DC Films Have Found Their President In IT & Conjuring Producer

IMAGE VIA WARNER BROS/ DC FILM

You’ve probably heard the news by now but just in case, Warner Bros announced yesterday Walter Hamada will become president of DC-Based Film Production.

This basically WB have found their “Kevin Feige/ Kathleen Kennedy” to be the person responsible for all the upcoming DC Comics-based films and will work closely with DC Entertainment and Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Johns.

IMAGE VIA JOE SCARNICI/ WIREIMAGE

No doubt you don't know who the hell Hamada is, but he’s the man behind New Line Cinema’s horror success with The Conjuring universe turning an $82 million budget for all four movies into a $1.2 billion super profit. He also worked on last summer’s smash hit IT and grossed close to $700 million on a $35 million budget.

As you can see with those numbers alone he’s a brilliant producer and businessman something that was missing in from the DCU and with Johns as more as a resource then a co-partner this could be the beginning of righting the ship after years going through stormy seas captainless.

“Walter is creative, resourceful, and committed to excellence, and will bring those qualities to his oversight of our superhero films,” said WB President Toby Emmerich. “He’s a terrific production executive and served as an executive producer on two of the summer’s most popular films, New Line’s ‘IT’ and ‘Annabelle: Creation.

“I’m confident Walter and Geoff, working with our filmmaking partners, will deliver films that will resonate with both broad global audiences as well as DC fanboys and fangirls. Walter’s a great addition to the Warner Bros. Pictures team, and I look forward to working with him in his new post” added Emmerich.

Another thing which should give fans some excitement is he’s worked with Aquaman director James Wan on the two Conjuring films, so we should expect Wan will be able to edit and release the film he wants fans and audiences to see on December 21. Hamada has recently been working with Shazam! helmer David F. Sandberg and insiders told The Hollywood Reporters that Emmerich was impressed with his overseeing of the project.

Meanwhile, Emmerich and Hamada worked together and have a close relationship whilst they were both at New Line and I think this is Toby bringing in someone he can trust as well as using his record to prove he’ll be the right guy and I’m sure Wan had a word or two.

Don’t expect any massive news to come out and with anything behind the scenes at studios with moves like this was made before the end of 2017 probably around the same time as the movement of former DC Films co-chiefs Jon Berg and Johns.

Welcome aboard, Walter!! Thrilled to be working with you! It’s been a blast on Shazam! — now it’s off to the rest of the DCU! (And get a twitter account!) https://t.co/qAGAWzWxWP

— Geoff Johns (@geoffjohns) 4 January 2018

However, there does seem to be some minor changes happening now with the name of the universe as the never official name DCEU has been thrown away and judging from Johns’ tweet the rebranded official name is simply DCU. So expect to see that being used during interviews with stars, directors and producers and the sentence “the DC Films production…” will be used in US trades like THR and Variety & film websites/blogs.

Just so everyone understands:

DCU = Name of Shared Universe like MCU

DC Films = Name of Production like Marvel Studios

Elsewhere, it looks like Hamada will continue with the current crop of talent and productions going and also keep the things that work, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Henry Cavill’s Superman etc, whilst getting rid of the dead wood like the millions of rumoured films in production.

I wouldn’t do a new slate announcement after announcing the same slate at both San Diego Comic Con and Brazil Comic-Con, but hoping they’re getting a Superman film starring Cavill in the works ASAP and something on Matt Reeves’ Batman film.

IMAGE VIA CLAY ENOS/ WARNER BROS

In the statement, it said Walter will be drawing resources from both WB and New Line, so I could see Warner’s sister company handling the lower budgeted DCU films like Shazam!, Black Adam and then add Justice League Dark, Deathstroke and the Joker Elsewhere film.

Finally, I wanted to add good luck to Walter Hamada and as a fan of the DCU and the previous films, I’m looking forward to seeing his track record coming to this universe.