In brutal news, James Gunn and Peter Safran have been ousted from DC Studios as part of the Skydance new
Probably the highest profile departures following Skydance’s completed takeover of Warner Bros? Well, you almost certainly know already: DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran’s tenure is over, even as Gunn remains in post-production on next summer’s Superman: Man Of Tomorrow.
The news pretty much came out of the blue last night, and in their place steps Marvel alumnus Jeremy Latcham. He’s the new president and chief creative officer of DC Studios. This all hits just after the modest success of Clayface at the box office and Lanterns earning solid notices on TV too.
James Gunn didn’t hang around to have his say on the defenestration. He hit Instagram pretty much as soon as the news landed, and it hardly sounded like he was weeping.
“I didn’t know if I wanted this job when it was offered to me”, he admitted, “but I just couldn’t pass up the unique opportunity. I’m glad I took the job.”
In amongst the highs he lists, as everyone else seemed to have noticed, he utterly snubbed last summer’s Supergirl film. And on page three of four on his post, he admits what comes as hardly a surprise. He write that “over the past four years … my time at DC Studios has been trying to say the least. I dislike the at-times corporate nature of the job.”
He cites his “ADHD hyperfocus” too as a reason he’s struggled to divide his time between projects, but also notes he’s “relieved and excited to get back to pure filmmaking.”
He’s got Superman: Man Of Tomorrow to finish and clearly will. He also talks about another DC project “which I’m writing” but it’d be a brave person to put money on that getting the greenlight now.
The official Skydance corporate approved statement from David Ellison (chairman and CEO) and Ynon Kreiz (co-CEO) reads:
“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. We’re grateful for their passion, contributions and commitment to this legendary brand. Jeremy has been a longtime creative partner to both, and we have complete confidence that James and Peter will ensure a smooth, collaborative transition and continue this work with care. We look forward to working with Jeremy to build the next generation of DC storytelling and to doubling down on our commitment to fans.”
Yeah.
The real story of all of this will come out in due course, but perhaps not until the second Superman film is firmly in the rear-view mirror.
A seismic change, though, not least by how suddenly it came about. More as we hear it. Expect details to be leaking out about this all week…