[Movies] The DC Cinematic Universe - The David Zazlav Dumpster Fire.

look i just want to know how a jar of piss factors into this $400 million movie that hundreds (thousands?) of people worked on for several months or a year of their lives. and I don't want to read any of the 2,500+ word takedowns of the movie and zack snyder. I just want to know why and how a jar of piss is involved in this movie that tens of millions of people watched this week. whose piss? does it break? does anyone drink it? who touches it? where does it go after it's on screen?
Damn son. All these criticisms, but it takes Charlie to come in and ask the tough questions.

Now, if I ever see this movie, all I'll be thinking about is this jar of piss.
 

Dave

Staff member
But nobody has answered his question yet so here it is:

Part of Lex Luthor’s overly-complicated plan to trick Batman and Superman into fighting each other involves getting a Senator (played by Holly Hunter) heading a committee conducting an investigation into a Superman-related massacre at an African warlord’s compound to grant him a license to import kryptonite to the U.S. When she refuses, shutting him down with a Southern-fried metaphor on the lines of “Don’t piss in a jar and tell me it’s granny’s peach tea,” he instead detonates a bomb in the Senate chamber and frames an injured anti-Superman activist (and former Wayne employee) as a suicide bomber to further enrage Batman. In order to build tension before the explosion, Hunter’s character is shown growing gradually suspicious of a mason jar of liquid that’s been placed where her water glass should be – the camera pulling tight on her increasingly horrified expression as she realizes that, yes, Lex Luthor has left a jar of his urine for her as a reference to her put-down in order to scare her just before she blows up.

An entire scene. In a multimillion dollar Hollywood superhero movie. That’s meant to be tense and subsequently tragic and horrifying. Is constructed around Lex Luthor leaving a jar of his pee on a desk as an in-joke. And people said Gene Hackman’s version was too goofy!
 
Its still gonna do well enough that its not a disaster for WB or anything. Too bad though, I can only imagine how amazing their panicking would've been if it was a true box office bomb.
 
Nah, it's still a disaster. It was expected to make 1.2 billion and now the projections are 900 million or less.

300 million dollars is straight up a disaster for them.

It's just not a bomb, but no one in charge at WB is happy right now.
 
I never thought I'd see a world where a movie making 900 million is a disaster.
Well, when it costs 400-600 million after advertising and the international take is usually a lot lower than the domestic take on the money the movie actually made, it definitely is.
 
As an example, Avengers is the highest-grossing worldwide hero movie with about 1.5 billion dollars.

If Boxofficemojo is up to date, at the moment BvS is still under two of the Nolan movies (DK and DKR, both just barely over a billion) and MoS (about 670 million)in total gross. I would imagine it'll pass MoS but it's sounding like breaking 1b is going to take some time.[DOUBLEPOST=1459634692,1459634543][/DOUBLEPOST]
I never thought I'd see a world where a movie making 900 million is a disaster.
I mean, it's gotten this way in most entertainment industries. For example they're saying the next Final Fantasy game (XV) needs to sell around 10 million copies to be in the black, and if I remember right the Tomb Raider reboot was considered a loss by SE even though it didn't sell too terribly. These spectacles of entertainment are getting insanely expensive to make, and with the gargantuan marketing pushes they're putting out there the bills just keep getting bigger and bigger.
 
I mean, it's gotten this way in most entertainment industries. For example they're saying the next Final Fantasy game (XV) needs to sell around 10 million copies to be in the black, and if I remember right the Tomb Raider reboot was considered a loss by SE even though it didn't sell too terribly. These spectacles of entertainment are getting insanely expensive to make, and with the gargantuan marketing pushes they're putting out there the bills just keep getting bigger and bigger.
It's totally SE's fault on Tomb Raider. They poured so much money into making it that 4 million sales was poor? Fucking stupid. It's going to take a long time for FFXV to make 10 million, and that's if people aren't already jaded after FFXIII. I know I am.

As for BvS, expected the drop but not so drastic. It's not enough to ruin anyone's lives at WB, but maybe a wake-up call.
 
This is more of a tangentially related thing, but if anyone is interested, here's an article about the making of the original Superman film as told by Richard Donner.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/superman-director-richard-donner-tells-879894?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR Breaking News_2016-04-02 07:00:00_jkonerman&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_breakingnews
Anyone ever even THINKING of doing something Superman related should watch the "Can You Read My Mind" sequence in the original movie before they continue.
 
Anyone ever even THINKING of doing something Superman related should watch the "Can You Read My Mind" sequence in the original movie before they continue.
My favorite part of that is the very end, after Superman has left and Clark shows up for the date with now super-flustered Lois, and when she's getting herself together and can't see him, he takes off his glasses and sounds serious for a moment. He wants so badly to tell her, but deep down doesn't think he should and it's hurting him like no bullet can.

I don't give a shit what people say; I don't have childhood nostalgia to be ruined. I didn't see that movie until I was an adult and I fucking love it.
 
The really crazy thing is that WB/DC could have used the cultural awareness of the main characters that they are trying to tap into with BvS to completely reverse Marvel's roadmap. The first movie of the DC universe could have been "Justice League". The audience doesn't need to have any of the DC trinity characters explained to them. Most of the other heroes aren't hard to explain: the Flash (he's really fast), Aquaman (he's strong and can breath under water), Green Lantern (magic ring that makes boxing gloves), Cyborg (he's a cyborg, thus the name), etc. A decent creative team could have audience up to speed on the JL in the first fifteen minutes of the movie (even with no movies to set up anyone beforehand.) Heck, Joss Whedon could probably do it in one long take before the credits.

Dude... Live action Teen Titans!
 

GasBandit

Staff member
She's too young to play a teen in a movie.
I wonder if they can bleach-then-dye Alison Brie's hair red, give her green contacts, and then strap her into a Starfire costume. Because I have a feeling she could nail the voice.

"But Gas Bandit, she's 35-" SHUT UP ANNIE IS 19
 
  • Like
Reactions: TNM
Was watching a late review of this that brought up something I hadn't considered.

How frustrating must it have been for Ben Affleck to be working under an inferior director? Supposedly he was trying to fix things, do some script-mending behind the scenes, but he wasn't in charge so there was only so much he could do. Kind of makes the Sad Affleck thing less funny sad and more actual sad. I feel bad for him. Maybe he'll get more control with his solo Batman movie and it could actually be good.
 
I am sure if Affleck does get the chance to do a Batman film it will be fine.... but are we really in need of yet another Batman film? I mean, I like Batman and all but there is so much more that could be done with the DC characters than more Batman.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I am sure if Affleck does get the chance to do a Batman film it will be fine.... but are we really in need of yet another Batman film? I mean, I like Batman and all but there is so much more that could be done with the DC characters than more Batman.
Well, I assume he's gonna be in the next Justice League movie.
 
Top