Almost two years have passed since it was announced that James Mangold would be writing and directing the DC Comics adaptation Swamp Thing… but we haven’t gotten many updates on that project, because Mangold has been busy working on things like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and A Complete Unknown, and developing the Star Wars prequel Dawn of the Jedi. Mangold has been doing the press rounds for A Complete Unknown lately, and MovieWeb was able to get a fresh quote about Swamp Thing about him. A quote where he says he sees the project, which is part of the DC Universe that producers James Gunn and Peter Safran are building with the likes of Creature Commandos, Superman, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Clayface, Sgt. Rock, and The Brave and the Bold, as a standalone horror movie.
Mangold said, “With other kinds of IP, it gets to a religious level. While I’m sure DC views Swamp Thing as a franchise, I would be viewing it as a very simple, clean, Gothic horror movie about this man/monster… Just doing my own thing with this, just a standalone.” This is very similar to a quote Mangold gave to Variety a year and a half ago, so at least we know he has a consistent vision for Swamp Thing.
Mangold says he had been thinking of making “a kind of Frankenstein movie” for years, so when he heard that James Gunn and Peter Safran were taking control of the DC Comics adaptations at Warner Bros., he put in a call to suggest himself for the job of making Swamp Thing. While Swamp Thing is part of the first wave of DC movies Gunn and Safran are overseeing – as they call it, “Chapter One: Gods and Monsters” – the project still doesn’t have a release date, and it’s not clear when it’s expected to go into production.
Are you looking forward to seeing what James Mangold does with Swamp Thing? What do you think of the fact that he sees it as a standalone horror movie? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
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