James Gunn lays out “8-10-year plan” for the DC Universe

The new DCU will put writers first

Gunn picked up that note about being committed to storytelling first in a press conference covered by Variety. One thing he and Safran want to do is put the writer back at the center of things, which means not going forward with a movie unless there’s a completed script. Apparently that’s something that happens a lot, bone-headed though it sounds; how are you going to start shooting something when you don’t even know what you’re shooting yet?

“People have become beholden to [release] dates, to getting movies made no matter what,” Gunn said. “I’m a writer at my heart, and we’re not going to be making movies before the screenplay is finished.”

Gunn hates the idea of setting a release date and sticking to it no matter what, even if the script isn’t ready to go. “I’ve seen it happen again and again — it’s a mess” he said. “It’s the primary reason for the deterioration in quality of films today, versus 20-30 years ago.”

"The degradation of the writer in Hollywood has been a terrible story. It’s gotten much worse since I first moved here 23 years ago. Writers have been completely left out of the loop in favor of actors and directors, and making the writer more prominent and more important in this process is really important to us. They make these movies where they don’t have third acts written. And then they start writing them during [production], you know, making them up as they’re going along. And then you’re watching a bunch of people punch each other, and there’s no flow even to the action."

I think we can all agree that sounds stupid and should change.

James Gunn takes swipes at Marvel, other superhero movies

Is superhero fatigue a real thing? It’s been a talking point for a while, with Marvel Studios pumping out show after show and movie after movie for years. Will audiences eventually reach a breaking point and say, “No more”?

Gunn thinks the answer is variety. “You can’t be telling the same ‘good guy, bad guy, giant thing in the sky, good guys win’ story again,” he said. “You need to tell stories that are more morally complex. You need to tell stories that don’t just pretend to be different genres, but actually are different genres.”

Peter Safran, who mostly stood by while his co-CEO talked, piped in with a banger: “It’s bad movie fatigue,” he said. You can’t help but wonder if they’re talking about Marvel here a bit.

At the same time, it’s not like DC Studios has a sterling record. Gunn and Safran were brought on in the first place to bail out a sinking ship. And Gunn was happy to admit that DC has had its problems. “As everyone here probably knows, the history of DC is pretty messed up, it was f**ked up,” he said. “No one was minding the mint. They were just giving away IP like they were party favors to any creators that smiled at them.”

It’s possible the DCU series may air in places besides HBO Max

DC Studios is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which also owns HBO Max. You would figure that all these new DC movies and shows would eventually show up there, right?

Well, maybe. New WBD CEO David Zaslav has been aggressive about cutting costs, which in some cases has meant licensing once-popular shows to other services, like Westworld appearing on Roku devices. And it sounds like the company is keeping its options open with these new DC projects.

“We have the ability to sell outside of HBO Max, if that makes sense,” Safran said. “So we’ll figure out if there are certain shows coming up that would be better served elsewhere, or [if] there’s not real estate on HBO Max for us. But we like the idea of having shows on Amazon and Hulu and Netflix. It just broadens the DC audience.”

Finally, Gunn and Safran revealed that The CW show probably has another one or two seasons in it. One assumes that the show will go on that “DC Elsewheres” pile.

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