Barry Sonnenfeld Directing DC Comics Adaptation 'Metal Men' For Warner Bros.?

You might remember that not long ago Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld was said to be secretly developing a film based on a big comic book property. Now the cat might be out of the bag, and if reports are correct, Sonnenfeld is working on a movie based on DC's team The Metal Men.

Vulture says the team of flexible robots is the property Sonnenfeld is working on. Before we go any further, a wiki synopsis can tell you more about the Metal Men than is in my dim memory of reading comics featuring the characters:

Created by scientist Dr. William "Will" Magnus, the six robots were field leader Gold, strong man Iron, slow-witted and loyal Lead, hot-headed Mercury, self-doubting and insecure Tin, and Platinum (also called "Tina"), who believed she was a real woman and was in love with her creator. The group's personalities mirrored their namesake metals, being dictated by devices called "responsometers".[3] Each Metal Man also possessed abilities that reflected the traits of their namesake metal: Gold could stretch his form almost infinitely, Iron was super strong, Lead could block harmful radiation by morphing into thick shields, Mercury could melt and pass through small spaces before reforming and Platinum could stretch or flatten.

That's the '60s/'70s versions of the characters. They've been revived periodically in decades since, and even hit a couple of modern animated projects like The Brave and the Bold and Justice League: The New Frontier.

But let's be serious here. While the Metal Men are actually a pretty good fit for Sonnenfeld's general tone and interests, does anyone actually think this will get made? And when DC, unlike Marvel, has all its major stable of characters under one roof, why would they waste time with something like this? Marvel might have Guardians of the Galaxy coming down the road, but that's after laying a lot of groundwork with films like Thor and The Avengers. This just seems weird.

Maybe whatever writer Sonnenfeld is working with has an amazing take on the characters, but even then, this sounds like something that is tailor-made for development hell. (At least he's not doing the Doom Patrol...)