So, I Had An Idea For DC (They Can Have It For Free)....

I realize I might be late to the party on this one (probably a side effect of not previously caring), but I was looking at my usual news sources earlier this week and came across the announcement that Jesse Eisenberg would be playing Lex Luthor in the much discussed Man of Steel sequel, Revenge of the Steel. The internet collectively had an epileptic seizure....a lot like when the story broke that Ben Affleck would be playing Batman. Then there was that hissy fit people threw when Motorcycle Girl from the Fast and Furious movies was casted as Wonder Woman ....and when sources hinted that Doomsday and Nightwing might make an appearance....or when the rumors went out that the Rock MIGHT be playing Green Lantern....or when rumor had it that Denzel Washington MIGHT be playing Green Lantern. Long story short: for a sequel to a movie that was hated just as much as it was loved (I'm in the "love" column, by the way) and hasn't even gone into pre production yet, people have certainly found themselves very emotionally invested with every step of the process.

Then, I wondered to myself about marketing. Now, I am not a promotional genius by any stretch of the imagination, but you know what would be a interesting (though not necessarily good) way to compete with Marvel's "Cineverse"? Since the public pretty much lost its shit at the mere announcement of Batman and Superman being in the same movie together, what if DC just kept doing that? Think about it. Over the years, DC has proven themselves to be a pony of few tricks (depending on how many they can successfully borrow from Marvel in attempts to be them), so it would stand to reason that if their readers are entertained by that set of logistics in their comics, they could get away with doing it with movies as well. They could totally get away with leaking alleged "details" about POSSIBLE casting choices and scripting concepts that may or may not even actually be in play.

And the greatest thing about it would be they wouldn't actually have to commit to any of these ideas because that wouldn't actually be the point. The point would be to get the nerds talking about it. See, the thing about us nerds is that even when we hate stuff, we'll discuss it into the dirt. Seriously, ask any real comic nerd to list all the things they found wrong with Green Lantern. They'll write you a book longer than War and Peace. Even if they were completely indifferent to Green Lantern, you could probably get a ten page essay just on that. That said, if you get the fans talking about the movie, whether they had any initial interest in seeing it in the first place, just start throwing about names and possible plots. We'll all start writing the movie in our heads and deciding whether the movie we just "wrote" sucks or not. And then most of us will go see the movie, but not because we're invested in the characters, but because we want to know whether we're right or wrong. If the movie sucks, it's got our money. If the movie's awesome, it's got our money and then more money from dvd sales and comic tie-ins. In other words, we'll have fallen for the trap.

I'm not sure, but I might be onto something. DC should totally give this a shot.