NS: Ava DuVernay to direct New Gods movie!!

[icon_uk]

This is a BIG one folks!

Variety and other sources confirm that the director of "A Wrinkle in Time", Ava DuVernay, will be the director for a New Gods movie from Warner Brothers.

This was perhaps teased (or foreshadowed?) last year when she was asked on Twitter who her favourite superhero was and she replied "Gosh, that's hard. Big Barda. Many reasons."

And as the the first woman of colour in Hollywood to helm a live-action film with a production budget of $100 million, and on a movie adaptation of "A Wrinkle in Time" no less, she's got the experience and scope to make the most of a Kirby-scale cosmic epic!

* Currently at #2 in the US Box Office charts behind the behemoth that is Black Panther, making it the first time in history that the #1 and #2 spots have been held by films directed by POC!

Comments

[lordultimus]

Hopefully if this film doesn't do well critically she won't respond as negatively as she did with A Wrinkle In Time.

[cyberghostface]

Hope it goes better than Wrinkle in Time which seems to be a critical and financial flop so far.

[locuatico]

Actually, it has acceptable opening numbers given it's budget. it will come down to how big the drop next week is.
On the critics side. there seems to actually be a disconnect between critics, in which the vast majority of negative (professional) reviews seem to come from middle-aged white men.

[cyberghostface]

Do you think their race and gender is why they gave it negative reviews?

Also

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/a-wrinkle-time-why-it-has-underperformed-at-box-office-1094032

[icon_uk]

I think their age might have been a significant feature.

I've seen it suggested that the critics refusal to accept that it's a PG movie based on a kids book (albeit a fairly intense one from what I recall) rather than being a YA adventure with dark subplots and sexual overtones, may have led critics to dismiss it somewhat.

[cyberghostface]

I mean if we're talking about "critics don't like it because it's for kids", I really don't get that. Critics are fairly easy on kids films, especially ones from Disney.

[lordultimus]

Actually from what I heard they cut out a lot of the more substantial stuff from the book and changed the characters to be more relatable.

[informationgeek]

I think there are more problems to the movie than that. This person puts it better than I could.

One quote from the thread:

"This movie opts instead for this hyper sterile and coddling presentation of platitudes about self-worth delivered to three overwhelmingly perfect and emotionless children, where discrimination is caused by "darkness" in individuals rather than tribalism and systems of conformity."

[mesmiranda]

The guy above in the link personally lost me when he said Hamilton wasn't "remotely relevant to the world we live in today" and compared using a line from it to a "smug platitude". Like, excuse you, buddy.

That said, I'm disappointed but not entirely surprised by the movie. I love the O'Keefe sequence of books but they're really, really finicky to transfer to the screen--IIRC, L'Engle did not like a previous adaptation--and I can totally see Disney wanting a safe and shiny product for kids. Ultimately if kids love the movie, and hopefully get into the books, and black kids especially... well, that's what should matter the most. And there are worse sins out there than a bad movie.

[cyberghostface]

"(before you do, though. I want to point out that, yes, I am aware that Black Panther received a crapton of positive reviews from all sorts of people.)"

Then if all those critics were willing to give Black Panther overwhelmingly positive reviews, why would they suddenly become racist when it comes to another black-majority film from Disney only months later?

[locuatico]

well given that you can see that I deleted my comment. I will clarfiy: I will not keep on arguing this because I know how it develops.

[lordultimus]

I can't take "it didn't do well with critics because the director is black" when Black Panther is doing impossibly well critically.

[locuatico]

because it is a black WOMAN, actually.

but the thing on Black Panther, though... is that even FOX NEWS gave it a positive reviews.

FOX. NEWS.

Do I even have to explain why that is odd?

[lordultimus]

And Wonder Woman did fantastic critically as well, with it's own female director.

[locuatico]

And that doesn't erase that the industry has an overwhelming problem with sexism in it's movies.

that is one of the more insidious things about it. because some movies are received really well, we assume all movies are treated fairly. It ignores that, sometimes, some movies's sins ARE treated more harshly than others. most notable with good-but-not-super-great movies.

[lordultimus]

A Wrinkle In Time scored 41% on Rotten Tomatoes, which puts it at "Below Average". It's description on there is, " A Wrinkle in Time is visually gorgeous, big-hearted, and occasionally quite moving; unfortunately, it's also wildly ambitious to a fault, and often less than the sum of its classic parts." I don't think that's really exaggerating, and seems to be rather fair compared to something like, say, the Orville, which has an 11% for no other reason than it's a Star Trek homage.

Besides, I don't think it's really socially empowering to lower my expectations for quality.

[locuatico]

it's not lowering your expectations. it is to point out that, if you were to divide them between positive / negative. then by Gender & Race. the result would look pretty similar.

[lordultimus]

Yes. White males make below average films too.

But with all this said, I blame the problems of A Wrinkle In Time on the studio trying to be safe as they could with the source material instead of anything the director did.

[cyberghostface]

Critics generally like Ava too. Even the negative reviews were almost apologetic for being negative because it was her.

[thanekos]

Perhaps we might someday be able to stop playing pretend with the He-Man movie.

(Or squinting really hard at Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe.)

[ozaline]

The MOTU movie is actually a fair bit better than it's reputation IMO. And the Jack Kirby influence on it is an intentional thing.

[blueprintstyles]

RRRAAAAAGHH!!! (scream of joy coming from soul)

[ozaline]

So the article I read said it had no relation to the other properties. Which is odd since a New God was the villain in the most recent film. Kinda hope the article was mistaken.

[lordultimus]

I've heard it differently from different sources.

[informationgeek]

Well, if white guys can get multiple chances after botching big budgeted movies, why not give her another chance. Can't be any worse than a lot of the DC films we've gotten in the past.

[strejdaking]

But even Man of Steel didn't straight up bomb and Snyder has made (fairly or unfairly) money earning, relatively liked big budget movies in the past. I'm not saying documentaries about US prison systems are easy to do or unimportant, but I don't think doing those well means doing well science fantasy mythical blockbuster epics. Hell, the most well-received adaptation of those is Thor Ragnarok and that one basically just said "I give up, let's just do a piss take".

Besides, Josh Trank and Colin Trevorrow are both white guys and they got kicked from their Star Wars movies after their movies bombed.

[stubbleupdate]

Trank wasn't ditched just because Fant4stic bombed; it was all his behaviour in the making of the film.
He turned up to set stoned
He and his dogs made an absolute mess of the house that the studio put him in.
He was difficult to work with.
HE DIDN'T HAVE AN ENDING!
It makes a lot of sense to give a man that unreliable a body swerve.

[icon_uk]

Though, in fairness Fant4stic SHOULD have been enough to get him ditched.

[beyondthefringe]

I wish her well.
Now if only I could be more excited in the New Gods as a whole...

I wonder what elements she'll focus on, where the New Gods basically break down into the following:
1) Orion and his struggle against Darkseid/struggle against his own baser impulses
2) Scott Free and Big Barda's love story
3) The Forever People
4) Darkseid vs everyone as he searches for the Anti-Life Equation

Honestly, I expect what we'll get will be some story that looks at the parallel and contrasting experiences of Orion and Scott, possibly with them dealing with some of Darkseid's flunkies (Kanto? Desaad? Granny Goodness? VERMIN VUNDERBAR? Mantis? The Deep Six? The Female Furies?)

(Yes please to an epic portrayal of the romance between Scott and Barda as she learns to reject the way of the Furies!)

[strejdaking]

Look, everybody deserves another chance and the very best sometimes make a crappy movie and I haven't seen A Wrinkle in Time, but you seriously handle what is considered by many to be the magnum opus of one of the most influential creators in not just a genre but an entire medium, to a director days after her first big movie got trashed by critics and audiences? A movie that was a adaptation of an acclaimed work of the same genre?

[cyberghostface]

Yeah especially since it's another sci-fi prestige pic.

[thatnickguy]

If Ed Asner can't play Granny Goodness, then it's not worth doing New Gods!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlhUfX1C4lA

[dr_archeville]

While I'd enjoyed Asner's VA work there, I'd prefer they get a woman to portray a female character. Maybe Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter flicks)?

[icon_uk]

Justice League Action has been using Cloris Leachman, and that's been pretty awesome!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_9yIZUUwvY

[thatnickguy]

I don't know. She comes across as too sweet in this. Like just a sweet old woman.

Asner's performance made her really unsettling because it gave her this unexpectedly gruff tone.

[strejdaking]

Eh, even if it doesn't end up adding unintended transphobic subtext, seems pointless. Like, he's good, but it's not that hard to find an elderly woman who can play fakely sweet abusive granny figure.

[icon_uk]

If they're playing Granny Goodness even fakely sweet they're missing the point, she's about as sweet and cuddly as a combination of R. Lee Ermey and a suguaro catcus! :)

[q99]

A *Woman* director, on a superhero movie?? I know WW did it, but New Gods aren't so obvious a gimmie as that one, so... yes!

Finally some variety in the chairs.

[zachbeacon]

Will this be before of after the Flashpoint reboot?

Honestly Barda and Scott are the only Fourth World characters I really like.