Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison And Marv Wolfman Are Working On DC Comic Book Movies
The Hollywood Reporter has a good article updating DC Comics' Hollywood plans. Not much new information to come by, but an interesting read. The one thing I learned from the update is that Warners quietly hired three of DC's biggest writers last fall as consultants and writers for their upcoming superhero projects — Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman.
According to the article:
The process involves one writer taking point, though the trio do collaborate on projects, reading one another's materials while hashing out a story that will be at once accessible to nonfans yet still adhere to each character's long history. The writers also work in tandem with producers, writers and the Warners execs overseeing the projects, showing them treatments and providing notes on scripts.
Apparently some agents and screenwriters weren't too happy about being forced to work with the comic writers, but the movie is beginning to pay off. Johns worked up a new treatment for The Flash, which is now being written by Dan Mazeau. Johns will act in a producer capacity on the project when the film goes into production. But no director has been attached, so I'm not sure how soon that will be. The projects Morrison and Wolfman are working on are said to be "in the early stages" at Warners, whose execs declined to comment to THR about the projects.
Johns started as an assistant to Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner, and has been an ongoing series writer for The Flash comic book since 2000. He's also been working on Green Lantern since 2005, relaunching the character with the mini-series Green Lantern: Rebirth. No word on if Johns was at all involved in The Green Lantern feature film which goes into production in November. After the recent announcement of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, Johns expressed his satisfaction over the choice on his twitter page: "Ryan Reynolds is Green Lantern!!!! SWEET." ... "Martin Campbell. Ryan Reynolds. Green Lantern. I am very happy." ... "Ryan Reynolds and Green Lantern are trending topics on twitter. I'm celebrating by working on Green Lantern all weekend."
Grant Morrison is a Scotish writer/artist who burst onto the scene at the head of the so-called "Brit Wave" invasion of American comics, alongside the likes of Neil Gaiman, Peter Milligan, and Alan Moore. Morrison wrote the famous Dave McKean-painted Arkham Asylum graphic novel, the 1996 revamp of Justice League of America, the Vertigo series The Invisibles, a reboot of the iconic Superman in All Star Superman, as well as relaunches of The Authority and Wildcats for DC's Wildstorm imprint.
It's possible that Morrison might be working on an adaptation of his R-Rated comic The Invisibles, which is about "a secret organization battling against physical and psychic oppression using time travel, magic, meditation, and physical violence." The title was optioned to be made into a television series by BBC, but never came to pass. Morrison has also been working on a big screen adaptation of his We3 miniseries with Kung Fu Panda director John Stevenson attached to direct.
And Marv Wolfman created Blade and the Daredevil villain Bullseye at Marvel., but is best known in DC-land for his run of The New Teen Titans (which he co-created), Action Comics, Batman, and Nightwing. He also won a Scribe Awards for his novelization of Superman Returns. Worlfman is most likely involved in the development of a Teen Titans feature film.