Ava DuVernay

When Warner Brothers finally decided to produce movies based on the vast catalog of DC Comics characters, that list was pretty diverse, with such obvious choices as the Justice League and Wonder Woman as well as more obscure properties as the Metal Men and Booster Gold.  Things have been shuffled and some projects have either stalled or been de-emphasized.  But it seems that WB is willing to listen when the right talent approaches them.  ‘The Avengers’ director Joss Whedon pitched the studio a ‘Batgirl’ movie, which they immediately said yes to.  Unfortunately, Whedon’s vision wasn’t clear and after spending a year trying to come up with a story for the character, Whedon walked away.  (The film is moving forward with a new creative team.)  And at no point was ‘The New Gods’ ever announced as a potential movie, so when this project was announced in March, it came as quite a surprise to most.

It turns out that Warner Brothers didn’t have plans to create a movie based on these characters– created by the great Jack Kirby– until the idea was pitched by esteemed director Ava DuVernay.

 


 

DuVernay’s 2014 film ‘Selma’ was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and her TV series ‘Queen Sugar’ which airs on the OWN network has won several awards.  Earlier this year, Disney released her first big-budget tentpole, ‘A Wrinkle In Time’.  Unfortunately, that movie under-performed at the box office, but luckily Warner Brothers has enough faith in her to entrust her with crafting a film based on one of their most sprawling concepts.

After the majority of Warner Brothers’ DC Comics movies have disappointed, the company appears to have abandoned the goal of mimicking Disney’s Marvel shared universe.  Rather than forcing movies into development to achieve a certain endgame, WB is welcoming filmmakers with a vision and passion for a particular project, which explains why the studio okay’ed a ‘Joker’ solo origin movie to be produced by Martin Scorsese that isn’t connected at all to the existing Joker, played by Jared Leto in ‘Suicide Squad’.

Kario Salem (‘The Score’) has been tapped to pen the screenplay for ‘New Gods’.  Warner Brothers has not yet announced a release date for it.

Are you excited to see a ‘New Gods’ movie from the imagination of Ava DuVernay?

Source: Twitter