So… what do we want to talk about this week, folks? What has really hit me in the face this week? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the new Ghostbusters trailer.
Like the majority of reactions that I have seen on the web, I really didn’t like this trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QCFrTTcyHM
First, I am not (and really haven’t ever been) sold on the cast. I can’t tell you a role outside of Gilmore Girls where I enjoyed Melissa McCarthy’s performance. She always feels like an over-the-top slapsticky comedy that I, personally, am not a fan of. Kristen Wiig hasn’t ever really made a memorable impact on me with any of her performances. The other two co-leads (Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones) are complete unknowns to me, since I haven’t watched Saturday Night Live in years.
As the trailer started, it set me up pretty high. Prop development looked solid, and visually the trailer was amazing. The ghosts looked great and the effects were top notch. But for me… that’s when the pros ended.
It felt like a bad SNL skit with a big budget. This is a reboot, so I was expecting it to be different and I wasn’t at all expecting the original. I’ve spent too much time telling people that a reboot is not the original, so I wasn’t going to be hypocritical. The bigger issue that I have is that the comedy in the trailer didn’t feel like it fit the piece, and I hope that it’s not an indication of the film overall.
The DC Cinematic Universe has had a few news bits drop this week. The first bit, is that Jena Malone’s scenes in Batman V. Superman have been cut from the theatrical release, but will be added to the rated-R Blu-Ray release. I have seen some outlets indicating that she had a “key role” in the development of the storyline — however, as far as I can find, we have no indication of what her role actually was. The rumor mill that she was cast to play Barbara Gordon (Batgirl/Oracle), which would fall onto the rumors indicating that the stand-alone Batman film is going to use both the “Killing Joke” and “Death in the Family” storylines.
In terms of quality, pre-screenings for the media have gone fairly well. Anthony Breznican (writer for Entertainment Weekly), posted the following on his Twitter after viewing the film: 
One of the things I was happy about was his response to the following question: With all the details coming out it really feels like there’s not much left to know about BvS. Would you say that’s true? What was his answer? “Not at ALL. I’m actually sitting on five things I don’t want to write about until *after* the movie is out.” Now, this man writes a ton on the types of content that we here at TWN tend to follow (a.k.a. lots of nerdy goodness). He is also a fan of the content. It restores my hopes when I see stuff like this.
As a part of his EW piece, Breznican also covered some more information about the development of the rest of the DCCU — one of the things that caught my eye was the information about Green Lantern’s presence (or lack thereof) in the Justice League film.
“Every beat of the movie is not yet worked out. So there’s the possibility that he may or may not be in Justice League 2. For now, we felt that we were introducing enough characters that the best possible place we could put Green Lantern is some introduction in Justice League 2, or barring that, a movie after.”
Now, all hope is not lost, as Warner Brothers President of Creative Development Greg Silverman added a bit of information about GL’s future.
“[Green Lantern] is an incredible character. He’s actually multiple incredible characters. There’s real opportunity there. We didn’t do a great job on that first Green Lantern movie. This is a character who deserves to be treated in the same way that Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman are being treated now, which is with great reverence. I guess I can say to the Green Lantern fans: if they can be patient with us, I think they’ll be really happy.”
Lastly, it looks like the Suicide Squad sequel has already been greenlit. Director David Ayer let it slip when speaking with The Wrap that he and Will Smith will be filming SS2 in 2017, which would slate the movie for a 2018 release. Given that the movie hasn’t released yet, it’s good to see the studio pushing future productions even though they are unsure if the currently slated movies are going to make any money. Granted, they can always dump the films if this year’s crops all burn away money like a napalm infestation.
A couple of small bits out of Disney. I am super-happy to report that Disney XD has announced that it is going to be developing a TV series based on Big Hero 6! I loved this movie more than I care to admit, and while I am sure that the TV voice cast won’t be the same, I hope that they can hold on to the magic that the movie created.
And, if you read the last Episode of TWN, I am sure that you were definitley aware of my fears regarding the slew of comic book movies chasing the “rated R” bug after the success of Deadpool. During Disney’s annual shareholder meeting, Bob Iger made the following statement: “We don’t have any plans to make R-rated Marvel movies.” So, if we do see R-rated comic book films, they will not be coming from the Disney/Marvel camp, which would indicate that IF they do happen, they will come from Fox’s mutant domain.
That’s it for me this week folks.. Am I off the mark on anything? Do you have any thoughts on the Ghostbusters trailer? Let me know in the comments.
David Alberto is a Contributing Editor for AYBOnline.com. You can often find him making people cry in Counter-Strike. Roll percentile dice to see if his opinions change, your chances are slim.
