Well, well, well, Geoff Johns MIGHT be getting his old job back

[Bored at 3:00AM]

So, a little background here for those you aren't aware of the rumor mill surrounding Geoff Johns stepping down as co-head of DC Films. The head honcho of Warner Bros. is a guy called Kevin Tsujihara. Apparently, he was the one who not only required Justice League to be under 2 hours long, but also refused to delay the movie after Zack Snyder dropped out and Henry Cavill was unable to shave off his mustache for reshoots. All of this led to a horribly rushed story with a completely underdeveloped villain, shoddy CGI and a Superman whose upper lip looked ridiculous for half the film. All of this was so that Tsujihara could get his bonus, which he did, even though his decisions led to millions of additional costs (8 million alone for Cavill's upper lip) and helped Justice League tank at the box office.

As a result, Geoff Johns was told to fall on his sword and stepped down from his executive role at DC. Since then, the Johns shepherded Aquaman made over a billion dollars at the box office and his Shazam is similarly tracking to be a giant success.

Well, things are not looking good for Kevin Tsujihara at the moment....

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/fe...onship-1192660

Now, this is Hollywood we're talking about so common sense and decency shouldn't even enter the equation, but it seems to me that whomever replaces Tsujihara as the new head of Warner Bros. might just look at Johns's track record and ask him to take his old job...if he even wants it. And, if he does, how will that effect the power balance at DC comics, which is currently breaking in its new head honcho. Her predecessor, Diane Nelson, was a big supporter of Geoff Johns.

Does anyone else think this is a possibility or do I have my tinfoil hat on again?

[DrNewGod]

IMO, too early to say.

On a tangent regarding the article: It's easy to see why conservatives get fed up with Hollywood, whose power figures love posing as progressives, and excoriating the privileged, and yet, meanwhile...

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I don't see why any of this would mean Geoff Johns would get his old job back, and quite frankly, I don't know that he should.

Geoff was involved in the production of some DC Films, but "Producer" in Hollywood can mean 30 different things. Stan Lee was "Executive Producer" of all the Marvel films, but he played absolutely no part in actually getting the movies made. It was an honorarium.

Now, I'm sure Geoff did more than Stan did when Johns was CCO, but I don't know if Johns is really any more invaluable to the process than, say, Joe Quesada is in his CCO role. When Feige got rid of Quesada, Perlmutter, and the rest of the Marvel Brain Trust on the movie side and isolated them to TV, things went along just fine.

Also, I don't know that Johns was made the fall guy because the producers of Justice League were Zach & Deborah Snyder, Geoff Johns, and Jon Berg. ALL are gone from DC Films -- not just Johns.

Berg and Johns had creative direction over the DC properties according to deadline.com (https://deadline.com/2017/12/jon-ber...ch-1202222300/), and both B & J now have producing/development deals with Warners, so they've been taken care of. There's no reason to bring either of them back.

[Krypto's Fleas]

I like Geoff Johns and thought he got the shaft after Justice League, but this is a super speculative thread. With the thread title, I thought there was at least some meat to the idea.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

On another note, anyone who hires Charlotte Kirk for their film is just asking for trouble.

She's been hooking up (see what I did there?) with various movers and shakers for years trying to get her career off the ground. She's not a "me-too" case. She specifically said that none of the guys did anything with her that she didn't agree to.

Kevin using his pull to get her auditions is as old as Hollywood itself. If Kevin goes, there should be lots more to follow. Otherwise, I don't know that Kevin should be thrown under the bus.

I also read the story about him wanting JL to premiere in 2017 to secure his bonus and the 2017 release date would be more advantageous vis-a-vis the AT&T takeover. Just as with Charlotte Kirk, he was wrong here, too, but again, I suspect he isn't the first Hollywood exec to structure movie releases to benefit his annual bonus. As much as we hate the results of Justice League, he hasn't been called on the carpet for that at all.

[caj]

To be honest, I'm not the least bit interested in the DC movies or the tv shows. None of the tv shows seem to want to be about classic comic stories and characters (the same could be said for the abysmal Riverdale, which is nothing more than using long-established comic book names whose characters in no way resemble the characters themselves).

All my life, I've wanted a Justice League of America live-action movie to be made. When they finally got around to it, the film consisted of a CGI Superman lip, a wonderful Wonder Woman, an old-fart Batman, a smart aleck jerk of a Flash, a clunky Cyborg (who does not belong in the JLA), no Green Lantern, Green Arrow, or Hawkman, and a surfer-dude Aquaman.

I'm not saying that all the tv shows and movies should reflect 1970s comics, but at least try to make the stories, characters, and actors reflect the history of whatever you're trying to do.

[CaptCleghorn]

So, a little background here for those you aren't aware of the rumor mill surrounding Geoff Johns stepping down as co-head of DC Films. The head honcho of Warner Bros. is a guy called Kevin Tsujihara. Apparently, he was the one who not only required Justice League to be under 2 hours long, but also refused to delay the movie after Zack Snyder dropped out and Henry Cavill was unable to shave off his mustache for reshoots. All of this led to a horribly rushed story with a completely underdeveloped villain, shoddy CGI and a Superman whose upper lip looked ridiculous for half the film. All of this was so that Tsujihara could get his bonus, which he did, even though his decisions led to millions of additional costs (8 million alone for Cavill's upper lip) and helped Justice League tank at the box office.

As a result, Geoff Johns was told to fall on his sword and stepped down from his executive role at DC. Since then, the Johns shepherded Aquaman made over a billion dollars at the box office and his Shazam is similarly tracking to be a giant success.

Well, things are not looking good for Kevin Tsujihara at the moment....

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/fe...onship-1192660

Now, this is Hollywood we're talking about so common sense and decency shouldn't even enter the equation, but it seems to me that whomever replaces Tsujihara as the new head of Warner Bros. might just look at Johns's track record and ask him to take his old job...if he even wants it. And, if he does, how will that effect the power balance at DC comics, which is currently breaking in its new head honcho. Her predecessor, Diane Nelson, was a big supporter of Geoff Johns.

Does anyone else think this is a possibility or do I have my tinfoil hat on again?

Superman vs Joker film starring Henry Cavill and Cesar Romero.

[Agent Z]

To be honest, I'm not the least bit interested in the DC movies or the tv shows. None of the tv shows seem to want to be about classic comic stories and characters (the same could be said for the abysmal Riverdale, which is nothing more than using long-established comic book names whose characters in no way resemble the characters themselves).

All my life, I've wanted a Justice League of America live-action movie to be made. When they finally got around to it, the film consisted of a CGI Superman lip, a wonderful Wonder Woman, an old-fart Batman, a smart aleck jerk of a Flash, a clunky Cyborg (who does not belong in the JLA), no Green Lantern, Green Arrow, or Hawkman, and a surfer-dude Aquaman.

I'm not saying that all the tv shows and movies should reflect 1970s comics, but at least try to make the stories, characters, and actors reflect the history of whatever you're trying to do.

They are reflecting that history. It just isn't a history you may like. The WW movie for instance combines the Perez run with elements of the Marston origin and the Arrow t.v. show borrows elements of the Longbow Hunters. Adaptations are not one-to-one reflections of the source material.

[Johnny]

Johns' input still seems to be all over the place(co-writer and producer for Aquaman, consultant and executive producer for Shazam, co-writer and executive producer for Wonder Woman 1984, writer/producer for Green Lantern Corps, not to mention his work on the DCU shows) so for all the blame he gets he seems to actually be the least punished individual by WB since he's still creatively involved with many of their movie properties. I think Johns never really cared all that much for the CCO position since he doesn't particularly strike me as a corporate guy at all, he's a fan-turned-creator. I don't think I see him in an executive position again whether Tsujihara steps down or not.

[Flash Gordon]

All I know is, he should be involved in AQUAMAN 2.

Everyone involved in making the AQUAMAN flick should be given all the keys for the sequel. Flick was dope.

[dswynne]

All I know is, he should be involved in AQUAMAN 2.

Everyone involved in making the AQUAMAN flick should be given all the keys for the sequel. Flick was dope.

I want Johns involved in the sequel to SHAZAM! After all, he is presently writing the comic on the aforementioned character...

[Kurisu]

Ugh, gross. Go away already!

[Castling]

Well, things are not looking good for Kevin Tsujihara at the moment....

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/fe...onship-1192660

I'm not sure how much trouble Tsujihara is actually in. He brought this issue with Kirk to his bosses back in 2017, and an investigation was done and they found no wrongdoing. I don't know what's changed. She's not a #MeToo case. She's a "I'll sleep my way to the top if I have to" case. If Tsujihara is guilty of anything it's being friends with Brett Ratner and making unethical promises during the heat of passion.

[Castling]

I want Johns involved in the sequel to SHAZAM! After all, he is presently writing the comic on the aforementioned character...

Apparently, elements from the comic (see Shazam #2) are coming to the films.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Does anyone else think this is a possibility or do I have my tinfoil hat on again?

It sure is possible, but I don't think it is at all probable.

The thing with Johns is that his multiiple roles (dc films, DC CCO, writer, unofficial EIC at Rebirth) all seemed pretty blurry. Add to that that the praises he received when his writing career took up quickly waned into mixed reactions (granted, most of those are the result of being a company guy, but the result is the same).

Now, Johns has been burned out for a while. The fact that he funded his own production company may indicate 2 things: That he wanted to secure his job having had these beefs with Tsujihara, and that he wanted to secure his job because of the AT&T acquisition (and maybe make some extra money out of it).

All in all, he now seems to be at peace and having a greater percentage of success than he was in the last ten years. He basically hacked DC structure and moved out of the way of back-office politics.

So he might not even want it.

Other than that, when new executives take such positions, they tend to not only want to make a lot of money but to leave their mark. It's very unlikely that a new exec would take a step back, instead of surfing the success wave and adjusting it to his liking.

So I'll go with probably not.

(That said: Johns has surfaced the corporate world better than any other comic-Pro outside of maybe Mark Millar and Jeph Loeb. So it's is possible, for sure)