Warner Bros. has a superhero problem, not that this is news to any of you guys. Batman V. Superman wasn’t the booming success it should have been*, and tone is pegged as one of the issues (even though there’s chatter of Warners re-releasing the film in theaters with an R-rating to boost the box office gross).
Just last week there were reports of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad going back behind the camera to lighten up the dark, moody DC adaptation. The new direction is all but confirmed in a freshly launched trailer that drops the serious face and gets silly to “Ballroom Blitz” blasting in the foreground. It’s pretty great, even if I don’t like the idea of a studio toying with the tone of the film after the fact.
The new footage is jam-packed with zingers and action, tons of shots of Margot Robbie as the lovable Harley Quinn, and even finds time to reference the fear of Superman in Batman V. Superman.
Yes, Warner Bros. has a DC tone issue, and forcing a dark film to be more kid-friendly is walking on thin ice. I’ve always been an advocate of a film being the tone is needs to be, and not pigeon-holed one way or another. Suicide Squad is a dark, adult storyline that should be targeted as so. It’ll be interesting to see how much the studio over-reacted when it opens in theaters on August 5th.
The insane cast includes Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adam Beach, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Karen Fukuhara, Jim Parrack, Ike Barinholtz, Common, Scott Eastwood, David Harbour, Corina Calderon, Alex Meraz, Raymond Olubowale, with Ben Affleck returning as Batman.
*Gross box office doesn’t account for the theaters’ take and massive marketing costs that more than often are equal to the film’s budget (Batman V. Superman is listed at $250 million). You can do the math.