Skip to main content

Walter Hamada to helm the DCEU - Situation Review

Yesterday afternoon Warner Bros. announced that Executive Producer Walter Hamada (The Conjuring, It) has been named President of DC films. The announcement comes after Jon Berg left the position in December due to Justice League (2017, Zack Snyder) met disappointing box office results. Warner's President Toby Emmerich had this to say about Hamada:

"Walter is creative, resourceful and committed to excellence and will bring those qualities to his oversight of our Superhero films. He's a terrific production executive and served as an executive producer on two of the summer's most popular films, New Line's It and Annabelle: Creation. I'm confident that Walter and Geoff (Johns), working with our filmmaking partners, will deliver films that will resonate with both broad global audiences as well as DC fanboys and fangirls. Walter's a great addition to the Warner Bros. Pictures team, and I look forward to working with him in his new post."

Walter Hamada

As it says in Emmerich's statement, Hamada oversaw both It (2017, Andres Muschietti) and Annabelle: Creation (2017, David Sandberg). And whilst I haven't yet seen those films I can't deny how successful they were at the box office. It earned $698.1 million globally, making it the highest grossing horror film of all time, while Annabelle: Creation earned $306.5 million. Very good box office returns, particularly in the horror genre. Hamada has also overseen Warner Bros.'s The Conjuring franchise, which has become very popular among horror fans. In fact, the horror films at Warner Bros. has become one of their strongest divisions. So, if Hamada can bring his skills as an executive producer from the horror division into the Superhero division, then things might swing in DC's favour.

Geoff Johns

Many fans were hoping that Geoff Johns would fill the role of Head of DC films. Both he and Jon Berg co-worked together on DC's 2017 slate. And, whilst Wonder Woman (2017, Patty Jenkins) was a big success, becoming the highest grossing Superhero origin story of all time, Justice League was a disaster. It was able to break-even, but it wasn't the success that Warner Bros. was depending on. So I believe Johns has now been restricted to a consulting role for Hamada, to suggest to him what direction the DCEU could go

Kevin Feige

The main reason why the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the well-oiled machine that it is today is Executive Producer Kevin Feige. Who oversees every film made by the Marvel Studios. Even the new Star Wars films have Kathleen Kennedy overseeing all of them. But the DCEU hasn't really had someone in charge of their films. Whilst they tried to have Geoff Johns and Jon Berg co-lead the franchise together that didn't really work out. But now that they have just one person at the helm then perhaps things will begin to run a bit smoother. Now, whilst Hamada hasn't yet proven that he's Feige material, as he hasn't really worked on a franchise as important as this one, his body of work 

James Wan & David Sandberg

Two directors who are currently working on DC films at the moment are James Wan (Aquaman) and David Sandberg (Shazam). And I suspect that they both helped get Hamada this job, as both have worked on films that he produced. What this also suggests that the suits at Warner Bros. are feeling quite confident in these two projects. As, if they were able to get Hamada this role then they must be doing something right!

DC's Future

Ever since Justice League, the future of the DCEU has been put into question. With many suggesting a reboot with the Flashpoint film. Whilst nothing else has been announced yet concerning the DCEU, and this looks to be a quiet year for them, with just one film being released in December. But I expect there will be some changes made to any future planned projects for DC. Hopefully for the better. But Hamada has had quite a successful career so far and I imagine he will continue this streak into the DCEU.

So this is my analysis of Walter Hamada's recent promotion as President of DC films. What do you think of the news? Are you excited or anxious about it? Leave a comment down below. And, if you enjoyed what you've read then please follow this blog for more content. Thank you for reading. :)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Auteurship: David Fincher

The Auteur theory is that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision.  I am going to use  David Fincher as an example, because he usually has similar aspects throughout all of his films such as bleakness of a setting; several single frames that flash, low-key lighting and characters that are in the shadows so you can’t see their faces. All of these styles can be found in Fight Club (1999). In most of Fincher’s films the settings seem to have a bleak and uninteresting look to them. In Fight Club this is shown in places like the office of where Jack works, the cancer support group hall, Jack’s apartment. All of these places are just different shades of the same colour (mainly green, grey or dark orange). This is to convey a sense of misery and darkness within the storyline, which the characters are just drifting through their lives. Something that Fincher portrays beautifully in Fight Club. This is a good example of David Fincher’s position as an Au...
13 comments
Read more

Oz: The great and Powerful Review

When I first heard that this film was being made I was very skeptical. The Original film with Dorothy and the wicked witch was an important part of many people's childhood that it seemed that this prequel couldn't live up to it. But after seeing it at the cinema my skepticism was laid to rest. This film is AWESOME!!!    The film follows a similar structure narrative-wise to that of the Wizard of Oz. You start off with in Kansas where everything is in black-and-white, keeping to continuity, then you have the twister that takes the character to the land of Oz. The audience is then introduced important characters like Theodora and Evanora, we even get the journey down the yellow-brick road. The writers have brilliantly taken all these elements from the previous film and used them to create a contemporary origin to the Oz that children were introduced too in 1939.    James Franco was well cast in this role as a rude and selfish magician who w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Trailer Highlights

Star Wars: The Last Jedi New Poster So Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) comes out in December and we're only now getting the second trailer, just two months away from the release date. Either Disney has seriously dropped the ball on the promotional campaign or they're just so confident in this film that they feel it doesn't require a lot of publicity for fans to get excited about. My guess would be the latter. Since the past two Disney-Produced Star Wars films have both raked in a combined total of $3,124,280,897, It'd be safe to say that Disney would think that. However, right before the trailer was released last night, director Rian Johnson (Looper, Brick) suggested to fans that they should avoid this trailer. WHAT?! What kind of a marketing tactic is that?! Perhaps if you wish for fans to avoid spoilers then you should urge the marketing campaign to avoid them at all costs. Initial Thoughts Yeah! This trailer has me more intrigued about the story than ever, ...
Post a Comment
Read more