Charles Roven has been producing DC Comics movies for a long time, since 2005 with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins. Since then he’s produced every other DC movie — from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to Justice League.
Roven was originally going to produce every movie in the DC Films universe, including Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg. But in May we learned that Roven’s role was reduced as Warner Bros. shuffled its executives around. Roven explained that change and more in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, who named him 2016’s Producer of the Year.
There was talk you’d step away from DC Films to some degree.
The studio made me the producer of all the DC movies, and they announced eight. When we finished the [timetable], we looked at each other and said, “This is incredibly ambitious, but we haven’t taken into consideration if something goes wrong.” We also hadn’t decided where we were going to shoot those movies. As difficult as it was for me to commute from Toronto to London to Italy, it became really clear I couldn’t do the job that I do as a producer [with Aquaman likely to shoot in Australia]. I’m for sure producing the sequels of the movies that I have made.
How are Justice League and Wonder Woman going to be different?
Wonder Woman is an origination story, so the whole dynamic and the plot moves are different than other DC movies. There’s also a great relationship between her and the guy [played by Chris Pine] who crash-lands on her island and is the trigger mechanism for her going back to man’s world.
What about Justice League?
We knew we were making a very serious, compelling, driving film with Batman v. Superman. Now the bell has been rung and the whole tone of the movie is lighter.
If there is a sequel to Batman v. Superman or Suicide Squad, will the budgets be lower? They made less than the studio had hoped.
Suicide Squad made almost $750 million. Batman v. Superman did $873 million. Those two movies were huge hits.
SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter
