With the news that Geoff Johns is stepping down from his position as DC Entertainment president and DC Comics chief creative officer, it’s no surprise that some unpleasant behind the scenes chatter is starting to emerge. The first is a revelation that Johns essentially swiped the ‘Justice League’ script from its credited screenwriter Chris Terrio and rewrote most of it. Terrio wasn’t happy about that. And he wasn’t the only one. It appears that Warner Brothers also wasn’t a fan of what Johns had in store.
Vulture senior editor Kyle Buchanan posted a series of tweets stating “I remember hearing that Geoff Johns rewrote so much of Justice League when Zack Snyder was still directing that Chris Terrio would complain, ‘Maybe try using some of my pages?’”
Following that, he posted a follow up: “WB was allegedly so unsatisfied with how the Johns/Snyder version was shaping up, that they convened a footage summit for other writers including Joss Whedon, Allan Heinberg, Seth Grahame-Smith, and Andrea Berloff to offer feedback. Then they hired Whedon.”
I remember hearing that Geoff Johns rewrote so much of JUSTICE LEAGUE when Zack Snyder was still directing that Chris Terrio would complain, “Maybe *try* using some of my pages?” https://t.co/NOwj5sgIUd
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) June 11, 2018
It would appear that Terrio penned a script in collaboration with director Zack Snyder, who had also helmed ‘Batman V Superman’. That would have been before Warner Brothers dropped that turd on the unsuspecting public only to watch in horror as everyone ripped it to shreds. That was followed by another poorly-received chapter in the DC film universe, ‘Suicide Squad’. It’s well within reason to assume that Terrio’s ‘Justice League’ script was in keeping with that bleak, nonsensical tone that Snyder had established before Warner Brothers realized that fans don’t want doom’n’gloom super folk movies made by people whose only experience with comics being ‘The Dark Knight Returns’.
No doubt, Geoff Johns and Joss Whedon tried to flip what would have been a dismal, depressing ‘Justice League’ into something more optimistic and akin to the actual comics. Unfortunately, there’s that old adage “Too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the soup.” WB keeps second guessing itself when it comes to these movies, resulting in disjointed messes like ‘Suicide Squad’ which was essentially two separate movies spliced into one.
The results speak for themselves. What should have been WB crowning flagship superhero movie turned out to be their weakest performer yet, mainly because the first few movies– with the exception of ‘Wonder Woman’— were such sh** shows that most people figured this would be no different and avoided it.
Can the DC Universe be saved? Perhaps ‘Aquaman’ and ‘Shazam!’ will turn things around.
Source: ComicBook.com
