Geoff Johns, is he DC Films New Hope?

[ManWithNoName18]

The team of people behind MOS/BVS/SS, the "DC brain trust" was in power consisting of

(From a THR Zack Snyder interview)

Charles Roven – Producer (Batman V Superman, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League Part One, The Flash, Aquaman, and Justice League Part Two)
Richard Suckle – Producer (Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman)
Wesley Coller – Producer (with the Snyders) at Cruel and Unusual Films
Geoff Johns – Chief Creative Officer at DC Comics (and DCEU Producer as well as Creative Consultant)
Jon Berg – Oversees DCEU live-action films as Executive Vice President of Development at Warner Bros.
Greg Silverman – President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production at Warner Bros.

And Zack/Deb Snyder

As you can see there used to be eight people in charge of the DCEU, eight people who also had other jobs at WB.

But post BVS the brain trust was dissolved, and now Geoff Johns is the main guy in charge of DC Films, with assistance from Jon Berg. Geoff Johns has never had this much clout in DC movies before despite producer credits on GL and BVS.
Does he give you hope for the DCEU?

 

[ManWithNoName18]

In my opinion I think Suicide Squad was to far along for him to really do anything about it. But for Wonder Woman and Justice League he can hopefully make sure the post production goes smoothly. And we don't get another messy plot due to editing and backpedaling on promises to the director

 

[Silver Surfer]

He's a great comic book writer but he is no way prepared to handle the movie business at such a large scale. It would be like Marvel replacing Feige with Brian Michael Bendis, just ridiculous.

 

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

I'm sure adding him to the mix won't hurt, and I guess it's good to have someone in an influential position to point out important stuff like...what the tone of the first Batman/Superman movie should probably not be.

But whereas Snyder may have the tendency to stray too far from the appeal of a character, I think Johns' problem, while he can undoubtedly write an exciting comic, is that he seems very much of the mindset that classic automatically means better. I hope his personal tastes or preconceptions about the appeal of a property don't interfere with the true potential and mass market appeal of a property, which is what Feige seems so adept at.

 

[Batmannerism]

Hmmmmm...... cautiously optimistic.

I do think Johns has 2 qualifications that will at least improve the quality of films:

1) One thing that Johns absolutely can do is portray our favorite characters in a way that well, actually makes us like them - something B v S has pretty much failed to do, and apparently (haven't seen it yet so can't really judge) Suicide Squad fails at too. I guess Batman is an exception, because audiences seem to like him no matter what - although I'm not that keen on Batman as a murderer ( as in he planned to assassinate Superman, and he gunned down plenty of Luthor's thugs) I don't have a problem with Bats killing people inadvertently, or on the spur of the moment if no other choice exists ( e.g. when he kills Harvey Dent at the end of Dark Knight) but when his plan is to kill someone from the get-go, well that's not quite Batman.

Anyway, I can't see Johns making these kinds of errors. Or, if he does take a character out of the usual conception he's got a good enough understanding of that character to make it believable for us as an audience.

He clearly understands the characters (something Snyder doesn't )


2) He's a storyteller, who tells simple stories well. Sure JLrigin (or JL:War if you prefer) is a pretty simple story = members of JL meet, scrap a bit, then Darkseid shows up and they have to team up to kick his ass off the planet.

Not a very complex tale, but if done with enough humour, action and solid character interaction, very entertaining.

And isn't that what we want ? Entertainment ? I mean, these are superhero movies, they aren't going to make us re-examine our worldview or change religions. No, these are meant to be films that we just enjoy - which is what DC has failed to do this year.

Anyway, I think Johns has as good a shot as anyone at pulling it off - although apparently he wasn't very successful with the GL movie. Let's hope he's learned from that (and the mistakes made by Snyder on B v S ).

The big hope is that Johns will combine his understanding of character and story with the talents of good directors and other folks who understand the motion picture industry to restore DC films to some semblance of glory ( think TDK !).

I doubt he's a lone messiah figure, in the way Christopher Nolan was for Batman - but someone who can be part of a team to put enjoyable DC films back on the screen.

Fingers crossed.

 

[NotNickFury]

He's no Kevin Feige, but he's better than the direction Warner Bros had so far. Wonder Woman, I feel, will be the true test of whether he's the best fit.

 

[jmc]

The issue isn't so much whether Johns is the right person, it's whether WB will allow him to dictate what needs to be done. At present WB has got their fingers all over these films.

 

[Dark Raven]

Maybe Kevin Feige has a brother who could work for WB/DC to do the same thing he did.

Bevan Feige?
Devon Feige?
Nevin Feige?

 

[Micromind]

Kevin Feige was associated with movies like Ang Lee's Hulk, Daredevil, Elektra, The Punisher, Fantastic Four Rise of Silver Surfer, Blade Trinity. What I am saying is, it take a while to acquire skills needed to manage comic book movies.

Feige is not a director or a story-writer, he is a Producer and he makes a framework for MCU movies and makes management decisions and puts forward a vision.

And, I am not a fan of Geoff Johns either, so it's not looking very good with him in charge.

 

[The Endless]

John's had a big role in GLS development right? Look how that turned out...

Plus I don't rate him as a comic book writer anyway. Not anymore at least. The nu52 is garbage. He might have the passion of a Feige... but he doesn't have the talent.

 

[kguillou]

The issue is...does Geoff Johns have ultimate greenlight or veto power? At Marvel, The buck stops with Feige. He calls the shots. Feige reads and approves the script before they put it into production and film it. He makes sure the directors they hire are onboard with said script and vision. Will Johns be able to do that or does he still have to answer to some ignorant exec overlord who will ultimately muck up the production anyway?

 

[Dark Raven]

Does DC actually have its own film studio like Marvel? Or is it still essentially WB studios?

Part of the reason Marvel was different was because it was its own self-contained entity when it started out, before coming under Disney's umbrella. Disney largely let Marvel do their own thing because they've already seen its success.

I don't think there is a DC studios, so I don't know if Johns could really have ultimate power like Feige.

 

[The Endless]

WB should get talent on board and allow them a little offshoot studio, which is basically what Marvel started as. John's and Affleck. Get people like Lord and Miller, Edgar Wright, Nolan, Vaughan on board. Maybe Angelina Jolie to join Patty Jenkins. Throw Terry Gilliam in there for The Sandman.

That'd be the dream.

 

[Dark Raven]

If Edgar Wright had been onboard all this time, we'd still be waiting for Batman 89.

 

[jmc]

The issue is...does Geoff Johns have ultimate greenlight or veto power? At Marvel, The buck stops with Feige. He calls the shots. Feige reads and approves the script before they put it into production and film it. He makes sure the directors they hire are onboard with said script and vision. Will Johns be able to do that or does he still have to answer to some ignorant exec overlord who will ultimately muck up the production anyway?

In all likelihood Johns won't have the power to green light film but he might have final say on the direction and the script. At least in theory he should. What's evident is the film maker first approach isn't working.

 

[Zant]

I don't get the hype about this guy. Not much difference between him and Bendis, Quesada and Guggenheim. I rate someone like Greg Weisman over all those guys.

 

[NotNickFury]

WB should get talent on board and allow them a little offshoot studio, which is basically what Marvel started as. John's and Affleck. Get people like Lord and Miller, Edgar Wright, Nolan, Vaughan on board. Maybe Angelina Jolie to join Patty Jenkins. Throw Terry Gilliam in there for The Sandman.

That'd be the dream.

Like some 'DC Studios' or 'DC Films' equivalent to Marvel Studios? Sounds like that would be a step in the right direction.

 

[Jonwo]

DC Films didn't exist before a few months ago, it was just Warner Bros making the film with DC getting a credit because it's their characters.

I imagine Geoff isn't handling the business aspects of the DCEU, that's likely going to be Jon Berg but I imagine he'll be the face of DCEU.

 

[Mjölnir]

The issue is...does Geoff Johns have ultimate greenlight or veto power? At Marvel, The buck stops with Feige. He calls the shots. Feige reads and approves the script before they put it into production and film it. He makes sure the directors they hire are onboard with said script and vision. Will Johns be able to do that or does he still have to answer to some ignorant exec overlord who will ultimately muck up the production anyway?

Yes, it's doubtful that Johns has the film experience to be able to do everything himself. Feige isn't just keeping the movies in line, he's also the guy that saw a paintball episode of Community and realized that the Russos understood action well and approached them to make The Winter Soldier. It takes quite a bit of experience to have such an eye for talent.

Of course it's not necessarily so that you can't succeed without a Feige person. Even he needs people around him and the main thing is that all of them work in the same direction. Hopefully Johns can be someone to make people do that, but it's hard to estimate that beforehand.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I doubt it. Geoff has been helping with the movies since GL and I don't see him making any major changes now that he has moved up.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

he's also the guy that saw a paintball episode of Community and realized that the Russos understood action well and approached them to make The Winter Soldier.

That's awesome.

 

[Flint Marko]

It really is. I'm hoping we have Fiege around for a long time.

 

[Jonwo]

I think it would be best if DC Films is treated like New Line Cinema or Warner Animation Group with its own slate and development but WB handling distribution and marketing.

 

[ManWithNoName18]

Unfortunately we are going to have to wait untill Wonder Woman comes out in 11 months before we can see a difference. That and moniter the behind the scenes progress of WW/JL.

There could potentially be another panic induced DCWB shake up that removed Geoff Johns and puts someone else in power

 

[metaphysician]

I'm not Geoff Johns' biggest fan ( /understatement ), but if nothing else, he's certainly better than more Snyder. So, go Johns.