on a secret day of shooting, we had a skeleton crew so that the secret wouldn't get out"

There's the quote from the director saying the scenes weren't planned and it was done just for the fans to 'blow their minds'... and the Marvel Studios President (Kevin Feige) is directly quoted as saying "lets try"...

Just like when Captain America's shield was visible in the first movie, it wasn't planned, it was just done as a joke...

Favreau explained the shield's origin, stating, "An ILM artist put it in there as a joke to us for our cineSync sessions, when we're approving visual effects. They got a laugh out of it, and I said, 'Leave it in, that's pretty cool. Let's see if anybody sees it'".

From there the company decided to make it grow, but it was originally done just as a joke and a nod to the fans, not decided upon as anything serious until the fans started spotting it and it grew from there...

M

 

[Christopher]

From there the company decided to make it grow, but it was originally done just as a joke and a nod to the fans, not decided upon as anything serious until the fans started spotting it and it grew from there...

No, I don't think so. In that first passage you quoted, Favreau actually says it was "a way to sort of tee up The Avengers." The specific bits of foreshadowing may not have been planned, but it does sound like they were planning all along to connect them eventually.

Either way, I wouldn't describe it as a "gimmick," which implies something shallow and artificial. It sounded more like a tribute, an acknowledgment of what the Marvel Universe is to the fans -- something that has connections, a larger world where multiple heroes exist side by side. It doesn't have to be a "gimmick" because it's intrinsic.

 

[Methos]

i can accept that...

i didn't mean for the term 'gimmick' to be derogative, i've got nothing against the way Marvel have done it, it works well for their style of movies...

it's just not something i could see lots of movie companies picking up on... if DC wanted to do a continuity like that, first they'd have to prove that they can do more than one successful movie at a time, which going by their track record, isn't believable in the least... i can think of all of 3 good movies from DC over the past 10 years, out of all of them... which is pretty abysmal when you look at the amount of kick ass movies Marvel has pumped out...

M

 

[captcalhoun]

it's also not the only time the movies based on Marvel have hinted at the wider MU. X2 had a very hard to spot nod to Iron Man - the plastic prison was built by Stark Industries - and Spider-Man 2 name-checked Doctor Strange quite openly.