Following The Avengers, superhero teams are all the rage. DC is already planning a Justice League movie and now it’s been confirmed that they’re teaming up with Guillermo Del Toro for a slightly different kind of comic book team-up, Dark Universe, which will team up some of the company’s darker characters.
Del Toro has been talking to IGN about it, confirming that an unspecified writer is in talks to work on the script, “I’m working on it. I’m writing the outline and we’re already in talks with a writer. A very, very good writer. People are probably going to be happy with who we have chosen. He accepted. I’ve been courting this writer, who I think is the perfect guy for this job. We’re doing it. Hopefully it will happen. We don’t know until they greenlight the movie.”
When asked which DC characters may be included, he said, “You’re talking about my childhood. Swamp Thing, for me, is a rock star. You know, Demon, Zatara, Zatanna, it’s amazing. You go to John Constantine, who I thought was an amazing creation. I want to do the Constantine of the comics, Deadman. It’s a lot of work, but a lot of fun.”
He wouldn’t be drawn on exactly which character will be in the movie, other than saying that The Spectre will be in the movie.
He also mentioned that Warner Bros. was onboard with this type of ensemble even before Avengers was released, “The movement for this happened before The Avengers. They were already galvanized to launch Justice League and they were galvanized to make their universe cohesive. What I feel now is with Superman, they feel very, very confident with what they have. They are now feeling they have two pillars, Batman and Superman, for the DC Universe. Tonally, they have a darker tone, sort of urban and sophisticated. There’s a foundation that now they can build on.”
The filmmaker also revealed that he is trying to move ahead with At the Mountains of Madness, with Tom Cruise still attached to star, “I’m going to try it one more time. Once more into the dark abyss. We’re going to do a big presentation of the project again at the start of the year and see if any [studios are] interested. Yeah, Tom is still attached. I think it would be so fantastic to make it with him. He’s been such a great ally of the project.”
Del Toro has also recently said that he was approached about Star Wars: Episode VII, but had to pass as he’s too busy.