Posted in: HBO, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: constantine, dcu, hbo max, jj abrams, justice league dark

Constantine "On Solid Ground and Moving Along" at HBO Max: Report

Well, it looks like we have a late update regarding HBO Max and its upcoming DCU slate. Earlier today, we reported how Kevin Smith offered an update on how his involvement with EP Greg Berlanti's DC's Strange Adventures, as well as how things were looking with it and the Finn Wittrock-starring "Green Lantern" series (it wasn't good). Now, Deadline Hollywood's "The Dish" is offering an update on one of the DCU projects under J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot. Recent reports say WBD President & CEO David Zaslav and his team weren't too thrilled with how the WBD's deal with Abrams has been handled. In particular, the "Justice League Dark" project would include individual series for Madame X (with Angela Robinson) as well as a new Constantine series. According to "The Dish," the dark reboot (written by British writer Guy Bolton) is reportedly "on solid ground and moving along," with the project "set around a diverse lead" (following Matt Ryan's 2014 NBC series run & The CW's Arrowverse; and Keanu Reeves' 2005 film).

Speaking with his co-host Ralph Garman about the controversy surrounding the recent run of HBO Max decision during the latest episode of Hollywood Babble-On, Smith revealed that he and Eric Carrasco were tapped about two years ago to write an episode of "Strange Adventures" that would've focused on the secret origin of Bizarro and feature Jimmy Olsen & Perry White. Smith goes on the describe how the episode would play out (definitely worth a listen because it sounds great) and reveals that they wanted to approach Nicolas Cage to play Bizarro. During the conversation, we also learned that the series was meant to serve as an anthology series to introduce DCU characters that weren't Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman. The Warner Bros team in charge at the time was apparently willing to spend $16-$20M per episode and had creative team pairings working up scripts to submit to make up the first season. But then Smith dropped the hammer, revealing that he was given a heads-up by Carrasco ("'Strange Adventures' is officially dead") that the project wasn't moving forward. And then, though he admits he doesn't know it for a fact, Smith is pretty much feeling that it's the same thing for the "Green Lantern" series. Here's a look at the clip:

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