“We were greenlit to make a project for HBO Max, a feature film based on Catwoman as a kid,” recounted Mintz. Unfortunately, three months into the project, the CEO of Warner Brothers decided to cut back on the studio’s streaming productions.
“He canceled 42 projects, including ours,” said Mintz.
With that door closed, however, another one soon opened.
It was then that director and producer Matt Reeves reappeared. Having seen some of the work for the Catwoman project, he put together a short video compilation, which he then brought to David Zaslov, president and CEO of Warner Brothers.
“Zaslov said, ‘This is incredible, we need to release it theatrically,’” said Mintz. But the marketing department felt that it needed to be a larger story.
Again, Reeves stepped in.
“Matt had always wanted to make a story about Robin [Batman’s sidekick], and he thought this would be the medium to do it in,” explained Mintz. “So, he called us and we started developing that with him. The writer of the Pixar film ‘Coco’ came back with this great script pitch that we were all excited about, but just to put this into context, it doesn’t take much when you’re running a startup to get you excited when someone calls you with an idea. If it’s two celery sticks that rob a bank, you’re like, ‘I’m so into vegetables!’”
It also helped that all five of the co-founders related to the project concept for “Dynamic Duo” as they have long been fans of the DC comics universe.
The final icing on the cake was that Reeves fully embraces the Swaybox style.
“The previous projects we worked on were great, but everyone was, ‘We like your style, we like your aesthetic, let’s do that,’” said Armand. “Then when you get into working with them, they’re like, ‘We don’t like that anymore, can you do what we do?’ Matt Reeves and 6th & Idaho were the first people to say ‘We like that, stay doing that. That feels the best.”
