Today's News: Warner and DC's relationship is getting serious at last

Not-quite-so-old news I posted on MS the other day:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/155487/warner_produceert_nog_negen_dc_stripverfilmingen

It's about time Warner and DC stepped up their game to compete with the various studios creating their own (Marvel) comic book universes. The alliance between the major movie studio and the big comic book publisher has seen its ups and downs in their joined ventures over the last decade, at least in terms of the quality of their product. Of course, Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy is the biggest up among them, making Batman connect to a large audience worldwide like never before, but let us not forget Superman Returns and Green Lantern failed to do the same and were largely forgotten soon after their theatrical run. With Man of Steel, they finally started on the right path. Or at least, the path that Marvel Studios/Disney took, which ended up working out so great for them financially that every other studio is going down the same route. Next order of business: the sequel to Man of Steel, already called Batman vs. Superman the world over, despite its official title still being a mystery (the name seems to stick quite successfully online, so there may not be much reason to change it anyway). And only last week, the word arrived that that movie will be followed by a Justice League film. Warner/DC seem to be in a bit of a hurry, introducing characters in a more rapid succession than Marvel did, culminating in their big super hero extravaganza after only two movies prior.

But now the announcement has been made that this is only the beginning, as the pair intends to produce nine (!) more movies based on DC properties together. However, it's unlikely all these movies will be part of the larger DC Cinematic Universe Warner/DC attempt to put together. The Sandman for example has little to no ties with the various super hero titles DC owns, and is a largely independent title under DC's alternate Vertigo imprint. The same holds true for some of the proposed upcoming projects, like Fables and 100 Bullets. However, The Metal Men and Shazam - the latter starring DC's Captain Marvel: probably a wise choice not to give the movie the name of the main character, considering it might confuse the audience needlessly - are definitely part of the superhero oriented corner of the DC realm and would make adequate candidates for crossovers with their better known (and more widely loved) brothers-in-arms, as they have done in the source material. It's good to know Warner/DC are also exploring less obvious corners of the DC-verse in search of exploitable properties, instead of focusing only on the superheroes, as the various studios that own pieces of Marvel seem to do. It's a brave move, as such movies might not prove as catchy as their fellows in tights fighting crime. It seems that of the nine projects, about half of them will take place in the soon-to-be DC Cinematic Universe, while the other half will witness the more fantasy and horror type stories. So with four or five pictures to follow in Justice League's footsteps, it seems Warner/DC are applying the same set-up Marvel does with its Phases. Expect project number ten to be Justice League 2 then. Or Batman vs. Superman some more.