James Gunn will put the story and script first with DC Studios to fix the “messed up” past.

There are many mixed reactions James Gunn And Peter Safranthe plans for the first wave of DC film and television projects, known as Chapter 1 – Gods and monsters. There are many exciting projects in development at DC Studios that I’m excited about, and I just trust Gunn won’t steer this ship in the wrong direction. Up to this point, he’s made some great movies over the years and has a lot of experience with comic book projects like The Guardians of the Galaxy And The suicide squadwhich are both great franchises!

One thing I was extremely happy to hear from Gunn is that he plans to put the story and script first in these future DC projects and won’t be pushing a film to the producer until it’s 100% ready. Gunn said:

“People have become forced [release] dates, to get movies made no matter what. I’m a writer at heart and we won’t make movies until the script is done.

Yes, modern studios have a habit of scheduling tentpole films and sequels for theatrical release long before the creative teams come together and they end up being rush jobs and the quality of the cinema suffers. Marvel Studios is guilty of this and most of the time they go into production without a complete script.

Gunn will avoid that and even push the release dates back if the script is ready before production begins. He wants these future DC films to have a storytelling quality that many studios don’t engage in with tentpole films. Gunn says he will make the writer of these projects more important:

“I’ve seen it happen again and again: It’s a mess. It is the main reason for the deterioration of the quality of movies today, compared to 20-30 years ago. The writer’s degradation in Hollywood was a terrible story. It’s gotten a lot worse since I first moved here 23 years ago. Writers have been completely left out of the loop in favor of actors and directors, and making the writer more prominent and more important in that process is really important to us.”

Gunn continued to echo things I’ve said time and time again about superhero fatigue, and the reason this is happening is because the story suffers from a lack of care given to the writing process. He said:

“They make these movies where they don’t have the third act written, and then they start writing them during [production], you know, making them up as they go along. And then you’re watching a bunch of people punch each other and there’s no flow to the action either.

Yup! Here’s what’s happening! Even with Marvel! You can see it! I’m so happy to see that Gunn and Safran really realize this is a problem and are setting out to fix it and make quality movies. Speaking about the kind of stories they will tell, Gunn explained:

“You can’t tell the same ‘good guy, bad guy, giant thing in the sky, good guys win’ story over and over again. You have to tell more morally complex stories. You have to tell stories that don’t just pretend to be different genres, but are actually different genres.

I think it might be a thinly veiled jab at a story model that Marvel has adopted. The director and co-CEO of DC Studios continued on the freedom they will give the makers of these films saying:

“That’s not Gunn’s line. What makes it so fun is seeing completely different stories like the individual expression of the writers and director who are making those projects… and not about me superimposing anything on all of that.”

Gunn and Safran are obviously trying to put the DC Cinematic Universe in order in a way that has never been done before. It’s always been so random and disconnected, and Gunn acknowledges that by saying how messed up it was:

“As everyone here probably knows, DC’s history is pretty screwed up, it’s been fucked up. Nobody paid attention to the mint. They were just giving away IP like party favors to any creators who smiled at them.

Gunn also wants there to be transparency with the talent they bring on board to develop their films and just wants to be honest with everyone moving forward:

“If someone is doing something that’s not working, we’ll be honest. One of my main goals is to be honest with everyone. Someone brings me an idea that doesn’t work, I’m honest about it. We’re building right now the foundation for a studio that we want to last, and it can’t last unless we’ve built something other than rigorous honesty.”

Well, I like it! I’m a huge fan of what Gunn and Safran are building here with DC Studios, and I think they’ll see a lot of success with it. I agree 100% about the journey these guys will take us with the films they make. They seem to be making smart decisions and taking DC’s future in the right direction.

Projects that have been announced so far include Superman: Legacy, The Brave and the Bold, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Paradise Lost, Booster Gold, Lanterne, The Authority, Creature Commandos, WallerAnd Swamp thing. You can read all the details about these projects here.