James Mangold’s New Paramount Deal Could Impact DC’s ‘Swamp Thing’
Swamp Thing might not be canceled, but the DC Studios project has had another blow delivered to its development. Its assigned writer/director James Mangold is going to be even busier now that he has signed a deal to make movies for the newly merged entity of Paramount-Skydance.
Deadline reports that the studio won “a highly competitive bidding war” for Mangold’s next film, High Side. The script is based on a short story by Jaime Olivera of a MotoGP racer, and will reunite Mangold with Timothée Chalamet, who played Bob Dylan for him in the Oscar nominee A Complete Unknown.
Paramount Pictures Co-Chairs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg offered their excitement. “James Mangold is one of the most talented filmmakers working today and we could not be more excited to welcome him to the Paramount family, starting with High Side and many more collaborations to come,” they said.
“I am very excited to begin this collaboration with David, Josh and Dana and everyone at Paramount. The enthusiasm they have demonstrated toward big screen films and the passion with which they have embraced my ideas for future projects is truly thrilling,” Mangold responded.
The beginning of this beautiful relationship between him and Paramount could put DC Studio’s tentative plans for Swamp Thing in even more jeopardy. This makes an unfavorable situation worse when the project has seen no tenable progress in the two years since it was announced.
It seemed as though studio chief James Gunn had quietly axed Swamp Thing over script issues. He was vague in his explanation and could’ve been talking about Sgt. Rock, The Authority, or The Brave and The Bold.
Regardless, all those projects are in limbo and their chances of getting made are fading fast at this point. Mangold has iterated his commitment to Swamp Thing and could make it a priority, if his schedule clears, but that might be too optimistic.
Gunn’s plans for his Gods and Monsters slate proved to be premature, and now he is headed down a detour with Man of Tomorrow and a messy “Superman Saga.” He is fine with this pivot according to his comments on a recent podcast appearance where he called the plan “very loose” and “basic.”
“When we first took over, I had written up what the first shows were supposed to be and then where the story eventually went. So we met with David Szaslav, who was the one that hired us, and we told him what the basic plan was,” Gunn told YMH Studios. “He was into that and we got hired. He was the only one that knew the plan but then we told Mike DeLuca and Pam Abdi and they were into it, and we also told Casey Bloys- who’s the head of HBO.”
“So we had a basic plan and then we hired a bunch of writers who I really respected, who came in and we kind of worked out the whole story. Now some things have changed since then for various reasons but the basic thrust of the big story is the same- that is, what started in Superman, continues in Peacemaker season 2 and then continues in the next Superman movie, and then will continue in the movie after that, and then after that. So there was always this bigger plan that we came up with,” he continued (via ComicBookMovie).
“It’s like a decade, maybe a little less. It’s very loose too. You have to be careful because there were certain projects that were part of that plan- because my other rule is that I’m not going to greenlight anything without having a screenplay that I love. And there were other things that haven’t worked yet. You have to be able and willing to have the big picture in mind but also be able to shift anytime you need to. So the pinpoints are the same but some of the specifics have changed.”
