DC Movie Schedule and Aquaman Casting

NikkeFinke.com broke the story about DC's plan for unrolling their movie franchise to compete with Marvel's.  Here is the alleged schedule:

May 2016 – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
July 2016 – Shazam
Xmas 2016 – Sandman
May 2017 – Justice League
July 2017 – Wonder Woman
Xmas 2017 – Flash and Green Lantern team-up
May 2018 – Man Of Steel 2

Originally Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was supposed to come out a year from now.  Pushing it back was apparently because they needed more time to lock up their Justice League cast for multi-picture deals.  

Here are my thoughts:

-I thought that Batman v Superman was supposed to be Man of Steel 2.  But Superman is getting his own sequel in 2018.  What that tells me is that Batman v Superman is a litteral prequel to Justice League in the same way that The Hobbit is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings (the books, not the movies).  Batman v. Superman will exist primarily to set up the characters and their relationships so that it is all out of the way for the Justice League movie.  I am okay with this, but my only concern is that B v S will feel incomplete on its own.

-I think Shazam is a great choice for a stand alone movie.  It is the ultimate superhero/kid fantasy.  What child wouldn't want to be able to say the magic words and become the World's Mightiest Mortal.  I think that if they base this off of the recent Geoff Johns origin story, it could be a heck of a lot of fun.  I am shocked, though that there has been no buzz regarding story, directors, or casting from Warner Bros.

-I am curious about Sandman, but I don't think it fits within the regular DCU.  I know that Joseph Gordon-Leavitt is attached to this in some capacity, maybe as a producer.  But I don't know how well this character will translate onto the big screen.

-The Wonder Woman movie is coming out 2 months after Justice League.  This is quite a gamble.  If JL doesn't work, then neither will WW.  Of course WB's may be figuring that WW alone will not be a box office draw unless they get a lot of people to notice her first in JL.  This is actually not a bad plan.   I am  convinced that the original Green Lantern movie was DC's attempt to start a cinematic universe ala Iron Man.  When GL underperformed, plans were scrapped.  I think they are taking the reverse method.  They have Man of Steel.  They are taking their most bankable movie character, Batman, and using him to draw attention to JL.  And then from JL spawn the other movies.  But it hangs on how well JL performs.  If it works, it could pay off big time.

-The Flash Green Lantern Team Up could be good, but the previous movies need to come up with a compelling reason to put these two together.

-Ryan Reynolds is officially out as GL.  I am sad about this, because I actually enjoyed his Hal Jordan.  My prediction is that the GL in the JL movie will either be John Stewart or Simon Baz.

-With the Flash being in cinematic universe, DC should address the relationship between the movie universe and the TV universe.  It is okay to keep them separated, but they could also overlap them like Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.  That overlap paid off big time in the later half of the season.  But the difference here would be that none of the people Agents of SHIELD headline their own movie.  The Flash does.

-I don't know how much involvement Christopher Nolan will have in any of these.  He produced Man of Steel, but I think he might be out of the creative loop after that.  But I trust Zack Snyder with JL.  I am very curious who they will get for the other heroes.  I would suggest Brad Bird for SHAZAM! and Francis Lawrence (Catching Fire) for Wonder Woman.


AQUAMAN CASTING

Also, they have apparently cast Aquaman as well.  He will be played by...

photo by Lee Snowdon

Jason Momoa.  Or as he is more popularly known: Khal Drogo from Game of the Thrones.

I would never had thought to cast him in this part.  But I think I understand why.

Aquaman has always been the punchline of the Justice League.  You have the Man of Steel, an Amazon goddess, the world's greatest detective, the Fastest Man Alive, someone weilding the most powerful weapon in the universe, and... a guy who can talk to fish.

For anyone who is a fan of Aquaman, you know that he is so much more, but it is hard to overcome that image.

Hiring Momoa gives Aquaman a lot more heft both physically and substantially.  It gives him an edge and a danger that makes him feel like he has a more natural seat at the JL table.  I hope they go with my favorite version of Aquaman: the bearded hook-handed version.

This Justice League has been full of unexpected casting, some exciting (Ben Affleck), some infuriating (Jessie Eisenberg).  But Zack Snyder is really keeping us on our toes.

Thoughts?