Speaker #0hello everyone and welcome to movie goodness where we examine life through cinema here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and man i did not have this on my bingo card for this week i i didn't have it on my bingo card for the remainder of 2026 i really didn't see this coming even though i should have seen this coming but on today monday november the what's today the night we got some big breaking news to come out of dc studios over there uh in the offices of sky dance which is the new company under the merger of warner brothers and paramount when peter safton and james gunn quote-unquote stepped down from their positions as co-ceos of dc studios this is pretty big and the reason why this is big they were just announced as the the head well not the head but they were on the creative team at sky dance you know of the ceos not just Oh. over dc but over the whole thing over the whole conglomerate so they were a major part of this sky dance deal this merger and for them to step down and and walk away from it as a major thing now they uh uh james gunn released the statement skydance released the statement i think it was a mutual thing i don't think it was any bad blood between the two at least in their statements we don't know what took on behind the scenes there but uh it was a mutual thing and the reason that james gunn gave in particular i can see that i and honestly i believe that so today we're just gonna run down what all took place in case you don't know and come to your own conclusion so there was a major shake-up that will send shockwaves through hollywood and the comic book movie world when James Gunn and Peter Safran stepped down as co-CEOs of DC Studios. Skydance, which now oversees the division thanks to the merger with Warner Brothers, have appointed former Marvel executive Jeremy Latcham to the post of president and chief creative officer of DC Studios. We'll discuss him a little later. to go over his history in the movie world and Marvel world and his own individual projects that he was involved with. But Gunn and Safran are stepping down from their leadership roles effective December the 1st, and that marks the four years that they initially took over as CEOs of DC Studios. And the duo since... They took over. They released four theatrical films. Well, three. I'm sorry. Three theatrical films. You had Superman, Supergirl, and Clayface. Now, those were released, but we have a fourth on the way next year with Man of Tomorrow. They also released three live-action TV shows, The Penguin, Peacemaker Season 2, and Lanterns, which just wrapped. up last month and that was probably their best show property whatever that came out of dc studios since they have been the heads but they had a decade's worth of plans in the works as they were the ceos of dc studios in the instagram posts in which he talked about the highs and the lows at dc james gunn acknowledged that being an executive was trying to say the least you He went on to add, I disliked the at times corporate nature of the job. And he went on to thank Peter Safran for taking the blunt of those responsibilities. The two will still be in the fold creatively, or at least on the next few projects over at DC. As I mentioned before, James Gunn has the sequel to Superman down the pipe with. a man of tomorrow which is in post-production and planned for next year and they also have the tv show the people versus gorilla grog which is also in post-production james gunn and peter saffron remain producers on the batman part 2 as well which is slated for release in 2028 with their executive days behind them now the plan is for them to return full-time to their creative work. James Gunn rose to fame with blockbuster films such as the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, while Peter Safran was a prolific producer on numerous DC films and horror films as well. James Gunn revealed in an Instagram post that he is writing one more secret DC movie and that the characters they set up will live on beyond their time as a part of DC. David Ellison, who is the chairman and CEO of Skydance, he released a statement as well. Part of that statement, he says, James and Peter launched a new era for DC Studios and led it through a period of real transformation, resetting the foundation and building a slate. We're incredibly... proud of um the co-ceo over there at skydazz also made a statement saying we're grateful for their passion contributions and commitment to this legendary brand uh as far as in regards to jeremy latcham who is now the new president and chief creative officer of dc studios it is real interesting. that they gave him that title and not the ceo you know so he is not he's not taking their job there he's not the ceo of dc studios uh he's just uh i guess he's doing the same job just in a different role different title and that's that's that's real interesting at least that's i'm i'm grasping at scrawls here but i'm trying to read into why he wasn't made the ceo of dc studios uh uh just a little just a little curious about that but um the heads of skydance they released a statement about him as well saying that jeremy has been a long time creative partner and we have complete confidence that james and peter will ensure a smooth and collaborative transition and continue this work with care uh latchum he's returning to an you an executive role uh something that he got his started on back in uh 2004 over at marvel studios so he's familiar with the comic book world he started under kevin feige and uh ultimately rose to senior vp of production and development over there as a protege and right-hand man to Kevin Feige, but he gained credits on. iron man iron man 2 the avengers uh guardians of the galaxy avengers age of ultron and spider-man homecoming he worked with gun on guardians the 2014 movie that made the filmmaker a-list director and so uh per skydance latchum will lead dc films television shows and animation slates overseeing the creative pipe line along with production talent and strategy he will report to Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein who are the co-chairs of Skydance motion picture group that's a change from the days of James Gunn and Peter Safran who only reported to David Zasloff who was the CEO of Warner Brothers Discovery before the merger and prior to their exit Dave reportedly only was going to report directly to David Ellison. So they didn't have to worry about the underlings, I guess, for lack of a better term. They went straight to the head to answer to. Whereas Leachem or Latchem, he has to report to Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein. So that's. That's a big change. That's a big change. I guess that goes along with the CEO title. Jeremy Latcham, he did release a statement as well. He said that DC's pantheon of characters are among the most iconic in American pop culture. I have the privilege to help bring some of the most celebrated superhero stories to life on the big screen. And I'm excited and honored for the opportunity to now lead DC Studios into its next era. The chance to steward... the incredible cast of dc characters to the screen in a way that excites lifelong fans while introducing their timeless stories to the next generation of matt it's a massive responsibility that i do not take lightly i hope that i hope that his actions match his words as i'll just leave it at that i can't judge him because i don't know much about him i can't say about his work that he worked on i mean just going over his filmography going back to iron man he was the associate producer he was a co-producer on iron man 2 the executive producer of uh the avengers and so on and so forth so really cutting his teeth in marvel but not really a big driving force he he he was he was in the pot of gumbo but he wasn't that season and that made it pop Now, he did produce other films outside of Marvel. Bad Times at the El Royale, which was a sneaky good film. Chris Hemsworth, I think Cynthia Erivo was in that film. Jeff Bridges is in that film. It was a real sneaky good film. Not the greatest of movies, but very enjoyable. The latest Dungeons and Dragons movie that came out a couple of years back. uh honor amongst thieves i thought that was good he produced that uh he produced another movie the bread and rent winner i think that was earlier this year i'd never watched that i don't know what that's all about but the first two i watched and i enjoyed you know so he he does have some some skin on the wall so that's encouraging it's so we'll see we'll see what he could do with this massive task of keeping this boat afloat over there with dc uh hollywood observers will be looking to i don't know discern if peter saffron and james gunn decided to move on or were they pushed out i don't think that's a thing i know i don't think that's important at this point it's up to your discretion if you if you think that they got fired i'll say this much if they Thank you. if they wanted to fire them or let them go they wouldn't have put them on that board they wouldn't have put peter saffron and james gunn on the main you know ceo board of skydance if if that was a thing and this was like a couple of weeks back it wasn't like this was done a year ago and they like oh this ain't working out and let them go no they just announced this and then this happened so i I don't think. That's what happened. I really think it's more of a mutual thing. I don't think Peter Safran and James Gunn, and James Gunn in particular, because he flat out said that he wasn't comfortable in his role, he kind of bit off more. He could be in the executive there, but he didn't enjoy his time. He's a creative. He's a creative guy. He wants to write. He wants to direct. And he couldn't do that. and balance it out equally being the CEO of a studio. And ultimately, that was it. It was too much of a task for him. I don't blame him in that regard because I couldn't do all that. That's too much to balance out because he has such a creative mind. I'm a huge James Gunn fan. I was excited when they took over at DC because it felt like James Gunn had that niche you know that can kind of steer dc in the right direction you know but my problems with james gunn as an executive you he he makes all the decisions so we're going through this this era of dc currently this is what james gunn wants this isn't so much what the fans want is more what james gunn want this is his universe And this is his toy box. He only pulls out whatever toys he wants to play with that day. And we have to. roll with it you know we don't have any say so we don't have a batman established we don't have a wonder woman established we don't have a flash or you know all of our main characters in dc you know the the the lich pins in dc a james gunn is such an uh a deep cut type of writer and filmmaker you know like guardians of the galaxy and it with marvel who knew about the guardians of the galaxy nobody and i'm a and i'm a comic book nut but i i didn't know much about them i knew of them but i didn't know much about them not up to the degree where i was like oh man they're making the guardians of the galaxy movie oh man i can't wait i just went on that off of the sprint that marvel studios at that point was was they were batting a thousand now like okay i'll take a chance on it And I did know of James Gunn and I knew he was making that movie. and like okay i'll check it out and end up being one of the better films in marvel during that phase so it made sense when he came over at dc first and foremost it made the suicide squad because he loves those background characters those that's his thing and i'm not mad at it i'm just saying that's his thing you know even in the superman movie it wasn't Yeah. Yeah, we focused on Superman. We focused on what he was doing. But we also had to split time with Jimmy Olsen. We had to split time with Mr. Terrific and Guy Garner and Hawkgirl. You know, all those underling characters. The main villain, yeah, it was Lex Luthor, but it was the clone of Superman. You know, what's his name? Omni-Man or something? No, that's incredible. completely different uh or invincible there's a completely different comic book but uh yeah he he doesn't lean into the big things and look i get all that as well because we've seen a lot of that you know we've been down that road with with batman and joker how many batman and joker movies we've seen. You know, how many Superman and Lex luther movies have we seen yet it's we've done this we've been down this road skipping over the origin of superman i'm cool with that i loved the direction they were taking to a degree yeah you know i liked the introduction of this bigger world this bigger universe that all made sense i yeah you want to expand it out but you still want to at the same time establish your foundation what is your foundation at dc superman batman wonder woman the holy trinity of dc you have to establish them first now when it comes to the batman of it all that's a complicated issue because you had matt reeves over there with the batman with robert pattinson you couldn't have two batmans on the screen at the same time people already gets confused that's like when joker came mouth. and you had jared leto just played a joker you know it's too much it was too much so you can't have two batmans at the same time so i understood why they didn't rush into batman and you really can't include this batman into james gunn's studio i mean yeah well basically it was but into james gunn's dc studios i don't think it fit now throughout you their tenure we saw different tones which i also appreciate the one thing about marvel that drives people insane even though marvel marvel is marvel this that's how they they all their movies are pretty much the same tone even though they'll switch it up every now and then but at the end of the day you're gonna get those marvel jokes in the movie you know nothing is real super serious. And... they good at it they're they're excellent at it i'm not knocking it for that but dc is much darker is much serious you know much more serious than marvel is in the comics at least and that's why the dc eu when you had uh uh what's his name uh uh uh zach snyder over it it was super dark too dark at times Everybody was super dark. And so they're trying to separate themselves from Marvel. All right. It went too dark. It didn't really work out. So if you blend in. These different tones, these different type of genres, which is what James Gunn was doing. James Gunn and Peter Safran were doing. You know, you had the colorful Superman movie. You have the darker Clayface movie, a rated R horror, body horror film. You know, you had the detective, grounded detective story of Lanterns. You know, you had the comedic. peacemaker show it was a whole melting pot of genres which is very interesting and it makes it more interesting that they're all connected and they find a way to connect it subtly but unfortunately it wasn't well received superman it was a hit it was a success it made money but it didn't blow the box office up you know it wasn't a billion dollar movie and you can make the argument there's never been a big superman movie to make billions of dollars so you go back to christopher reeves it wasn't a big hit you know the uh brandon ralph uh superman returns wasn't a big hit um man of steel wasn't a big hit yeah they made money but they weren't marvel movie money yeah it superman is superman i don't think superman will ever be that type of movie to make billions of dollars in his box office a la a spider-man movie you know this spider-man resonates with people you can connect to spider-man you can't connect with superman he's superman he's the ultimate problem solver there's no threat that can truly cause harm to superman so nobody really gravitates to superman even though superman's a beast i'm not knocking superman but uh yeah that didn't really hit okay cool so what's the next rollout you do supergirl nobody asked for supergirl nobody was nobody was checking for supergirl and and you give us the supergirl the best supergirl story you could ever come up with is woman of tomorrow and they messed that up they messed up the comic that was an awesome graphic novel i i loved woman of tomorrow and i wasn't a supergirl fan like that but i love that comic and this film that they released which was loosely and i mean loosely based on that comic it dropped the ball it did not it just wasn't great i didn't mind the movie i enjoyed it for what it was but it just it crashed and burned at the box office And then you have Clayface that came out a couple of weeks back. Clayface was good. But the problem with Clayface, it was no Batman. You're in Gotham. This is a Gotham. This is a Batman villain. And there's no Batman. No mention of Batman. There's nothing to set up your Batman. Now, the movie made his money because it's a low-budget film. You know, the movie. did make back his money but it's not i don't know i don't know what the thinking was there i was excited for it like i said i enjoyed the movie but i don't think they read the room properly people were disgusted with these solo villain movies sony did it to death they killed a whole franchise because they made their villains anti-heroes And for comic book lovers, nobody want to see that. I didn't want to see Venom as a hero. I didn't want to see Morbius as a hero. I didn't want to see Kraven the Hunter as a hero. They are villains. They are Spider-Man villains. They're in the rogues gallery. Why do I want to see them save the day? Now, with that being said, Clayface is not that. But the problem is, in people's minds, when you do solo villain movies you're gonna make them out to be the the hero at the end of the day uh look at disney what they did with their uh live action animated movies like maleficent and cruella and uh there was another one in there i think but they they made them out to be heroes or anti-heroes i should say in those movies in their solo movies joker joker Didn't do that because you can't do that with joke until we get the folio do it. I don't know what that was, but the point I'm trying to make is. in people's minds and film uh moviegoers minds they don't want to go through that they've been burnt already so that's why this movie didn't make colossal money and so uh that's really like three strikes technically even though they were two for three as far as money makers but they weren't big money makers and with this sky dance merger sky dance gonna want a big here skydance needs a billion dollar movie is man of tomorrow gonna be a billion dollar movie i don't know i doubt it but i don't know we haven't seen anything from it i would imagine we'll get it around christmas you know when they release the trailer for it but i i don't think i don't think it's gonna be colossal like you Like they're hoping. And I think a lot of that is probably the reason why James Gunn and Peter Safran decided to go on their merry way. Do you know? They can't guarantee a colossal hit like that. But they can. They just got to get out of their own way. Namely, James Gunn. James Gunn. This is what turned me off with James Gunn. Like I said, big fan of James Gunn. But this is where I kind of got disgusted with him. During the press for Superman, and really every movie after this, but especially for Superman, you would have swore that James Gunn was starring in the movie as Clark Kent. He did all the promotion. He was walking in red coffin. He was doing the interviews. He was doing everything was James Gunn, I understand you wrote and directed the movie, but that don't mean, and you're the executive of the studio, that doesn't mean you have to be at the forefront of all the promotion for the movie. You don't see David Ellison walking the red carpet. I'm pretty sure he'd be there, but he's not the centerpiece of a movie premiere over there with Paramount. You know, David Zaslav, we didn't see him on the red carpet for these movies. He wasn't at the forefront for these movies the head of netflix is not walking the red carpet doing interviews about the movie that's the point is you're the head of a studio stay in the background he was on twitter or instagram or threads whichever one it was that he he just would talk to the fans and get into it with other fans get into it with critics or whatever whatever it was it was ridiculous it It got so ridiculous. ridiculous like man when do you have time to run the studio you're on twitter you're writing this movie you're directing this movie you're in post-production of this movie you're talking to other filmmakers about other projects and all this when you have time to sleep get your proper rest so you can function properly running this studio it was just a lot going on But I will tell you, honestly, it was before Superman that it really, well, it was Superman that really threw it over the top. But the, the, the, the fuse was kind of lit with creature commandos when they literally animated a section of the intro with James Gunn. I'm like, what is this? What is this? And his explanation was, oh, I didn't. I didn't put that in there. The animators did that. Well, you could have told him to take it out. Why are you in the forefront of this show? He was in the intro. You can't make this up. But I looked past that. A lot of people look past that. Like, okay, that's cute. You know, whatever. But now when you look back, hindsight is 20-20. Now when you look back. you're like my god bro your ego is the size of the empire state building dude you you need to take a step back but i'm glad he stepped down honestly i'm glad he stepped down because now he can focus on what he what he's truly good at and that is making a film writing and directing a good piece of movie you know that's that's what i'm looking forward to and Now he can fully concentrate on that instead of trying to make sure he sets up this for other films and get this right in this film and write things just so the studio can run, you know, set up all of these other movies and TV shows. Look, Lanterns was phenomenal. Lanterns was phenomenal because he had nothing to do with it other than the fact that he greenlit it. He didn't write it. He didn't direct it. He had nothing to do with it. I'm pretty sure he had some input, but it's not like that was his thing. That's why Lanterns was great. Supergirl, he had his hands all in it. That's why it was what it was. Peacemaker, same thing. That's why it was what it was. Not to say they were bad, but they were James Gunn. They felt like James Gunn-isms. through those shows and movies aside from clay face and lanterns which he'd had nothing to do with creatively and those are probably critically your best things to come out of this era so that that's just a sign to say step back but i understand when you're a creator you want to create you want to you want to put your hands into it you know you want to get down in the weeds I understand that. But what director wants to take notes from another director? That was the biggest fear, you know, when he took the job. You know, what director going to come and make a movie for DC Studios and have to listen to James Gunn tell him how to direct? That's stupid, you know. I wouldn't do it, you know. So it was a task. I'm glad that that era is over. As far as, and I'm not glad, like, yeah, they needed to go. I enjoyed the majority of the projects that came out of the DC studios with James Gunn and Peter Safran at the head. That's not the thing. The thing is, one, they take too long with these projects. He laid out this plan that started off, and the plan didn't already, it went left quick. Other than Superman. and creature commandos nothing else has went according to plan nothing now he laid out a whole plethora of plans the authority movie that got changed the uh uh themistera movie the not movie but tv show the wonder woman island thing that i don't think wonder woman was a part of that that the hbo series that went out the window the amanda walder wallace series went out the that's that's not happening you know all all of this stuff that he laid out didn't happen and you expected that like when when uh kevin feige i don't know i'm blanking on his name when kevin feige we used to do it you know he held those presentations and laid out the plan for the uh next phase going out going forward i should say Sometimes it'll change, but for the most part, it stayed in line, you know, because he had he have more cooks in the kitchen. I love James Gunn. It wasn't just Kevin Feige's layout. You know, he had other creatives and other executives to kind of give their input. I don't know how the setup was at DC Studios under Gunn and Safran. I don't know if they had a think tank or anything like that. But it feels like or felt like James Gunn. That was the think tank. That's the way it felt like. Mike Flanagan, he broke through, you know, because Clayface was on nobody's radar. But he had an idea. He had a pitch. He had a screenplay that he wrote. Went, talked to James Gunn and Peter Safran. They loved the script. And greenlit it to go forward with it, you know, even though they rewrote it. they got somebody to uh touch it up some and uh got another director if if mike flanagan would have directed that film i think it would have been a little bit better uh even though i enjoyed it i think it would have been a little bit better if mike flanagan would have directed it himself but hey it is what it is coulda woulda shoulda but uh yeah it's the end of an era it's a grand opening grand closing four years Four years, Ed, Peter Safran, and James Gunn have stepped down. from dc studios this is going to be interesting going forward under this new leadership with uh jeremy latcham is he going to blow it up you know is he going to start over again which would suck but is he going to do that or is he going to pick up the torch from where uh james gunn left it and try to build off of that I... I would build off of what what's been established there's nothing wrong with what's been established you have a superman that universally I think everybody is cool with you know I like David Cornswet as superman I like his take on superman Clark Kent he's doing a pretty good job in my humble opinion I like Lex Luthor uh Nicholas Hope uh I think that was a good good pick even though that wouldn't have been my first choice. Me personally, I would have had Nicholas Holder as Batman. I don't know why I always saw him as Batman. I just could, he just got that. It just, something about his look, it just screams Bruce Wayne to me. But whatever, it is what it is. He's a real good Lex Luthor. So I don't, I don't think we should blow it up. I think we need to establish a Batman. I think we need to establish a Wonder Woman. Rumors are that the Wonder Woman has been cast and will appear in Man of Tomorrow next year. We'll see that, if that's true. But, yeah, man, I mean, you got your lanterns, you got your Jon Stewart and whatnot. All that is already there. You can build on that. So, I don't think you need to blow it up, but if you want to tweak some things, that's fine, too. But, hey, I can't tell you how to do your job. You do it. You can do it. uh jeremy uh let's see what happens uh what's your thoughts on this on this uh uh breaking news over there at skydance uh do you think he got fired i know a lot of people are saying fired i don't think they got fired it just doesn't add up to me the math ain't maffin uh you know maybe they were axed to step down you know i i but Normally, when you're asked to step down, you're not given a grace period. At least in my experience, I've never the few times I've been let go from a job. I wasn't given a grace period. I was the only grace I got was walk out of here or we call the cops or something like that. But it's not it's just not adding up to me to say that the. that they uh uh got fired i really do think i think if anything it was a mutual departure uh that will ultimately benefit everybody i i hope i really do uh james gunn gonna be all right um he he's a smart cookie he he he's a very talented filmmaker he's gonna be all right i think peter saffron it was in a running at one point to take over uh i think at netflix their their film division i think he was in the running for that and so hey maybe people fall upward man they did the lucky ones fall upward and so he'll be all right they'll be all right let's see what jeremy uh latcham has in store for us and and let's give him time. That's another thing. Let's give him time. time let's give him a couple of years to to get get everything in place you know because we we're not going to see anything from him per se for about two years you know or or longer and so let's see what happens because everything now that's in production falls under james gunn it's like when they took over james gunn and peter saffron when they took over dc uh that's when the flash the flash was still in post-production the uh the aquaman movie the second one was in post-production blue beetle and uh i think bad girl too oh no back i think that was before they came it could have been but whatever they took over other projects you know the batman and all that there they inherited those projects and you know that they had nothing to do with it so it's the same thing here. he's jeremy is not going to be involved with the man of tomorrow thing and all this here or the people versus gorilla god grod or uh uh dynamic duel you know that animated or stop-motion animated uh film with the two Robins that's supposed to come out. And so, yeah, we'll see. We'll see going forward. But I wish Peter Safran and James Gunn all the luck in the world, as well as Jeremy Latcham. Subscribe to the KBRadioNetwork.com website where you can be notified of new episodes dropping, as well as previous episodes you can go back and listen to. Don't forget about YouTube as well, where you can subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel and like this video while you're there. Don't forget about the five stars, the reviews and sharing this show. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, wherever you are currently listening to movie goodness here on the KB Radio Network. Everybody, thank you for joining me as we discuss the shakeup. Over there at DC Studios, Peter Safran and James Gunn has stepped down as CEOs of that studio division. And Jeremy Latcham will now take over as President and Chief Creative Officer. We'll see what DC has in store for us going forward. Everybody, I want you all to know that I love you. Continue to love everyone. Until we speak again, you all be blessed.
