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Dark Universe director Doug Liman promises an ‘unconventional’ superhero movie

Director Doug Liman has spoken briefly about his upcoming project ‘Dark Universe’ (otherwise known as ‘Justice League Dark’), and while he doesn’t reveal much, he seems sure it won’t be your average comic book yarn.

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The ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ and ‘The Bourne Identity’ director tells IGN, “I love those characters, and I love Warner Bros., and I love [producer] Scott Rudin, and it’s – and you know, I get asked to come in and do things that are ‘unconventional.’

“If people want conventional, they don’t come to me… And so you know when Warner Bros. wants to sort of turn the comic book genre on its head, they call me.”

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As the title might suggest, ‘Dark Universe’ centres on an alliance of the more macabre heroes of the DC comics pantheon, including John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Zatanna and Deadman. Liman was brought on board after original director, the notoriously busy Guillermo del Toro (who worked on the first draft of the screenplay), vacated the project.

Nor is this the only comic book movie Liman has been involved with, as he had for a time been attached to direct 20th Century Fox’s ‘X-Men’ spin-off ‘Gambit,’ before exiting the troubled project over creative differences. (No replacement director has been announced yet.)

Liman wryly notes that he’s more or less typecast now as a director who will go against the grain:

“It’s like how do you fundamentally reinvent what people are doing? And that’s the good and the bad news of this sort of box I’ve been put in. I mean, you’d think it was by design, but it wasn’t…

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“You know, sometimes I’m working on a project and I pitch an idea that’s too conventional, and the producers will say back to me ‘That’s not Doug Liman enough.’ Which is like a weird thing, because I’m like ‘Well that – it was my idea! How can you say it’s not me?’

“And they’re like ‘No, because when we think of you, we think of like, you know – that just seems too ordinary.’ So even if I wanted to be a little bit more conventional, like, the system doesn’t want me to be.”

Liman also teases that a follow-up to his Tom Cruise/Emily Blunt sci-fi movie ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ is in the pipeline, which he grandly declares will “revolutionise how people make sequels.”

No release date has been set for ‘Dark Universe’ yet.

Picture Credit: DC, WENN