A planned movie about the DC Comics characters, the Super Twins, has been shelved, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film was supposed to begin production in July, according to THR sources, with KJ Apa of Riverdale and Isabel May from 1883 starring as Zan and Jayna, the teenage alien brothers with strange powers that they activate by touching each other. (Zan can turn into water in any state, and Jayna can turn into any animal) The movie was planned to go straight to streaming on HBO Max.
Insiders told THR that the film broke two new rules imposed by the new leadership of the newly merged media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery. The first was that movies based on DC Comics characters should aim for theatrical releases. This is consistent with Puck’s reports that the film from Batgirl this year may be heading to theaters, after being slated for a premiere on HBO Max. But a Wonder Twins was considered too “niche” for this option.
The second rule is that HBO Max original films must maintain a production budget of around $35 million, while the Super Twins movie had a budget of $75 million. This is considered too expensive for the task of simply retaining subscribers, when big-budget theatrical releases such as The Batman can still make a big impact on HBO Max after their theatrical window ends.
Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that the new CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, is cleaning the studio house, questioning decision-making and canning expensive productions without prejudice. Zaslav shut down the CNN Plus streaming service after just one month of operation. This report attributed the Wonder Twins movie cut directly to him.
The decision may seem implacable, but it’s hard to disagree that the Super Twins are second-tier characters. They were first created for the 1970s animated TV series The All-New Super Friends Hour and were not introduced into the DC Comics universe until the mid-1990s. Super Gemini was supposed to be written and directed by Adam Sztykiel, who has a screenwriting credit on this year’s Black Adam starring Dwayne Johnson.
This article is a translation of the article written by Oli Welsh to the website Polygon.
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