DC Films designates new lead 0

[Bosco685]

DC Films Has a New Boss - Report

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Walter Hamada has been named as the new head of DC Films at Warner Bros. Pictures according to Variety. He'll also reportedly oversee other non-DC Comics continuity comic book-to-film projects.

 

Hamada is best known as producer of several Warner Bros. horror films including It and The Conjuring, and  co-wrote 47 Ronin. Prior to being a producer for Warner Bros. and its New Line Cinemas subsidiary, Hamada served as VP of Production at Columbia Pictures. According to the Hollywood trade, Hamada has a "close relationship" with Aquaman director James Wan after working with him on The Conjuring and Annabelle movies.

 

Geoff Johns has reportedly segued to an advisory role at DC Films, but remains a President and Chief Creative Officer at DC Entertainment. The other DC Films co-head, John Berg, has purportedly moved to become a producer with The Lego Movie's Roy Lee.

 

Edited January 4, 2018 by Bosco685

[Bosco685]

VARIETY: Warner Bros. Taps Walter Hamada to Oversee DC Films Production (EXCLUSIVE)

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As part of a shakeup of its DC film operations, Warner Bros. is promoting Walter Hamada to oversee its comic book movies, Variety has learned. He will serve as president of DC-based film production. In December, the studio decided to replace Jon Berg and Geoff Johns as the heads of the DC movies. Berg became a production partner with Roy Lee, the producer of “The Lego Movie” and “It,” who has a deal on the lot. Johns remains at DC as its president and chief creative officer, but is taking on more of an advisory role on the movies. In an official announcement of Hamada’s hire, Warner Bros. said Johns will “work closely” with the new production president.

 

The move comes as DC is looking for more quality control of its big-screen efforts — the studio captured acclaim and box office bonanza with last summer’s “Wonder Woman,” but was savaged by critics for “Suicide Squad” and “Justice League.” There is widespread frustration over DC’s failure to match the popularity of Marvel movies.

 

Hamada previously served for a decade as a production executive at New Line, a division of Warner Bros. There, he helped shepherd such horror hits as “It,” “The Gallows,” and “The Conjuring” to cinemas. The executive enjoys a close relationship with director James Wan, who is directing “Aquaman” for DC, and is credited with helping expand “The Conjuring” universe by making a well-received sequel to the movie, as well as spinoffs with the “Annabelle” series. He will be leaving New Line to work for Warners, and will also oversee any other types of comic book movies that the studio produces outside of the DC canon.

 

Toby Emmerich, who was promoted in 2016 to president and chief content officer at Warner Bros., worked with Hamada at New Line, which he ran before moving over to the main studio.

 

“Walter is creative, resourceful, and committed to excellence, and will bring those qualities to his oversight of our superhero films,” said Emmerich in a statement.

 

Emmerich went on to add, “I’m confident Walter and Geoff, working with our film-making partners, will deliver films that will resonate with both broad global audiences as well as DC fanboys and fangirls.”

 

Last summer, Warner Bros. named Courtenay Valenti, best known for her work on the Harry Potter films, as president of production at Warner Bros. She will continue in that role, as will DC Entertainment chief Diane Nelson.

 

Before coming to New Line in 2007, Hamada spent four years as a partner in the management and production firm H2F Entertainment. He began his career as an assistant at TriStar and eventually became VP of production for Columbia Pictures. He also ran development for MBST Entertainment.

 

A spokesperson for Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

[Bosco685]

[Bosco685]

I hope they have a solid partnership in driving these movies forward.

[jsilverjanet]

The big questions are,

1. Will he respect the directors process and allow them to make the movie they want

2. What is going to happen with Ben Affleck  

[AnthonyTheAbyss]

The first thing that popped into my mind was Toyo Harada...the most powerful Harbinger in the Valiant universe.

 

Second thing that popped into my mind...isn't his horror background a detriment to the whole movement away from the dark/grim movies of the DCEU.

 

The third thing that popped into my mind...good, change was needed.  I don't know how successful this change will be but at least they recognize what they were doing wasn't working.

[Bosco685]

Warner Bros. Shakeup Continues As Toby Emmerich Is Promoted To Group Chairman; Sue Kroll Steps Down

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Though this will have far less of an impact on WB's DC division than the last announcement will, reports have come in that the studio has promoted Toby Emmerich to chairman of the motion picture group.

 

Following the recent news that The Conjuring and IT executive producer Walter Hamada will now be in charge of spearheading WB's upcoming slate of DC projects, The Wrap reports that Emmerich has been promoted to chairman of the motion picture group, and will oversee Worldwide Theatrical Production, Marketing, and Distribution.

Meanwhile, former marketing exec Sue Kroll will move to a production position.

We're not sure what kind of impact (if any) this will have on The DC Films Universe - though it is worth noting that Kroll was responsible for the marketing campaign on Justice League.

 

[Bosco685]

 

[AnthonyTheAbyss]

Not to sound greedy (which of course will sound greedy)...if I had a giant bonus on the line I wouldn't delay the movie either

[kagenish]

I think he can be a great mentor to Geoff John on learning that side of the business. plus he can most likely be the one to get Justice League Dark from production hell and into a walk towards the finish line. 

[Bosco685]

4 hours ago, AnthonyTheAbyss said:

Not to sound greedy (which of course will sound greedy)...if I had a giant bonus on the line I wouldn't delay the movie either

It is a small blip in their careers when you look at WB also achieved $5B this year in box office results. But if AT&T does let him go if the acquisition goes through, and his actions are noted as resulting in the movie failure, it could be the one thing that allows a future studio to choose someone else over him. Then all he'll have are those millions in retirement.

[Bosco685]

40 minutes ago, kagenish said:

I think he can be a great mentor to Geoff John on learning that side of the business. plus he can most likely be the one to get Justice League Dark from production hell and into a walk towards the finish line. 

That's been the consistent assumption on Twitter due to Hamada's horror background.

[Gatsby77]

Never forget that David Goyer got his start writing such classics as:

• Demonic Toys 
• DollMan vs. Demonic Toys
• Crow: City of Angels (technically, his first comic book film)
• Nick Fury (the Hasselhoff TV movie)

Before graduating to:

• Blade/Blade II/Blade Trinity
• Batman Begins/The Dark Knight/The Dark Knight Rises
• Man of Steel
• Green Lantern Corps (forthcoming)

[aardvark88]

At least DC Entertainment is trying something different with the animated 'Teen Titans Go! to the Movies' on the big screen.

[fantastic_four]

15 hours ago, kagenish said:

I think he can be a great mentor to Geoff John on learning that side of the business. plus he can most likely be the one to get Justice League Dark from production hell and into a walk towards the finish line. 

That's the only positive way to look at this, that he's intended to be Kevin Feige's Avi Arad.  In the meantime, we can look forward to many Avi Arad-like "I have no idea what a great comic book movie is, but I sure hope this guy I just hired does!" gems in the future like Elektra, Ghost Rider, or Fantastic Four.    Overall, I read this as "something's wrong, and we have no idea how to fix it, but we gotta shake SOMETHING up."  

I still doubt Geoff Johns will ever want to be Kevin Feige, and I find it likely that either a DC exec realized this or that Johns himself asked out of an executive position.  Highly creative types usually don't want to be executives like Feige is.

Edited January 11, 2018 by fantastic_four

[Bosco685]

THE WRAP: What Warner Bros.’ Shake-Up Means for DC Films: Fewer Cooks, Finally

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After surviving two awkward years of greenlighting-by-committee, newly-minted Warner Bros. Pictures Chairman Toby Emmerich will now answer to no one but Warner Bros. Entertainment CEO Kevin Tsujihara.

 

“Toby has green light, I have red light,” Tsujihara told TheWrap.

 

The company announced Tuesday that 23-year veteran marketing chief Sue Kroll would step down to a producer gig. She was previously part of a committee to greenlight new film productions, a power that now solely belongs to Emmerich.

 

Fewer cooks in the kitchen will mean not just better decisions on what films to make, but on how to market them, one WB insider told TheWrap.

 

One marketing decision that seems misguided in retrospect? Excluding Henry Cavill’s Superman from “Justice League” advertising, in order to preserve the so-called surprise that the Man of Steel didn’t really die in “Batman v Superman.”

 

Can we blame a part of #JusticeLeague little success on the marketing visuals and posters ? 
First, hiding Superman, when everybody knows (haha) he was in it… Lame ! And then, they look not very friendly and badly photoshoped. @WarnerBrosEnt pic.twitter.com/NwiBr7wmgw

— D Halphen (@SpiritDarko) December 26, 2017

 

“The bizarre decision not to have Superman included in the marketing stopped ‘Justice League’ from potentially hitting $100 million opening weekend,” the insider said.

 

Of course, maybe Warner Bros. just wanted to conceal an inconvenient mustache.

 

Kroll had her successes, including the mega-hit “Wonder Woman.”

 

“There’s intense scrutiny on everything we do, particularly in this world, in the DC superhero universe,” she said in a June interview to promote “Wonder Woman.”

But another insider, one familiar with Kroll’s thinking, said there may have been a simple reason for her struggles making “Justice League” fly: “She hated superhero movies.”

 

A Warner Bros. rep had no comment on the matter. When asked for comment, Kroll told TheWrap that it’s “simply not true” that she hates superhero movies.

 

“I love superhero movies. I’ve always considered it an honor to market films that fans feel so passionately about. And I think our track record stands for itself,” Kroll said.

“As for the ‘Justice League’ campaign, I stand behind everything we did. It was a strategic and creative campaign, and I am immensely proud of the work done by all of us.”

 

In her new role as a producer, Kroll will help mount “Motherless Brooklyn” and Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut “A Star Is Born.”

 

Marketing and distribution duties will now fall to two executives who will report to Emmerich: Blair Rich, president of Worldwide Marketing, and Ron Sanders, president of Worldwide Distribution.

 

Warner Bros. is currently second place to Walt Disney, home of Marvel, now the gold-standard of comic book cinematic universes.

 

Tsujihara says he wants Emmerich to help DC Films find their own identity, rather than copying Marvel.

 

“Warner Bros needs to continue doing what it’s always done: producing the biggest, most diverse slate in the business. That’s what’s made us successful. We can’t do what Disney’s done. It’s worked really, really well for them, but it’s not who we are. We need to continue to create a balanced slate of all types of movies and all genres,” Tsujihara said.

 

[fantastic_four]

56 minutes ago, Bosco685 said:

“Warner Bros needs to continue doing what it’s always done: producing the biggest, most diverse slate in the business. That’s what’s made us successful. We can’t do what Disney’s done. It’s worked really, really well for them, but it’s not who we are. We need to continue to create a balanced slate of all types of movies and all genres,” Tsujihara said.

If he really believes Disney's success with critics stems from the fact that they're less ambitious in the breadth of film diversity they pursue relative to Warner Brothers then he's either deluding himself or just trying to delude fans--hopefully it's only the latter.    All I hear from that statement is that they're going to keep throwing some semi-random string of strikes and wild pitches out there, and I as a fan won't know if I'm going to be swinging at what they're throwing me or hastily scrambling to dodge it.  

I really can't believe Tsujihara chose to frame the difference between Disney and Warner as breadth of film offerings versus depth.    The only conclusion you can draw from that is Warner's going to continue to slap a bunch of crepe out there while Disney continues to focus on higher quality for what goes into each film in a way that only a "less ambitious" studio like Disney can.  

Edited January 11, 2018 by fantastic_four

[Antpark]

4 hours ago, Bosco685 said:

“The bizarre decision not to have Superman included in the marketing stopped ‘Justice League’ from potentially hitting $100 million opening weekend,” the insider said.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Keep telling yourself this.

4 hours ago, fantastic_four said:

If he really believes Disney's success with critics stems from the fact that they're less ambitious in the breadth of film diversity they pursue relative to Warner Brothers then he's either deluding himself or just trying to delude fans--hopefully it's only the latter.    All I hear from that statement is that they're going to keep throwing some semi-random string of strikes and wild pitches out there, and I as a fan won't know if I'm going to be swinging at what they're throwing me or hastily scrambling to dodge it.  

I really can't believe Tsujihara chose to frame the difference between Disney and Warner as breadth of film offerings versus depth.    The only conclusion you can draw from that is Warner's going to continue to slap a bunch of crepe out there while Disney continues to focus on higher quality for what goes into each film in a way that only a "less ambitious" studio like Disney can.  

Exactly. They promoted the guy who wouldn't take extra time to make sure JL was as good as it could be which leads me to believe they'll be less concerned with producing quality films and more with short term weekend cash grabs. Quantity over Quality, I guess

[fantastic_four]

11 minutes ago, Antpark said:

Quantity over Quality, I guess

And quantity meaning not even just more comic book movies, just more movies across all genres.  What a great message to send to fans, "we can't do any movie all that well because we're spread so thinly across all types of films."   That might please me as a shareholder, but as a fan, it's just nauseating.  

I'm a Marvel zombie, but my #1 and #3 favorite superhero movies are Nolan Batman films, so I've really been wanting DC to get it together.  So this is all bumming me out.  Ah well, maybe Matt Reeves will end up being great.  

Edited January 11, 2018 by fantastic_four

[Bosco685]

21 minutes ago, fantastic_four said:

Ah well, maybe Matt Reeves will end up being great.  

This is where I am putting my faith right now is with the directors that put their foot down, and demanded creative control.

- James Wan

- Matt Reeves

- Patty Jenkins

I am assuming the same with David Sandberg. But I never saw anything calling out he had director, producer and screen writer control. Since it is under New Line, I am hoping this gives him some creative buffer.