Snyder and DC Extended Universe producer Charles Roven talk doing things differently to Marvel, and keeping on top of so many interconnecting films.
[toggler title=”TL;DR” ]Zack Snyder and Charles Roven talk about their ‘sandbox’; a board that allows them to maintain control over the DCEU, but give their directors creative freedom at the same time.[/toggler]
[dropcap size=small]D[/dropcap]C Entertainment is in a pretty good place right now. Everyone is still talking about those Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad trailers, and even while Marvel’s Ant-Man continues to succeed at the box office, Zack Snyder has made a real statement of intent by reiterating that DC is going to change the formula and do things their way. In an interview with Empire, the Batman v Superman director spoke of kicking things off with the ensemble movies (Justice League), and having the origin stories come later in various solo outings.
‘The first thing we had was the Justice League concept. The other movies, in a way, have to support that. They have their own creative concepts that supports them, but they do serve Justice League in the coming together of those heroes. What we are doing is ground up all the way; it is one giant story.’
For those worried that the directors contributing to the solo movies will have little creative freedom in Snyder’s giant story, the man himself has an answer for that too.
‘I want all the other directors of the other films to be able to stretch their legs and do what they want, but at the same time there is a big interconnected universe.’
So, basically, don’t do what you want?
‘I have given everyone amazing access to me, to our story and [to] what we are doing.’
Charles Roven (Producer of Man of Steel as well as a number of upcoming DC projects) is, unsurprisingly, backing his boss. Speaking of the board Snyder uses to map out the timeline of all past and future DCEU movies, Roven said:
‘We call it the sandbox. It has borders around it, but everybody gets to play in the sandbox. On Suicide Squad, David Ayer has a lot of specific control over his area of the sandbox. Even if he crosses the line a little bit, we see if we can push our boundaries back a little bit.’
It sounds as though DC has everything under control. They have a sandbox.
Batman v Superman opens on March 25th, 2016. Suicide Squad hits theaters August 5th, 2016.
