DC Studios co-chief James Gunn certainly knows his way around comic book movies with the three “Guardians of the Galaxy” films under his belt along with “The Suicide Squad” film and the “Peacemaker” series.
He also understands how people have gotten bored of the genre in recent years. In an appearance on the Inside of You podcast the other week, he says the new DC hopes to avoid franchise fatigue which has led to waning interest in the genre:
“We’re going to be very careful with the product that we put out and making sure everything is as good as it can possibly be.
People have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories, and they have gotten to the place where, ‘Oh, it’s a superhero, let’s make a movie about it.’ And then, ‘Oh, let’s make a sequel, because the first one did pretty well’.
They aren’t thinking about, ‘Why is this story special? What makes this story stand apart from other stories? What is the story at the heart of it all? Why is this character important? What makes this story different that it fills a need for people in theaters to go see?'”
The comments come as Gunn is readying his “Superman: Legacy” film, with auditions having already taken place and casting expected to be announced soon.
Gunn adds that he thinks recent movies have out too much emphasis on spectacle as opposed to storytelling fundamentals:
“People have gotten a little lazy and there’s a lot of biff, pow, bam stuff happening in movies and I’m watching third acts of superhero films where I really just don’t feel like there’s a rhyme or reason to what’s happening. I don’t care about the characters. And they’ve gotten too generic.
I like very serious superhero movies, and I like very comedic superhero movies. I like ones that are a murder mystery but it’s with superheroes. I like to see these different types of stories, as opposed to seeing the same story told over and over again.”
The comments also come in the wake of the release of “The Flash” which, with two weekends behind it, is now being projected to close out its global box-office run a little shy of $300 million.
Box-office analyst Luiz Fernando (via World of Reel) suggests the film won’t recoup its marketing campaign costs, indicating the film could end up losing the studio around or just over $200 million – putting it on par with “The Lone Ranger” and “John Carter” in terms of expensive studio flops.
