Saturday, August 09, 2014

Batman v Superman-DOJ: Aquaman Chatter & The Date Change

Rumors started a while back that reportedly confirmed that Jason Momoa has been cast as Aquaman for both  Zack Snyder's upcoming superhero team-up film called "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Justice League".  In response Momoa posted a photo via Instagram that seemed like a response to the chatter that could go either way (though most likely it's a denial) - The pic sees him  holding a pitchfork like a trident, but he's also holding up his middle finger.


The radio hosts on Detroit 97.1 The Ticket were discussing the topic on Friday morning when a call came in. The person on the other end of the line seemed to be Snyder. An audio recording of the chat suggests that the voice matches Snyder's. He wouldn't acknowledge if Aquaman was in the movie or not, but he did defend the character and his powers:

"You guys were disparaging, a little bit, Aquaman… I don't want to give anything away about the movie or anything like that but Aquaman has some cool abilities.People are like, "Oh what? Does he talk to animals? Cause that seems like what he does. Or fish?" The cool thing with Aquaman is his trident so you have to realize that could cut the flesh of Superman if they came in contact. That's a thing that's in the canon. He's super strong cause of course he can exist at these super deep depths so when he comes up here he's crazy strong. Anyway, not to say he's in my movie or anything like that but he has the potential to be bad a**, that's all I'm saying."

Momoa has been linked to Warner Bros' upcoming DC Entertainment plans for a long time but he's been suggested for numerous other roles like Doomsday or Metallo alien hero Martian Manhunter who also happens to like Oreo Cookies. The imposing actor has been asked about the talk several times but has always denied that he's up for a role.

DOJ will see the return of Henry Cavill as Superman/Clark Kent, Ben Affleck will play Bruce Wayne/Batman amid lots of fallout--while Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane are set to reprise their roles as Lois Lane, Perry White and Martha Kent. "Fast Five" star Gal Gadot's playing Wonder Woman.

How big Gadot's role as WW is, is unknown at this point. Godot beat out Olga Kurylenko and Elodie Yung for the role. Thor: The Dark World" actress is Jaimie Alexander was also linked.

Some time ago there was noise that the production was seeking is a love interest for the Dark Knight in the film. The Type? A woman in their late 20s of any ethnicity.  Adding that she be tall and "possess physicality".

The notice DID NOT give a name for the character, which led to speculation that it was anyone from Vicki Vale to Wonder Woman. A leaked casting call had fanboys thinking that the Amazon warrior was in the pic.

Latino Review reports that four secondary villains are making an appearance in DOJ: Victor Zsasz Morgan Edge Amanda Waller and David Cain.

According to their sources, the serial killer Zsasz will fight with Affleck's Batman in an early Gotham City-set scene. Edge will be the slimy public relations head of LexCorp who goes toe to toe with Lois Lane on a TV talk show. Cain will meet with Luthor's bodyguard Mercy to set up an assassination. There's also another baddie  that is yet to be cast . In this incarnation Waller's a stern, intimidating senator who sees Superman as a threat and comes up with a counter measure to stop him.

Ray Fisher is playing the role of Cyborg in the film. Jeremy Irons has been cast as Wayne's butler Alfred Pennyworth. Jesse Eisenberg is playing Lex Luthor

There were reports that suggested that the chatter about former "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston was playing Lex in the upcoming movie were true were denied by the actor. In fact he and fellow early frontrunner Mark Strong were never offered the role. Tom Hanks was internally discussed but an offer was never made.

Instead, they stuck with a next generation' mandate. We were told that Joaquin Phoenix came up as a contender for Lex. The trade says that he passed.

Holly Hunter, Callan Mulvey and Tao Okamoto ("The Wolverine") have joined the cast. Specifics about their new characters are being kept under wraps. Australian actor Mulvey ("Zero Dark Thirty) has  been rumored for the role of an (unnamed) villain in the film for quite some time now....Scoot McNairy ("Argo," "The Rover") has joined the film. Nobody at the studio will confirm the news or reveal what the role is.

 Spanish site El Multicine which claims that "Looper"and "Edge Of Tomorrow" actress Emily Blunt is close to inking a deal for an unspecified role.

Batman on Film also suggests that the character of Commissioner Jim Gordon is in the film, however there's no word on potential casting or confirmation at this time. The character is front and center in Fox Broadcasting's fantastic looking new Fall TV Series prequel Gotham starring  , , and

More rumors ran recently that Girls co-star Adam Driver was the frontrunner to play the character of Dick Grayson, the post-Robin Nightwing incarnation in the film. The original story mentioned that two other actors are in the mix for the role. Less than 24 hours later "Gossip Girl" and "Easy A" star Penn Badgley and "The Perks of Being A Wallflower" and "We Need To Talk About Kevin" star Ezra Miller were said to be in mix for the part. Driver denied any such talk...With good reason since he was really up for Lex. He turned it down due to scheduling conflicts. Denzel Washington was also among a list potentials for Lex generated by Thinkmcflythink as were Idris Elba and.

Singer Justin Bieber uploaded a photo on his Instagram account showing him holding up what appeared to be a personalized script for the film with the hashtag "#Robin" but it turned out to be a prop for a Funny or Die skit.

The speedster The Flash is said to be in the script.

Meantime: The star of The CW's popular Arrow TV series Stephen Amell posted a "Justice League" comic image on his official Facebook page.  We already know that Flash (Grant Gustin) showed up there for a few eps before getting his own show this Fall (Watch an extended trailer). Could more of DC Entertainment's "Justice League" be coming to "Arrow"? For now the DC Cinematic Universe will NOT co-exist with the TV heroics...There are rumors about where the films might go as well as the  TV side of things...

"Man Of Steel" writer David S. Goyer was back on the keyboard but now--THR reports that  Chris Terrio, who won an Oscar for writing Affleck's “Argo,” has been hired to write the latest draft of the MOS 2 script. 

Goyer is in the midst of developing several projects including an adaptation of author Neil Gaiman's  popular comic book series Sandman, which he’ll produce with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven return to executive produce the multi-hero film.

Sources say the new movie is going for the tone of the relationship and fight seen in Frank Miller’s 1980s ground-breaking mini-series The Dark Knight Returns.

The release was delayed a full 10 months for a number of reasons. As a result, the original release date of July 17th 2015 was no longer. The studio then targeted a May 6th 2016 release. They quickly inserted the fantasy Pan into that original slot. MOS 2 was to go head to head with "Captain America 3" ...Nobody thought that the comic book pics would ultimately share the date--Sure enough DOJ blinked--and will now open on March 25th 2016.


The studio's president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman, admits to EW that they miscalculated on the whole date share thing:

"In terms of going back and reviewing the situation, it looked to us - and maybe our reconnaissance wasn't great - that [Marvel was] not going to have a movie [ready] on that date. Just that they held onto it and they might not be able to deliver. But they took another position."

The slumping domestic box-office this Summer, where week after week of big releases open huge and then plunge, appears to have played a role in the studio's decision:

"The reality now is there really isn't a bad week to open a movie. If you look at the summer box office this year, you can see that there were so many movies, one after the other. You can start with Spider-Man, two weeks later Godzilla, and then Maleficent, and then Edge of Tomorrow, and then Jump Street and Transformers. And the one thing they all had in common, not one of them did over $250 million. We'll be the first one up [in 2016], which is very important, and we'll have six weeks before Captain America comes in.

Then of course there's the nine untitled DC Comics adaptations that the company announced this week--dated through 2020. 

Fellman says they'll begin to be announce the titles  later this month. He was also asked if the rumors of the "Justice League" movie being closer than you think (ie. 2017) are true he said: "While it hasn't been officially announced, I think it's a pretty good bet.

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