The report also states that sequel to The Batman hasn’t actually been given the go-ahead.
It is fair to say that all eyes are on Warner Bros. and its dealings with DC productions at the moment.
In the run-up to the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery – creating the new, creatively titled Warner Bros. Discovery – it was announced that the already-finished Batgirl film was being completely pulled from the release schedule and being used as part of a tax write-off.
Less high profile but just-as-cancelled other DC projects also scrapped included a movie focused on the Wonder Twins, and a TV show titled Strange Adventures, to be made by the guy who put together the very successful Arrowverse.
All in the bin. And that is without mentioning any of the scandal surrounding Ezra Miller and the Flash movie…
However, per a recent report by Variety, it turns out that some even bigger productions aren’t entirely safe yet, either.
Wonder Woman 3, the new Superman movie, Zatanna and Static Shock are all reportedly without an official green light at the moment from Warner Bros.
Not even the sequel to The Batman, which made over $770 million at the box office earlier this year, has been given the official go-ahead. Writer/director Matt Reeves and star Robert Pattinson are still attached to the project, but at the moment it is officially “in development”, which means if it ever does get the go-ahead, its arrival on the big screen is still years away.
In fact, only two DC projects have still been given the thumbs-up following the merger.
Well, technically three, if you include Blue Beetle, which is also already shot and in the middle of post-production. It, like Batgirl, was due to be a HBO Max exclusive, but the budget eventually made its way to $100 million, so it will now receive a full cinema release in August 2023.
One of the other for-sure projects (for now) in the works is Black Canary, a spin-off of the Birds Of Prey movie, with Jurnee Smollett reprising her role for the movie, which is set for a HBO Max exclusive release.
And, finally, we’ve got Joker: Folie à Deux.
The 2019 original is reported to have cost $55 million to produce, and made $1.074 billion at the box office, as well as winning two Oscars, so of course a sequel was never really in doubt.
As confirmed last week, Lady Gaga will join star Joaquin Phoenix and writer/director Todd Phillips for the new movie, in which she is rumoured to be playing Harley Quinn, with most of the action set to take place within the walls of Arkham Asylum.
Variety reports that both Phoenix and Phillips will receive $20 million a piece for returning, while Gaga will get $10 million for her part. Add in the additional costs of complicated song-and-dance sequences (this is a musical, by the way; said to be more like A Star Is Born than West Side Story), and the sequel is said to cost as much as $150 million to produce.
That film will arrive on 4 October, 2024.
As for any of the rest of them, we’ll have to wait and see…
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