logo
James Gunn gives early verdict on Batman Part II script

James Gunn gives early verdict on Batman Part II script

Perth Now5 days ago
James Gunn has confirmed The Batman Part II script is finished.
The Co-Chairman and CEO of DC Studios has delivered an early, positive verdict on Matt Reeves' script, but he decided against offering too much information about the hotly-anticipated movie.
When asked at the Superman world premiere in Los Angeles on Monday night (07.07.25) if he has read The Batman Part II script, he simply told ScreenRant: "It's great!"
Gunn then made a swift exit from the chat, but was smiling as he walked further down the carpet.
The filmmaker's comments come after he admitted last month he was expecting to see a script, and he was "totally excited" about reading Reeves' latest work.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly late last month, he said: "Listen, we're supposed to get a script in June. I hope that happens.
"We feel really good about it. Matt's excited. I talk to Matt all the time. I'm totally excited about it. So we can't wait to read the scripts, but we haven't read it yet, if that's your question."
The DC head insisted people should "get off Matt's nuts", and stop hassling him for updates about The Batman Part II.
Gunn said: "People should get off Matt's nuts because it's like, let the guy write the screenplay in the amount of time he needs to write it. That's just the way it is.
"He doesn't owe you something because you like his movie.
"I mean, you like his movie because of Matt. So let Matt do things the way he does."
Gunn admitted he felt "irritated" by the constant bombardment of questions about the movie online.
He said: "I am irritated by people. I mean, it's just that thing people don't need to be entitled about. It's going to come out when he feels good about the screenplay.
"And Matt's not going to give me the screenplay until he feels good about the screenplay."
The Batman Part II was initially due to hit cinemas in 2026, but it was pushed back a year to October 2027 to give Reeves more time to finish the story.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Curse hanging over Superman franchise as new film soars at box office
Curse hanging over Superman franchise as new film soars at box office

Courier-Mail

time21 minutes ago

  • Courier-Mail

Curse hanging over Superman franchise as new film soars at box office

Don't miss out on the headlines from Movies. Followed categories will be added to My News. Forget Lex Luthor. Red Son. Or even Kryptonite. If urban myth is to be believed, the curse hanging over the Superman franchise poses more of a threat to those who play the Man of Steel than any plot line James Gunn could conjure up for the latest spin on the hero. The Guardians Of The Galaxy director has been charged with breathing new life into the DC Comics hero, casting David Corenswet as the Kryptonian, Rachel Brosnahan as his Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult in the role of Lex Luthor. The new Superman film stars David Corenswet (right) as the Man of Steel, Rachel Brosnahan as his Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult (left) as Lex Luthor. Picture: MayaGunn's reboot comes after a series of box office disappointments with Henry Cavill's stint in the suit. Although Cavill's name is now in the mix to play James Bond, he expressed his disappointment about Gunn's recasting on Instagram in 2022, saying the news wasn't the easiest. X Learn More SUBSCRIBER ONLY 'But the changing of the guard is something that happens. I respect that,' he wrote. Talk of a curse began way before Cavill was sent packing. Or even Zack Snyder's troubled Justice League film in 2017, and Bryan Singer's snooze-worthy Superman Returns a decade before that. It all started with TV Superman George Reeves' mysterious death in 1959. Found shot dead – ruled suicide but speculated to be murder – Reeves' disillusionment with superhero fame and subsequent alcoholism was detailed in the 2006 film Hollywoodland starring Ben Affleck. Corenswet in a scene from the new Superman film, which raked in a whopping $US210 million worldwide on its opening weekend. Picture: Warner Bros Pictures via AP Henry Cavill was the last to play Superman on screen. Picture: Warner Bros Affleck, who had played Daredevil before shooting Hollywoodland, told he understood Reeves' frustrations with the superhero genre. 'I knew how ridiculous you feel in a red suit,' Affleck laughed. 'You feel – even if these movies work – very, very silly.' Likewise, Affleck understood the downsides of fame. 'The modern form of typecasting, you don't get typecast as a certain character you get typecast as yourself, and with George they couldn't see past the Superman character,' Affleck explained. 'Nowadays the danger is that people don't see past what they read in the tabloids, and that can be as damaging if not more so than the other type of typecasting. I certainly can tell you from experience it's bad. It's bad psychologically, bad for your career.' Superman director James Gunn with Corenswet, Brosnahan and attend at CinemaCon 2025 in April in Las Vegas. Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for CinemaCon Of course, Reeves wasn't the only actor whose career never really took flight after playing Superman. Dean Cain (who starred alongside Teri Hatcher in '90s TV series Lois & Clark), Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and Tom Welling (who played a teenage Clark Kent in long-running TV show Smallville) also struggled after hanging up their capes. Perhaps the saddest example of the so-called curse came from the 1978 classic Superman, when its star Christopher Reeve was left paralysed from the neck down in 1995 after a horseriding accident. He died in 2004, aged 52. George Reeves, who played Superman in the 1950s TV series with Noel Neill as Lois Lane, died under mysterious circumstances in 1959. Adding to that tragedy, Reeve's co-star Margot Kidder (who played the feisty Lois Lane) took her own life in 2018 after a long struggle with bipolar disorder, and Gene Hackman (Lex Luthor) was found dead in his home alongside his wife and dog in February this year. Lee John Quigley, who played Kal-El (aka baby Superman) in the same film, died when he was just 14. Before her death, Kidder shrugged off talk of a curse, telling The Telegraph in 2002: 'The idea cracks me up. What about the luck of Superman? 'When my car crashed this August, if I hadn't hit a telegraph pole after rolling three times, I would have dropped down a 50- to 60-foot ravine. Why don't people focus on that?' Need to talk to someone? Don't go it alone. Please reach out for help. Lifeline: 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 or Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800 or Headspace: 1800 650 890 or 13YARN: Speak to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander crisis supporter on 13 92 76 or visit Are you anxious? Take the Beyond Blue quiz to see how you're tracking and whether you could benefit from support So, should the stars of James Gunn's reboot be quaking in their super suits? Josh Hartnett certainly thinks so. But not necessarily because of any curse. The Black Hawk Down star told The Guardian last year that he turned down the role of Superman twice because he didn't want to be swallowed up by the fame that came with playing a superhero. 'And you saw what happened to some people back then. They got obliterated by it. I didn't want that for myself,' he said. Likewise, in the documentary I Am Paul Walker, The Fast And The Furious actor's longtime pal and stunt double Oakley Lehman revealed Walker was in line to play Superman before he died. According to Walker's manager Matt Luber, he took one look at himself in the suit and thought: 'I've got an S on, I got a cape, boots, tights … this is not me. I'm getting the f*** out of here.' Brandon Routh played the superhero in the 2006 offering Superman Returns. Tom Welling shared in the TV series Smallville, which followed Clark Kent's high school adventures. Certainly, anyone who takes on the mantle of Superman has big boots to fill. And Corenswet will have his work cut out for him living up to some of his predecessor's work. As will Superman's writer and director Gunn, who fans expect to save their hero from the super scrapheap. Gunn seems confident he's found the right blend of cheesy nostalgia and tongue-in-cheek humour to make Superman soar once more. Speaking on the DC Studios Official Podcast, Gunn said his latest foray into the superhero genre wouldn't rely as heavily on catchy tunes and wisecracking characters as Guardians Of The Galaxy or Suicide Squad. Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher starred on the series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder in 1978 film. 'Anything I do is going to be different, but it isn't about that, it's not relying on that, it's not relying on the songs, it's about this pure good, beautiful guy, who is trying to get by in a world that isn't those things and just happens to have superpowers, right?' he said. Celebrate the film's cinematic release on July 10 with a trip down Superman memory lane on Tubi. Adventures Of Superman: The Lost Episode: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Reeves in a lost episode of the classic series that never made it to TV. Airplane vs Volcano: Ex-Superman Dean Cain is among the everyday heroes trying to stay alive when the plane they're on flies into a ring of erupting volcanoes. The Great Escape II: The Untold Story: In his bid to be taken seriously as an actor post-Superman, Reeve plays a former prisoner of war who leads a manhunt to bring his captors to justice. Now streaming on Tubi Originally published as Curse hanging over Superman franchise as new film soars at box office

'Superman' aims to save flagging film franchise, not just humanity
'Superman' aims to save flagging film franchise, not just humanity

News.com.au

timea day ago

  • News.com.au

'Superman' aims to save flagging film franchise, not just humanity

Superman is often called upon to save the world from evildoers, but in his latest big-screen incarnation, he's also being asked to swoop in and save a franchise. James Gunn's "Superman," which opened in theaters worldwide this week, is a reboot aimed at relaunching the so-called DC Universe of comic book-based superhero movies, which also features Wonder Woman and Batman. The celluloid efforts of Warner Bros. and DC Studios have been widely eclipsed by Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe -- the world of Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther and the Fantastic Four, who are getting their own reboot later this month. "Warner Bros. has invested a lot of energy and money in trying to refocus and renew DC Studios, and this is going to be the big release from that," analyst David A. Gross from Franchise Entertainment Research told AFP. The heavy task falls on the shoulders of Gunn, the writer-director who won praise from fans of the genre with Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy. The movie's rollout has already encountered several headwinds, including a right-wing backlash to Gunn's comments on Superman's role as an immigrant, and skepticism from fans of the previous Superman films helmed by director Zack Snyder. Gunn has shrugged off the high stakes surrounding the movie's box office success. "Is there something riding on it? Yeah, but it's not as big as people make it out to be," he told GQ Magazine. "They hear these numbers that the movie's only going to be successful if it makes $700 million or something and it's just complete and utter nonsense." The hype around the movie is real -- the White House even superimposed President Donald Trump onto one of the movie's official posters with the caption "THE SYMBOL OF HOPE. TRUTH. JUSTICE. THE AMERICAN WAY. SUPERMAN TRUMP." - 'A diminished genre' - Warner Bros. hopes the DC Universe can catch up with Marvel which -- after years of huge successes with the "Avengers" movies -- has seen more muted box office returns with the recent "Thunderbolts" and "Captain America: Brave New World." Gross explained that superhero films hit a peak right before the Covid-19 pandemic, with box office earnings and audience enthusiasm waning ever since that time. "It's really a diminished genre," Gross said. However, the analyst said early buzz for "Superman" was "really good." The film stars up-and-comer David Corenswet as the new Superman/Clark Kent, with "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" star Rachel Brosnahan playing love interest Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as arch-villain Lex Luthor. The story follows the Man of Steel coming to terms with his alien identity as he finds his place in the human world. The supporting cast boasts a selection of other DC Comics characters, from the peacekeeping Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) -- who is scheduled to get his own film -- to the mace-wielding Hawkgirl. Gross noted that July "is the top moviegoing month of the year," leading tracking estimates to forecast a total of more than $100 million for the film's opening weekend in North America. - 'The story of America' - DC Studios however must shake off a reputation for producing mediocre films that did not score well with audiences. The last round of "DC Extended Universe" films included the well-liked "Wonder Woman" (2017) starring Gal Gadot -- but also box office flops like "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" (2023) and the under-performing "Aquaman" sequel with Jason Momoa. "The success was mixed, and they were spending a lot of money on some of the new spinoff characters who were not working particularly well," Gross said, pointing at 2021's "The Suicide Squad" -- directed by Gunn -- as an example. The last films featuring Superman, starring Henry Cavill and directed by Snyder, were relatively successful for Warner Bros. until "Justice League" -- DC's effort at recreating the "Avengers" vibe -- which lost millions of dollars. Fans of Snyder have stirred up negative buzz for the new "Superman" movie, voicing hope online that the reboot fails out of a sense of loyalty to the previous films. The backlash was further widened after right-wing pundits groaned about Superman's specific characterization as an immigrant, lamenting the superhero had become "woke." Gunn addressed the criticism, telling The Times newspaper that "Superman is the story of America," with the character reflecting those who "came from other places and populated the country." "I'm telling a story about a guy who is uniquely good, and that feels needed now," he added. Ultimately, time will soon tell if Corenswet's chiseled looks and Gunn's directorial vision will be the superpowers that DC Studios need -- or prove to be its Kryptonite.

Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing returning for Practical Magic 2
Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing returning for Practical Magic 2

Perth Now

timea day ago

  • Perth Now

Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing returning for Practical Magic 2

Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing will return for Practical Magic 2. The pair – who played the eccentric aunts of Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman's characters in the original 1998 movie – are set to reprise their roles in the upcoming sequel, according to Variety. Maisie Williams, Xolo Maridueña, Solly McLeod, Joey King and Lee Pace will also co-star. Meanwhile, producer Denise Di Novi previously promised that fans will be "very pleased" with the sequel. Kidman and Bullock will reprise their roles as witches the Owens sisters and Di Novi explained the movie will draw heavily from the source material – Alice Hoffman's 2021 novel The Book of Magic. She told Entertainment Weekly: "I think (fans are) going to be very pleased. We're going to be very faithful. We're [aware of] how important those characters and that movie are to so many people. We're not going to reinvent the wheel. "We're going to draw from Alice Hoffman's books, as the first movie did, and we're going to be true to the chronology of how many years later it is." Di Novi explained how the crew will "be respectful to the characters, story, and locations" from the original picture. She said: "It's going to be in 2025, but I'm not exactly sure when. We're just beginning the script, and Akiva Goldsman, who worked on the original and 10 million other things since then, is writing the script." Nicole confirmed that she and Sandra would be appearing in the sequel just days after the project was announced by Warner Bros. She told People magazine: "Yes I will be in it. And Sandy will be in it. And that's that. "There's a lot more to tell which is why we go, 'OK, this is kind of interesting now to be able to do this.' (We) found a way in."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store