Recently, there has been a lot of talk online about a potential Warner Brothers buyout from Paramount, and a recent development that occurred between Paramount Pictures co-chair Josh Greenstein and upcoming director Zach Cregger lends some credence to the narrative.
According to the website World of Reel, it’s being reported that Paramount’s Greenstein met with Weapons and Barbarian director Zach Cregger about a potential movie set in the DCU’s new Gotham called Henchman, rumored to follow a low level henchman who unexpectedly incapacitates Batman and the conflict that ensues as a result. The movie is thought to feature both the Joker and Harley Quinn and Cregger has described it as, “the best thing he has ever written”. According to the new report, Greenstein said he is more than willing to make it happen if Skydance/Paramount ends up buying out Warner Brothers. There’s also one major omission from this report you may have noticed – and that is the lack of inclusion of current DCU shot caller James Gunn.
As it currently stands, James Gunn and Peter Safran are the guys to see if you want a script greenlit into the DCU. Back in July, Cregger stated that he planned to pitch the Henchman idea directly to Gunn himself but since then there has been little to no movement on that front and the director has been working exclusively on the Resident Evil reboot being produced by Sony. With this latest development, it looks like Cregger is getting some movement on his potential DCU entry, but with Paramount and SKydance rather than Gunn and Warner Bros. The fact that Greenstein actually met with Cregger is a significant move forward and points to, at the very least, some sort of anticipation on Paramount’s part about having a say in the future of DCU film. While we can’t know for sure the direct implications of the meeting, we do know that any studio chair willing to meet with a director means that they really do anticipate that it could happen. Especially now with the rampant rumors that Warner Brothers could end up being bought out.
As it currently stands, Gunn and Safran are already in the process of putting together their own version of a DCU set Batman film with the Batman Brave and the Bold being the potential title and inspiration of the film, set in an already different universe from Matt Reeves’ and Robert Pattinson’s current iteration (with a sequel in development). Batman has always been a character that directors and studios have walked on egg shells around because of how much potential the character has to bring in huge box office numbers- and vice versa if the movie bombs, potentially hurting future box office revenue for the character, so the fact that Paramount is also throwing their hat into the ring when it comes to a Gotham-set film speaks volumes. To be fair, Gunn’s DCU hasn’t really made the gigantic steps forward for the comic book franchise that fans thought it would when he initially took the wheel. Superman did well, but was far from a masterpiece, and while the next few years have been somewhat laid out with projects like Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Clayface (still not sure who asked for that one if we’re being honest here), as well as television shows like Lanterns and Peacemaker, there still seems to be a lack of confidence and cohesiveness. It almost feels like 2010-2011 Warner Brothers again pre-Man of Steel days when there was confusion about whether Christian Bale’s Batman would be included in the DCEU, the Christopher Nolan/Zack Snyder confusion, and some of the other huge studio missteps at the time. I don’t think Gunn is to blame, but there still seems to be a broken rung in the ladder somewhere.
According to Cregger, he would like Henchman to be his next directorial project after he is finished with Resident Evil. If something like this does happen, it would almost certainly be a film forced into development by Paramount in their bid to buyout Warner Brothers. The movie sounds like it would be more of an artistic passion project on the level of the 2019 Joker from Todd Phillips. And while films like these have been proven to work in the past, the DCU’s largest issue has always been a lack of a long term cohesive narrative, and more fragmented storytelling like this does not help the cause. While DC has a long list of characters to form a major universe around, movies focused on a low level henchman do not help any sort of large scale universe building, making the excitement from the days of the ten-year Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Infinity Saga seem even more like ancient history.
While nobody is sure at this point and time how any of this is going to play out, it seems like there are still a ton of hurdles for Gunn to jump if he wants to bring a truly seamless universe to life, and maybe Paramount might be one of the solutions to the issue. Or, perhaps as a more cynical take this latest move was done by Paramount just to throw more wrenches into the gears so to speak. Warner Brothers has already been offered $71 billion for the acquisition of the movie company by Skydance and the David Ellison-led Paramount pictures, and it looks as it Paramount is getting ready for the potential acceptance of the offer, but as of right now only time will tell how these latest developments will play out.
Do you want to see Zach Cregger move forward with his Henchman project, and how do you think that movie could fit into the DCU? What other projects do you want to see Gunn and Safran consider if Paramount does not end up buying out Warner Brothers? Let us know your thoughts down below and we will keep readers updated on this topic as new developments occur.
Source: World of Reel
