Screenwriter talks Teen Titans Movie - wants to make it "real"

[SolidRoar]

From IGN:

Scripter compares project to Batman Begins and Watchmen.
by Eric Moro & Scott Collura


July 26, 2007 - Screenwriter Mark Verheiden was at Comic-Con today to talk about his various impending projects, and of course the topic of the recently announced Teen Titans movie came up, which he is scripting. During a panel discussion, Verheiden said that he hopes the tone of the film will match that of Batman Begins and the Watchmen comic book.

"It's not light and frothy," he says. "It's not silly. I want to play the characters so they feel real to us, not like people we can't understand. And I think Nightwing is a great character for that."

Nightwing is the adult persona of Dick Grayson, a.k.a. Batman's sidekick Robin, who leads the group and is the sole confirmed character in the film so far. Verheiden isn't talking yet about who else will make the film's roster, though he does confirm that there will be multiple villains in the film - and, as he told IGN exclusively after the panel had ended today, from a personal standpoint he is fond of the Marv Wolfman-George Pérez era of the comic book.

"I love the Perez-Wolfman stuff, so we're definitely looking at that, but I don't really want to get into who the team we're picking is yet," he says. "But I'm a huge fan of Marv Wolfman's work and I've talked to him about this a little bit. We're friends and if I can be true to his feeling that you get from those books, I'd be very happy."

Verheiden adds that the real challenge of the film will be to keep the characters "real," which is something he thinks Batman Begins pulled off quite well.

"I think the challenge is probably in terms of the team, to make sure that each one of them gets their due," he says. "The real challenge in this to me is to make sure that you feel you really know these characters as real people. They're empowered people that have been blessed with abilities that are beyond imagination, except for Robin who worked on it and became that himself. And yet they have the same wants, hopes, dreams, and emotions as everyone else. It's just they have this extra part of their lives. And I thought what was interesting too, the sort of big difference between the Teen Titans and some of the other big stories, like say the X-Men, is the Titans have had their powers and for the most part have lived with them all their lives. So this isn't a learning curve. This isn't, 'Oh my God, I can suddenly spout fire!' This isn't the Fantastic Four either. It's a story about, 'What do you do when you've had these powers and now you're 18?' And your name was 'This Lad' or 'Kid This' and now all of a sudden it's, 'How do I have my own identity?' So the core of it is really about the emotional story of these guys, and of course it's a huge, fun action movie too. But the core of it is going to be to try to understand these characters and sort of what it is to be them in today's world."

And while Batman Begins will serve as a basis for how the characters in Teen Titans should be portrayed, Verheiden doesn't see any great need to mix his universe with the worlds of that film of the other current DC movies like Superman Returns.

"In terms of the universes of those films, I don't think we want to do anything to violate the continuity that they've established," he says. "I want to be very true to the Teen Titans, however I don't want to be slavish to the point where we're just doing things to… I want to be as true as possible but do the best story I can is I guess the way to put it. In terms of Batman Begins, that's just a great touch point in terms of tone. It's serious without being [too serious]. You feel like there's real jeopardy for those characters. And that's what we want for Teen Titans. When they're in trouble we don't want you to think they're just going to pull the magic power out of their hat. They're in genuine trouble, genuine jeopardy, and these are 18-year-old young adults trying to figure out, 'How do we survive, how do we stay proud in front of our friends, how do we just be true to sort of what we think we are at a moment of conflict in [ourselves].' Because they're going through the classic, 'I'm 18 and I don't know what the hell I'm doing.'"

As for whether or not the film will be based on any specific Teen Titan storylines or comics, Verheiden sees the project as more being inspired by thematic arcs of the Titans saga.

"It's sort of taking from the universe and then creating an amalgam that works for us," he says. "If you've loved the books, I don't think you're going to go, 'What the heck is going on with the Teen Titans?' We're not reinventing the wheel is what I want to say. We want to stay true because it's a great franchise, fantastic characters. I love Teen Titans and I'm old enough to have bought them when they were coming out. The Marv Wolfman version -- not the really early version! I want to do a show that appeals to fans who really love these characters and also isn't so sort of oblique or inside that people on the outside can't really get it."

 

[GoodPowerRanger]

SWEET! If they're going to make the Teen Titans movie just as serious and violent as Batman Begins then I'm going to go see it for sure. Well, maybe not as violent, but I hope it's just as serious. Batman Begins is so far the best Superhero movie I've ever seen, next comes Transformers

 

[GL1]

I like the approach... I like it a lot, as far as where the kids are coming from. The fact that he has to bother to say that it won't be in the Batman Begins universe is insane to me, I don't know why anyone would ever ask that question.

But yeah, I think Batman Begins is too dark for the Titans...

 

[Kebab gud]

sounds more and more like they want to go with The Titans instead of the Teen Titans..
it would be stupid with that approach not to have Arsenal in it :P

 

[GoodPowerRanger]

I like the approach... I like it a lot, as far as where the kids are coming from. The fact that he has to bother to say that it won't be in the Batman Begins universe is insane to me, I don't know why anyone would ever ask that question.

But yeah, I think Batman Begins is too dark for the Titans...

Dude, they made a Scarecrow action figure for kids, even though the scarecrow was a bit too scarey for kids! Also they should make it PG-13 because it's called TEEN Titans. Do you get it, lol.

 

[Justice Bringer]

Frig. He should have set it in the not too distant future...so it can work in the continuity of BB and SR.

I dont like the possibility of future DC films being disjointed.

 

[explode7]

It should have been similiar to the cartoon series with Robin, Raven, Starfire, Cyborg and Beast Boy and thats it and they could use the same stories and villains from that show as well just dont make the characters cheesy though. This move wouldn't make any kind of $$ at the Box Office because the General Audience mostly the kids who grew up with the show would expect the teen titans from the cartoon series. There is a reason the show was soo popular. Now they going to bring Nightwing in the first one. I smell FAIL!

 

[Sun_Down]

Sounds good to me.

 

[Katsuro]

Frig. He should have set it in the not too distant future...so it can work in the continuity of BB and SR.

I dont like the possibility of future DC films being disjointed.

He did mention he didn't want to violate the continuity of other DC films. Hopefully it means that while there wont be any direct links, there wont be anything that contradicts Batman Begins.

 

[Justice Bringer]

Yeah BUT Batman Begins takes place in the present. If TT also takes place in the present...that alone violates Batman Begins..

 

[Motown Marvel]

mark verheiden has written nothing but s#!t in the past, so i have little faith in this movie.

 

[Justice Bringer]

True....he was a Smallville writer not a good sign.

 

[Rorschach2012]

Great News!

 

[fabman]

Mark Verheiden also wrote The Mask. I love The Mask. Show some luv for him.

 

[Motown Marvel]

True....he was a Smallville writer not a good sign.

his work in comics has been even more embarassing.

 

[Joker]

if it has Speedy/Arsenal, and he's a heroin addict in it, that would be aweome...beyond that, still think they should have waited to set these characters up in other movies and then spun them off as opposed to this route...

 

[Majik1387]

I liked Mark Verheiden's The Mask, but that's it. I mean, I'll hold off until I see My Name Is Bruce, but I have very little hope for the movie now.

 

[tomorrel]

still think they should have waited to set these characters up in other movies and then spun them off as opposed to this route...

yes my friend you are brilliant, finally someone talks some sense, how can you just skip ahead to full grown richard just beacause people wont "identify" with the teenage robin, and what about their friggin backstories!!!

 

[GL1]

People know Robin. He's more famous than everyone but Superman, Batman and Spider-Man. You don't have to 'set up' an extensive backstory for Robin, you can almost just bring him on as is... especially since he doesn't have any powers.

As for action figures, I wasn't talking about a Batman Begins tone being to dark for children to go see, I was talking about a BB tone being too dark to capture the exhuberance of the Titans... which, I suppose, is not the writers goal. Oh, well. Missed opportunities.

 

[GL's Light]

I like what he had to say. He hit the right notes for me. His writing career has been variable, but he's done really good work on Battlestar Galactica, so hopefully that upswing continues.

My guess is that the core team that has formed the Titans from issue # 1, and that's included in the cartoon series, will be included in the film (if it's made, which I hope it is): Nightwing/Robin, Beast Boy/Changeling, Raven, Starfire, and Cyborg. Wonder Girl may well be included, and maybe Kid Flash too (if his inclusion isn't too costly).

Trigon and Deathstroke are of course the biggest Titans villains from the Wolfman/Perez era. I would expect one of them to be in the film as the main antagonist. Verheiden says the film will have multiple villains, but I can't see both big guns being in the same film.

The two most famous Titans storylines are The Judas Contract and The Terror of Trigon. A loose adaptation of The Judas Contract would make for a great film, but the fact that there's already an animated version of that storyline on the way is a complicating factor.

 

[04nbod]

i get the feeling it will be a trigon story with raven uniting the team. Other characters will return in sequels providing backstory.

 

[The Question]

I think Deathstroke would be the best villain for the film, if they're taking the "I'm 18 years old and don't know what the **** I'm doing" aproach. He's the veteran, he's the badass who's been there, done that, and can beat the **** out of you in under a minute. If they beat him, it's sort of like proving themselves.

 

[Lestat74]

I think the movie will almost surely be the 80's Wolfman/Perez era Titans...they are still the most beloved version of the team, and the core characters are what was used for the animated show as well. Wonder Girl may be included as well, although her ties to Wonder Woman may or may not be removed. I think Kid Flash won't be in it. He was removed pretty early on from the book because it was too hard to make threats for someone as powerful as he is. In fact, I know he's not being used in the animated Judas Contract movie for similar reasons.

 

[Nokio]

I'll take what this man is saying with a grain of salt. it's called the Teen titans, so I highly doubt that WB is going to make it to intense for kiddies. This movie will be aimed at the kids more so then adults. Now if they can pull off an Harry Potter type feel, then I could see it working but I seriously doubt that WB will, especially with that hack Akiva Goldman on board who worked on B & R as well as that awful Lost in Space film that was out some years ago.

 

[terry78]

A movie called Teen Titans being rated R would just be contradicting itself. If you want to go the American Pie route, maybe.