In the months leading up to Sony’s deal with Marvel, as they smoothed out that relationship and prepared for what was to come, it’s clear they weren’t worried about that other cinematic comic book titan: DC. In an email written by former Sony producer and screenwriter Michael De Luca, he analyzed what their competitors were doing and then took a direct shot at DC’s approach.

After praising Marvel and Kevin Feige’s multi-tiered master plan, saying “It’s a brilliant plan and could go on forever” and promising that Sony was looking to raid all of Marvel’s creative talent as soon as they become available, De Luca turned his attention to DC. 

The heavy-hitting producer, whose recent credits include The Social Network, Moneyball, Captain Phillips, and Fifty Shades of Grey summed up DC’s plan like this:

“They are using the new superman to intro the justice league and then hope to do one off movies after justice league, sort of the reverse of Marvel. They don’t have a Feige, they sort of have Nolan and Goyer and Zack Snyder. Plus the dc characters are corny and it remains to be seen how this all works out.”

Mind you, this was written in September of 2014, before more pieces of DC’s puzzle came to light. For starters, it’s now become abundantly clear that Christopher Nolan is no longer involved with Warner Bros and DC’s superhero films. But this does shed light on what top brass at rival studios think of what DC is cooking, and what their main challenge is: The mainstream perception of its characters.

Do I agree with him? Not at all. I’m a DC guy. Superman is my favorite character, and most of my books are DC. But it’s notable that there does seem to be this consistent impression of DC’s heroes as being somehow “uncool.” 

What do you think? And do you think Sony and the other studios are underestimating what DC is capable of? If the standoff between Marvel and DC over the release date May 6, 2016 was any indication, where Marvel basically stood pat on that date for Captain America: Civil War and practically dared DC to release Batman v Superman against it…Marvel doesn’t seem all that worried about DC either. 

Discuss.

SOURCE: WikiLeaks