Culture news Steven Spielberg had to direct a DC superhero film, he could have saved this universe from extinction!
Steven Spielberg was expected to direct a DC Universe film. Could the filmmaker have saved the DCEU from extinction?
Steven Spielberg is a big name in cinema. The director has a more than impressive filmography with numerous classics of all genres to his credit such as Jaws, Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List. Suffice to say that having him on a DC film is enough to make fans salivate, and it is above all a guarantee of quality which could perhaps have paid for the bitter note left by the DCU.
A Blackhawks movie
Steven Spielberg was to be hired to direct a film adaptation of Blackhawks, a DC superhero team made up of World War II fighter pilots. Unlike the characters shown on screen in the DCU, they do not have any special powers. Several reasons pushed the filmmaker to Warner studios. First of all, he was very motivated by the idea of making a Blackhawks film, having always been a fan of the comics and its version from the 80s. In 2018, the project became almost concrete and Spielberg was approached by Warner Bros. to achieve it. The studios were motivated by the idea of working with the filmmaker after the success of Ready Player One released a few weeks earlier in order to relaunch the DC machine following the disaster of Justice League in 2017.
David Koepp was to write the screenplay, which makes sense since he and Spielberg have already worked together on several occasions, including Jurassic Park. Unfortunately, DC has many projects in the works while the director is committed to the new adaptation of West Side Story. As a result of this, the Covid-19 pandemic will slow down the Hollywood industry. However, in 2022, David Koepp explained that Warner was very satisfied with the script of the film at that time, and that the only thing that could prevent its filming was knowing the direction that the DC universe would take. This omen was confirmed in 2023 with the arrival of James Gunn and the end of the DCEU. The project therefore fell through. Steven Spielberg has since directed The Fabelmans. He is now preparing to make a remake of Bullitt for Warner.
The future of the DCU
The DCU, as we know it, ended recently with the release of The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, two critical and financial flops. The cornerstone of the DC Universe’s revival is Superman: Legacy, directed by James Gunn, a filmmaker hailed for his work at Marvel on the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. The film is presented as a reboot of the story of the Man of Steel on the big screen scheduled for 2025. Let’s hope that this new universe has a better destiny than the previous one..