As you know, Edge Of Tomorrow director Doug Liman is currently gearing up to take on Dark Universe (reminder: this is what WB's calling the Justice League Dark movie), and from the sound of things, he's feeling very confident that he'll deliver something memorable.
In a new interview with IGN, Liman says ... well, look, I'll just let him do the talking:
"...you know when Warner Bros. wants to sort of turn the comic book genre on its head, they call me.
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. It is exactly what I should be doing, but I’m just so grateful that -- 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."
To recap: Dark Universe will turn the superhero genre on its head and will absolutely not be conventional. Not on Doug Liman's watch.
Look, it would be easy to look at the above and say, "Y'know, that Doug Liman seems a little full of himself", but here's the thing: maybe Doug Liman's earned a little ego at this point. Edge Of Tomorrow is no-shit one of the best sci-fi summer blockbusters of the past decade, Liman launched the Bourne series back in 2002 (and has stayed on as a producer ever since), and he's got multiple high-profile projects in the works as we speak (including Luna Park, which will star Tom Cruise as a guy breaking into the moon). I'm not sure I think Doug Liman is as unconventional as Doug Liman believes himself to be, but I usually enjoy watching his movies, so let's let him have this one.
Dark Universe, by the way, is still a ways off: Liman won't get to it before Luna Park. We'll keep you informed as the updates roll in.