Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: blackhawks, movies, Warner Bros

David Koepp Talks Steven Spielberg's Blackhawk Movie

Published Sat, 26 Mar 2022 15:27:09 -0500

The DC universe is all about announcing movies that never get any sort of traction, only to get quietly canceled years down the line. If you go on Wikipedia and look through all of the announced DC projects, you'll be surprised at how many are there that no one has even talked about in many years. Some of those projects have massive names attached to them, and one of those projects is Blackhawk. An adaptation was announced back in 2018 with the legendary Steven Spielberg set to direct. One would think that sort of name standing behind their movie, Warner Bros., would do whatever they needed to get this movie off the ground, but that doesn't appear to be the case. We have heard virtually nothing about the project ever since. Collider recently got the chance to sit down and talk to screenwriter David Koepp and asked him if he could talk about the project at all.

We have a script that's very good and we all think it's very good. There were a lot of management changes at Warner Bros, so I think we've just been kind of waiting for that to settle down.and for them to decide what they want to do with their DC Universe. Obviously I hope he does it or if he doesn't direct it, I hope he produces it, someone great directs. Because it would be a great deal of fun. I'm very fond of the script and I hope it comes together. But again, that's one of those movies that's gonna need $200 million so, trying to get those whales off the beach is a big process.

Blackhawk #14 (Quality, 1947), cover by Reed Crandall.

Whether or not Blackhawk would be connected to any other DC property or in the universe at all is something to keep in mind. Koepp was asked if it would connect to any other DC property, and he seemed to think that it wouldn't mostly be coming back to the fact that it's going to be a period piece that takes back in the 1940s.

No, and it would be hard because it's 1941 or 1940, actually. So it would be a little tricky. As we were developing the script, we said "Hey, let's make one great movie. It's 1940, that's the way it is." And if it works out and in the future they decide they want to unite anybody, I'm sure time travel will not be a problem. Because comic books have a great way of figuring that stuff out. "We need Wonder Woman to be there!" Fine. Well, then she can, because of the 'Prometheus Portal'. I'm like "what's the Prometheus Portal." "You don't know about the Prometheus Portal?"

If we're being honest, now is probably the time for a Blackhawk movie to become a reality. In 2018, the idea of an interconnected universe was the direction that DC was heading. However, in the intervening years, they are much more likely to let writers and directors just sort of go off and do their own thing and say, "it's in a different universe, don't worry about it." It's a freedom that Spielberg and Koepp probably needed to make this movie really work, and the mindset of the DC universe in 2022 seems much better suited to Blackhawk than the DC universe of 2018.

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