DC Amps Up With CONSTANTINE on NBC
In a week that’s been dominated by Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (including the little dustup over Jim Steranko’s comments), DC Comics has been rolling out announcements.
First, it was the San Diego Comic Con announcement that Batman would be in the sequel to Man of Steel, which caused all sorts of frenzied reactions — some good, some not so good. Even here, your humble blogger felt the need for Batman in a Superman movie showed a notable dependence on the Caped Crusader too much.
Then there was Affleck. And more frenzy. This time, most of it not good.
Of course, in the midst of all of this, DC Comics continued to invite controversy with the Batwoman kerfuffle, and then the Harley Quinn PR snafu. But some optimism arose when we learned that out of season two of Arrow could possibly spin off a new show featuring Barry Allen, The Flash, with the forensic scientist being played by Glee actor Grant Gustin. A certain departure from the “no powers” rule of Arrow, this announcement — and Stephen Amell’s aside that it had to be cleared with Christopher Nolan first — fueled speculation that DC and Warner Brothers might finally be on the road to an actual shared universe, one that may even split between movies and television.
In our most recent Comic Con Carne — Silver Screen Edition, we told you about comments made by WB production CEO Kevin Tsujihara about Ben Affleck being “perfect” to play the Dark Knight in this new continuity, also saying to expect more announcements soon.
He wasn’t kidding. On the day Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premiered, there was the late-in-the-day announcement that WBTV has made a deal with the Fox network for a series called Gotham — showing the “origin story” of Commissioner James Gordon. The show won’t have Batman, but will instead focus on Detective James Gordon — likely taking a form that resembles the story we saw in Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One.
And today, Deadline is reporting that DC/WBTV and NBC have inked a deal for an adaptation of Constatine, featuring the Vertigo character created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and Jamie Delano. The show will be run by Man of Steel scribe David S. Goyer along with Daniel Cerone, executive producer of The Mentalist.
The question: is this the original John Constantine? Or is it the New 52 Justice League Dark version (who also may figure in a Guillermo Del Toro movie…)? Or could it even be the Keanu Reeves version?
One shudders to think.
The other question: why is it that DC/WB is suddenly rolling full steam ahead after so long on the sidelines making tentative and hesitant decisions? Could this have anything to do with the executive restructuring under Tsujihara? Is this a result of Jeff Robinov’s departure from Warner Brothers?
