DC Comics Writers Consulting on Warner Films.

Cover by Ethan Van Sciver to The Flash Rebirth #1.
Cover by Ethan Van Sciver to The Flash Rebirth #1.
Cover by Ethan Van Sciver to The Flash Rebirth #1.

An interesting piece from the Hollywood Reporter creeped up yesterday, and it seems like no one has written a thing about it.  Apparently, Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, and Marv Wolfman have been hired by Warner studios to consult on the film properties of DC characters they’ve written.

Levitz and DC’s Los Angeles-based film exec Gregory Noveck have overseen a reorganization of the development slate. While Warners execs still drive the creative side, DC now has more input, making it an actual participant in the shaping of material.

“The creative process is by and large a true partnership,” Noveck said. “They’ll ask us a ton of questions, and we’ll give a ton of answers. We will talk back and forth. We’ll discuss writers and talent, but ultimately it’s their decision.”

This past fall, Warners quietly hired three of DC’s biggest writers — Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman — to act as consultants and writers for its superhero line of movies. The move involved taking back the reins on projects being handled by such producers as Charles Roven (“The Flash”) and Akiva Goldsman (“Teen Titans”).

Hollywood insider types have grumbled about working with Johns, Morrison and Wolfman, according to the THR story.  Even though all have film experience.  Though, apparently, the situation has already paid off, because Johns wrote a treatment for “The Flash” movie with screenwriter Dan Mazeau and will be a producer.

This is most certainly welcome news to this “Flash” fanboy, and also fills my heart that Warners is taking this approach.  By hiring these writers, you almost certainly have the trust of the fans who love these writers. It also gives fans a security blanket knowing that people like Johns, Morrison and Wolfman care about what we like, and want to bring that to the big-screen version of characters they love just as much as we do.

The studio is taking pitches on sci-fi hero Adam Strange and the underwater-breathing hero “Aquaman,” to be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and his Appian Way shingle.

Also in the pipeline: “Bizarro Superman” being written by “Galaxy Quest” scribes David Howard and Robert Gordon; a sequel to “Constantine,” with Goldsman and Erwin Stoff producing; two concurrent Green Arrow projects, an origin story and a prison-set one titled “Super Max”; and “Shazam,” which was set up at New Line but has moved to Warners, with Pete Segal attached to direct.

The projects Morrison and Wolfman are working on are currently in-development, which is Hollywood-speak for “still writing” and “none of your business.”

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