Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has been searching for his very own Kevin Feige to head up the DC franchise, and he may have found the man for the job. THR reported that Dan Lin, who has produced movies such as Sherlock Holmes, The LEGO Movie, It, and Aladdin, is in talks to take over DC Films.
Walter Hamada, the current head of DC Films, was close to leaving earlier this month after he was blindsided by David Zaslav’s decision to shelve the Batgirl movie. Should Dan Lin’s deal close, he would take control of not just DC Films, but every DC television project as well. He would report directly to Zaslav, bypassing the heads of Warner Bros. Pictures (Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy), HBO/HBO Max (Casey Bloys), and Warner Bros. TV (Channing Dungey). Former Disney CCO Alan Horn (who was president of Warner Bros. from 1999-2012) is a consultant for Warner Bros. and is said to be Dan Lin’s “champion” for the DC Films gig. Lin started his career working for Warner Bros. under Alan Horn.
David Zaslav has big plans for the DC Universe. During Warner Bros. Discovery’s second-quarter earnings call, Zaslav claimed that they’ve done a reset of the DC Universe and have a ten-year plan in the works.
You look at Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman — these are brands that are known everywhere in the world. We have done a reset. We’ve restructured the business where we are going to focus, where there is going to be a team with a ten-year plan focusing just on DC. We believe we can build a much more sustainable business.
The Warner Bros. Discovery CEO hopes that the new DC Universe can use the structure of the MCU as an inspiration. “It’s very similar to the structure Alan Horn, Bob Iger and Kevin Feige put together very effectively at Disney,” Zazlav said. “We think we can build a much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC. As part of that, we are going to focus on quality. We are not going to release any film before it’s ready … DC is something we can make better.” Warner Bros. hasn’t exactly been getting the best press lately thanks to their cost-cutting measures, but hopefully Dan Lin will be a good thing for DC.