Insider Information Has Come Out About The Demise Of James Gunn at DC
Like many noted when the announcement yesterday, it seemed like less of a resignation and more of a soft firing. With this article, that seems to be confirmed. Allow me to summarize:
After last month's acquisition of Warner Brothers by Skydance, CEO David Ellison noted that DC co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran were part of their plan for the future. Since then, there had apparently been rising tensions between Gunn/Safran and Skydance Motion Picture Group co-chair's Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg. They wanted to maintain their contractually obligated structure which saw them report directly to the CEO(Ellison). This understandably agitated Greenstein/Goldberg, who would be ignored in this arrangement, and apparently Ellison did not care to be their direct report either. On top of that, the duo was apparently not interested in sharing their plans for the future or progress reports.
They have now been replaced with Jeremy Latcham, Kevin Feige's former assistant and right hand man. Where Gunn seemed to prefer his movies having a little bit of edge, Latcham seems to be a straight down-the-middle, four quadrant type of guy.
"...he was known for musing aloud about if his grandparents would like their movies. In other words, he asked, “Would this movie resonate with everyday people beyond Hollywood?” while walking the thin line in servicing what superfans would love.
Since leaving Marvel to go independent in 2017, he has produced two big-budget movies I enjoy in 'Bad Times at the El Royale' and the surprising 'Dungeons & Dragon: Honor Among Thieves'. Outside of that, he has been focused on projects for the faith-based studio Wonder Project like 'House of David' and 'Flyer'.
“I had this nagging feeling that I needed to do more movies that had deeper meaning to me,” Latcham said of Wonder Project during an appearance on the Bible Bros podcast while promoting the Nate Bargatze comedy The Breadwinner. “Let’s be the HBO for the faith and family audience. Let’s try to make movies and television shows that restore faith in things worth believing in.”
Like I mentioned in my last blog on the subject, I have mixed feelings on this.
Gunn/Safran were responsible for both good as bad as studio heads. 'Superman', despite not being an Avengers level blockbuster, was a big win to me. Really well cast and understands what makes the character work. 'Supergirl' was obviously a bomb but 'Clayface' was really interesting. Their TV/animation over this time, however, has been undeniably great and well ahead of Marvel. So overall mixed results at an individual level. The bigger problem, however, is the rollout. Going from an A-list hero to a C-tier side-character and a C-tier Batman villain before you even have the hero cast makes no sense to me. The rollout needs to be a lot more cohesive.
I don't know enough about this Latcham guy, but it's not exactly promising to see that, since leaving Marvel, he hasn't really been working in this world. Combine that with the faith-based stuff, obsession with four quadrant movies and both his and Skydance interest in generative AI and I don't know exactly what to expect for the future of this franchise. In my opinion, the last thing you want in future comic book movies is to add to the gray.
P.S. It's crazy but I kind of called this from the jump