DC's Kevin Feige May Have Been Found by Warner Bros.
DC Films might have just found its newest executive. On Thursday, reports indicated that former Warner Bros. executive-turned-producer Dan Lin is in talks to take on the top spot at DC, overseeing both film and television projects for the brand. This news comes after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger has led to some surprising decisions being made at DC, including the shocking cancellation of the studio's Batgirl movie, which was already in post-production but is instead being shelved for a tax write-down. After the Batgirl news was announced, it was confirmed that current DC Films president Walter Hamada wanted to transition out of the role, but would hypothetically be on board through the October release of Black Adam.
Todd Phillips, who helmed DC's 2019 Joker movie, was reportedly considered for the role by Warner Bros. Discovery executive David Zaslav, but is focusing instead on directing the upcoming Joker: Folie a Deux. According to The Hollywood Reporter, other names that were rumored to have been in contention were Amy Pascal, Matt Tolmach, Sean Bailey, and Greg Berlanti.
Lin is known for producing franchises such as It, Sherlock Holmes, and the LEGO movies. He also previously worked at Warner Bros., ultimately becoming the SVP of Production before leaving at 2007 to start his own production company, Rideback. As Variety reports, the biggest thing standing in the way of Lin taking the DC job would be projects that are in development at Rideback, including the live-action Lilo & Stitch remake at Disney, as well as a first-look deal with Universal Pictures. Lin's involvement in those productions would need to be "sorted" or "severed outright" in order for him to run DC.
Amid the cancellations of projects like Batgirl, a Wonder Twins movie, and a Strange Adventures anthology series, many have wondered what the long-term future of DC's projects will look like. As Zaslav revealed during a recent quarterly investor presentation, his goal is to create a ten-year plan for the overall franchise going forward.
"There will be a team with a 10-year plan focusing just on DC. It's very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together, very effectively, with Kevin Feige at Disney," Zaslav said at the time. "We think that we could build a long-term much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC. And as part of that, we're going to focus on quality. We're not going to release any film before it's ready. We're not going to release a film to make a quarter. We're not going to release a film unless the focus is going to be, 'How do we make each of these films in general as good as possible?' But DC is something that we think we could make better and we're focused on it now. We have some great DC films coming up — Black Adam, Shazam, and Flash – and we're working on all of those. We're very excited about them."
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h/t: Deadline