Chris McKay on Nightwing Movie Potential

Chris McKay on Nightwing Movie Potential

"I Like Dick Grayson"

By Alex Burns

Director Chris McKay is set to direct the first live-action Nightwing film for Warner Bros. Pictures. In an interview on the Shanlian On Batman podcast, The LEGO Batman Movie director explained why he is so fully invested in the character of Dick Grayson. Check out his comments below.

“Bruce Wayne in my mind came from privilege and I think that’s why he’s more dour and angry. He’s self-made as far as his becoming all of these cool things we like him for… Dick Grayson didn’t come from that. Dick Grayson came from a circus family. Essentially people who aren’t rich and they are self-made. They’re entertainers. They’re gymnasts. They’re people who live hand-to-mouth and that’s something that informs him and his attitude… he’s a fascinating guy to me, because he had all the same things happen to him. He’s got some of the same negatives as Bruce Wayne and then from a society standpoint — obviously he was adopted into Bruce Wayne’s life… but he didn’t start that way. He’s this guy who has all these negatives and then even more negatives and yet he remains… Those are things why I like Dick Grayson, why I like the idea of Nightwing as a movie.”

Dick Grayson was created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and illustrator Jerry Robinson the character first appeared in 1940 in the pages of Detective Comics #38. Introduced as a partner for Batman, so younger readers could picture themselves adventuring alongside the dark knight, the original Robin proved a huge hit and has since become one of the most iconic DC Comics characters ever. 

Dick Grayson fought alongside Batman for several years before eventually leaving the Robin mantle behind and forging his own path out of the shadow of his mentor to become the hero Nightwing. 

The Judge and The Accountant screenwriter Bill Dubuque is locked for script writing duties.

A firm fan-favourite, the news that a Nightwing film is in development is bound to raise excitement levels around the ever-growing slate of DC film projects set for release in the next few years. It's unclear at this point how the Nightwing character will fit in with the other heroes of the DCEU but we can expect Matt Reeves and Ben Affleck's solo Batman film to potentially lay the groundwork for Nightwing. It's worth noting that Nightwing also has strong ties to Deathstroke and with Joe Manganiello taking on the role of master assassin in the Batman film, there is every possibility we could see a connected story play out across films. With the appearance of Jason Todd's Robin costume in Batman v Superman there's bound to be a rich history concerning the legacy of the Robin mantle and also how Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne's relationship played out in the 20 years before BvS.

After the release of Wonder Woman and Justice League this year, the other DC projects in various stages of development include:

• James Wan's Aquaman starring Jason Momoa, which is very close to production proper
• A Suicide Squad sequel that is looking for a director
• David Ayer and Margot Robbie's Gotham City Sirens feature
• A solo Cyborg film starring Ray Fischer
• Green Lantern Corps set for release in 2020
• The Flash starring Ezra Miller, a film that is now under-going script rewrites
• A Shazam film and a Black Adam feature starring Dwanye Johnson
• A rumoured solo Superman sequel starring Henry Cavil

With a Batman solo film, the Gotham City Sirens project and now this Nightwing film confirmed, there is a growing extended Batman universe in production alongside the Justice League members. There's plenty to be excited about! We'll keep you posted on updates as they come.

Check out our thoughts on Chris McKay's last film - The LEGO Batman Movie in the podcast below.




UPDATE - Check out our thoughts on the Nightwing film in the podcast below!

Team Catch Up - 00:04:44
Matt Reeves to Direct Batman, discussion and analysis - 00:18:34
Listener Q&A - 00:36:25
Nightwing film in the works, thoughts and comments - 01:03:44




Subscribe to us on iTunes! 

Cape and Cowl Cast #57 - Nightwing Movie Hype, Director Locked for Batman Film, Listener Questions & More!

Cape and Cowl Cast #57 - Nightwing Movie Hype, Director Locked for Batman Film, Listener Questions & More!

Brand New Episode!

By Alex Burns

Join Alex, Sam and Ashley for another Cape and Cowl Cast! It's all about the DCEU on our latest pod as WB announce that Matt Reeves will direct the solo Batman film with Ben Affleck! We also have news that a solo Nightwing movie is in the works with Chris McKay in the director's chair. Big changes are in store for the future of DC Comics on film and we are pretty darn excited! Happy listening amigos!

Team Catch Up - 00:04:44
Matt Reeves to Direct Batman, discussion and analysis - 00:18:34
Listener Q&A - 00:36:25
Nightwing film in the works, thoughts and comments - 01:03:44



Subscribe to us on iTunes! 

WB Moving Ahead with Nightwing Movie

WB Moving Ahead with Nightwing Movie

Chris McKay to Direct

By Alex Burns

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Warner Bros are working on a live-action Nightwing film. Chris Mackay is set to direct the feature film who is hot off of the release of The LEGO Batman Movie which has been a box office success for WB and is attracting rave reviews. 

Dick Grayson was created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and illustrator Jerry Robinson the character first appeared in 1940 in the pages of Detective Comics #38. Introduced as a partner for Batman, so younger readers could picture themselves adventuring alongside the dark knight, the original Robin proved a huge hit and has since become one of the most iconic DC Comics characters ever. 

Dick Grayson fought alongside Batman for several years before eventually leaving the Robin mantle behind and forging his own path out of the shadow of his mentor to become the hero Nightwing. 

The Judge and The Accountant screenwriter Bill Dubuque is locked for script writing duties.

A firm fan-favourite, the news that a Nightwing film is in development is bound to raise excitement levels around the ever-growing slate of DC film projects set for release in the next few years. It's unclear at this point how the Nightwing character will fit in with the other heroes of the DCEU but we can expect Matt Reeves and Ben Affleck's solo Batman film to potentially lay the groundwork for Nightwing. It's worth noting that Nightwing also has strong ties to Deathstroke and with Joe Manganiello taking on the role of master assassin in the Batman film, there is every possibility we could see a connected story play out across films. With the appearance of Jason Todd's Robin costume in Batman v Superman there's bound to be a rich history concerning the legacy of the Robin mantle and also how Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne's relationship played out in the 20 years before BvS.

After the release of Wonder Woman and Justice League this year, the other DC projects in various stages of development include:

• James Wan's Aquaman starring Jason Momoa, which is very close to production proper
• A Suicide Squad sequel that is looking for a director
• David Ayer and Margot Robbie's Gotham City Sirens feature
• A solo Cyborg film starring Ray Fischer
• Green Lantern Corps set for release in 2020
• The Flash starring Ezra Miller, a film that is now under-going script rewrites
• A Shazam film and a Black Adam feature starring Dwanye Johnson
• A rumoured solo Superman sequel starring Henry Cavil

With a Batman solo film, the Gotham City Sirens project and now this Nightwing film confirmed, there is a growing extended Batman universe in production alongside the Justice League members. There's plenty to be excited about! We'll keep you posted on updates as they come.

Check out our thoughts on Chris McKay's last film - The LEGO Batman Movie in the podcast below.




UPDATE - Check out our thoughts on the Nightwing film in the podcast below!

Team Catch Up - 00:04:44
Matt Reeves to Direct Batman, discussion and analysis - 00:18:34
Listener Q&A - 00:36:25
Nightwing film in the works, thoughts and comments - 01:03:44




Subscribe to us on iTunes! 

Who is Our Favourite Robin?

Who is Our Favourite Robin?

Podcast Q&A

By Alex Burns

We answer listener questions once again and the big one here is our discussion over the Robin character and our favourite hero to wear the yellow cape. Robin chat starts around 7 minutes in.

If you want to listen to the Cape and Cowl Cast on the go then download the Podcast Podbean for free - also available on iTunes

Make sure to subscribe and catch more content on our official YouTube channel

DC Comics Reveal 'Batman & Robin: Eternal' - The Dark Knight is Back in a New Weekly Series

DC Comics Reveal 'Batman & Robin: Eternal'

The Dark Knight is Back in a New Weekly Series 

By Alex Burns

After the epic year long crossover event 'Batman: Eternal' DC Comics have announced a follow-up series titled 'Batman & Robin: Eternal'. The new comic will mark a celebration of the 75th Anniversary of Robin this year and as the cover suggests will deal with many of the different hereos who have work the Robin mask. Writer Scott Snyder has confirmed that fan-favourite Batgirl, Cass Cain will feature heavily in the series which will please a lot of readers as the character has rarely appeared since the launch of the New 52. The most awesome thing for me however is that it's a weekly series, here's hoping DC can keep to that strict release window! Check out the cover art for issue #1 below and full solicitations for the first three issues. We can't wait to get stuck into this new series and will be sure to share our thoughts as the books release.

It’s here at last—the sequel to the blockbuster weekly series BATMAN ETERNAL!

Five years ago, Batman and Robin worked the most disturbing case of their crimefighting careers—bringing down the organization of the ultimate human trafficker, the mysterious woman known only as Mother. At the time, Dick Grayson never quite understood the scope of that case, but now its darkest secrets are coming back to haunt him and everyone else who ever worked with Batman! With Bruce Wayne now lost to them, Dick and all his allies are out in the cold! Who can they trust? Is someone among them not who they say they are? And who is the deadly, silent young woman in black who’s come to Gotham City looking for Batman?

Prepare yourself for six months of international intrigue, twists and turns, and new additions to the world of Batman and Robin, from showrunners James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder, and writers Tim Seeley, Steve Orlando, Genevieve Valentine, Ed Brisson, and Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly!

BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #1

Story and script by JAMES TYNION IV and SCOTT SNYDER

Art and cover by TONY S. DANIEL

1:50 Variant cover by MIKEL JANIN

Blank variant cover

On sale OCTOBER 7 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #2

Story by JAMES TYNION IV and SCOTT SNYDER

Script by TIM SEELEY and JAMES TYNION IV

Art by PAUL PELLETIER

Cover by TONY S. DANIEL

On sale OCTOBER 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #3

Story by JAMES TYNION IV and SCOTT SNYDER

Script by TIM SEELEY and JAMES TYNION IV

Art by PAUL PELLETIER

Cover by TONY S. DANIEL

On sale OCTOBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

C&C Comic Review - DC's Batman: A Death in the Family - The Hero Doesn't Always Win

C&C Comic Review - DC's 'Batman: A Death in the Family'

The Hero Doesn't Always Win

By Steven Carter

 

In the wake of the launch of Batman: Arkham Knight, I thought it would be rather appropriate to review another classic series. Rather than cover another Marvel series I have taken it upon myself to take a step into the murky waters of the DC universe! 

Batman: A Death in the Family was a 4 part series released way back in 1988/89. It came at a time when popularity for Jason Todd, who was the second person to take on the “Robin” mantle was seriously dwindling. The fans didn't take to Jason, he was a lot more hot-headed than Dick Grayson, often rushing into conflict without much thought. He saw crime fighting in a very different light which often put him at odds with Batman.

Jason had a rage that even Batman could not sedate

After another haphazard encounter with a bunch of criminals, Batman questions Jason’s recklessness, asking whether he thought this was a game. Todd’s response was not what Batman was hoping for and he subsequently relieved Jason of his duties. Jason decides to try to come to terms with his parent’s death in the hope it will give him a fresh perspective on life. He finds out that the person whom he'd regarded as his mother wasn't actually his biological parent. Todd embarks on a journey to find his real Mum. It's this search that takes Jason halfway around the world and alone into the path of the Joker.

The Joker stepped up a gear after murdering Jason

What follows is comic book history and results in one of the most defining moments in the Batman mythos, the Joker kills Robin and for once Batman arrives too late, he fails. the rest of the story deals with Batman's quest for revenge, he crosses paths with Superman but ultimately the joker gets away to murder another day.

The Dark Knight fails

A Death in the Family really was to comics as The Empire Strikes Back was to Star Wars. It was a hugely significant story which pushes the point that every now and again, the bad guys can win. The events of this story keep on getting referenced in other story arcs, more notably in the “Knightfall” and “Hush” story lines and then later in “Under the Hood”. This was one of the very first “proper” comics I had ever read. Up until then I had been used to the bright, colourful, child friendly world of Sonic the Comic; where the heroes always win and the villain is no more than a bumbling loon spurting out lines like “I’ll get you next time!” Or “You haven’t heard the last of me!” To go from this to a hero’s most trusted sidekick getting badly beaten and then killed was quite a shock to the system! 

Batman's thirst for vengeance puts him at odds with Superman

Another thing to take note here was that DC set up two phone lines with a message at the end of the second issue, giving the readers the choice of whether Robin lives or dies. Over 10,000 votes were cast and the results were surprisingly close. 5,271 voted for Jason to live and 5,343 voted for death. There was a rumour at the time claiming that one person had rigged their phone to dial the death number once every 90 seconds for around 8 hours, if those calls were successful then it would have resulted in over 200 votes being cast for Robin to die and would have decided the overall result. They had two issues made in anticipation of the results which begs the question: If Jason survived, would the Joker have been taken as seriously as he is now? 

DC had prepared an alternate panel in case the vote went the other way

Batman and Joker’s relationship became a lot more personal after Jason’s death. Without that, things could have been a lot different. Would we have ever seen Tim Drake? Red Hood? When they wrote Spiderman, the writers initially wanted Doc Ock to be the main nemesis but when the Green Goblin killed Gwen Stacey, Goblin quickly became enemy number one. Could the same thing have happened to Batman? Maybe at a later time, Two-Face or Penguin kills Alfred then they would be considered arch enemy material! 

Joker reigns supreme as Batman's most dangerous enemy

As significant as the story was, it was made at a time when the Batman image was a little camper than usual. At that time we were yet to see Tim Burton’s version of the Batman appear on the big screen, with the last TV appearance being Adam West’s in the ‘60’s. There is a faint whiff of the cheese hidden within the panels, such as the dynamic duo’s idea of sneaking into a terrorist camp was to wear turbans and robes over their superhero costumes. The numerous bat-darts and truth serum, the bat-copter, jet powered hand gliders, it gets a bit much in this day and age. The story has been retold more recently in other media. Batman: Under the Red Hood was an animated movie which gave the plot line a much needed update. Less camp and more brooding. I would certainly love to see this done in the comics again. This may sound like sacrilege to the comic book purists, but I’m sure a retold version of this story would draw in a whole host of new fans to the medium. 

Under the Red Hood explores life after the events of the comic

Overall, the series is a brilliant, defining story but certain elements are starting to show their age in comparison to more contemporary story lines.

8/10

TNT President reveals progress on DC Comic's Titans TV Show - Nightwing, Starfire, Raven All Set to Feature

TNT President reveals progress on DC Comic's Titans TV Show

Nightwing, Starfire, Raven All Set to Feature

By Alex Burns

 

TNT president Kevin Reilly has given an update on the Teen Titans live-action adaptation. Little has been revealed about the series since it was initially announced in September. We do know, however, that the show will follow a band of young superheroes lead by Nightwing/Dick Grayson, the former Robin. Akiva Goldsman (Batman & Robin, A Beautiful Mind, Fringe) is acting as executive producer and also wrote the pilot episode with Marc Haimes.

Starfire

There's an abundance of Superhero shows on television and Netflix right now, just yesterday CBS have released an Official Trailer for Supergirl, that will head up primetime alongside "The Flash", "Arrow" and "Gotham" to name a few. So it's becoming a pretty crowded and competitive market, in the wake of The Avengers' success at the box office, networks are keen to get a slice of that market. Rilley explained how he wants to make sure Titans differentiates itself successfully from the rest of these superhero shows.

Raven

“I sat down with Akiva and said — and he ultimately agreed — that the [TV] landscape right now is well-serviced on the superhero front. So what space is this going to inhabit?” Reilly told TVLine, adding what Goldsman really "wants to do is be very true” to the source material.

Reilly mentioned that Titans “was a groundbreaking property when it first started,” and so there is a good chance it can find its own place, saying, “There were consequences to things that happened; it wasn’t somebody died and they moved on. There was the first superhero to be an addict [in Roy Harper’s Speedy]. It’s a coming-of-age story for Robin, who feels like Batman has betrayed him."

Nightwing will be estranged from his mentor, Batman, in the series

Titans will begin with Grayson suiting up as Robin as he patrols the streets of Boston before his expected transition into Nightwing. The rest of the team has also been announced and includes Starfire, Barbara Gordon, Hawk/Hank Hall and Dove/Dawn Granger and Raven/Rachel Roth, we are still awaiting casting announcements on all these heroes. Beast Boy and Cyborg, who are founding members of the team in the comics and animated series, will not be featured in the Pilot, with the later set to appear in the upcoming Justice League film played by Ray Fisher.

We're certainly excited at the prospect of seeing the Teen Titans in live-action, whether TNT can make the show as big a success as The CW have with "The Flash" and "Arrow" remains to be seen. We'll keep you covered with any updates, so keep it locked here at Cape and Cowl for everything Superhero.