DC's Metal Men Animated Film in the Works

[MenacingMonk]

A movie based on DC's Metal Men is in the works.

According to THR, the animated feature is being tackled by Ron Clements and John Musker, of Moana, Hercules, The Princess and the Frog and The Little Mermaid and Aladdin fame, along with Space Jam: A New Legacy's Celeste Ballard. Clements and Musker wrote the treatment and are expected to helm the Warner Animation Group project.

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Created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru, the Metal Men debuted in 1962's Showcase #37. The group consists of robots based on various types of metal -- Gold, Iron, Mercury, Tin, Platinum, Lead, Copper, etc. -- each of whom was designed by Dr. William Magnus.

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After several appearances in Showcase, the Metal Men received their own ongoing title in 1963 and ran for 56 issues. After the title was canceled, the characters would appear in such books as The Brave and the Bold and DC Comics Presents.

The Metal Men returned for a four-issue miniseries in the 199os and featured in Infinite Crisis in the 2000s. Like the rest of the DC Universe, the characters were rebooted for the New 52, and they received a 12-issue limited series as part of Rebirth in 2019.

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"We pretty much read everything that came before," writer and former DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio told CBR prior to the 2019 series' launch. "I've always been a big fan of the Metal Men, and I'm always watching things and following along. I've watched the multiple interpretations that we've done. Aside from Geoff, there were the stories Keith Giffen did as a backup in the Doom Patrol book, and we add some of that in. And we went back and looked at the Duncan Rouleau material, also when Francis Manapul did some redesigns and when Len Wein did some writing. The goal was to find the core conceit at the heart of the characters so we could contextualize all those different takes around one idea. Then we'd take that single idea and push it forward."


It's currently unclear if the Metal Men movie will connect to any of DC's other seemingly intertwined animated features, such as the upcoming Catwoman: Hunted, Green Lantern: Beware My Power or Battle of the Super Sons.

DC's Metal Men Film in the Works From Moana, Little Mermaid Animators

This is the movie DC shoulda countered with to match up with GOTG. Don't know why they didn't do it.

Would like to see a live action one, but it would rely on CGI heavily. The characters are underrated and I try to check for MM stuff when I come across it.

 

[Mr. Negative]

you know what would be crack

If DC animated the entirety of the storyline from Identity Crisis to Final Crisis, including all of the tie ins and put it out as a 4 season set of series. They already got Under The Red Hood done.

I only thought about this cause I was wondering which Will Magnus we gonna get, the sorta powerless Reed Richards one or the " nah I ain't took my meds today, why do you ask" one

 

[ForeverLurking]

Was literally wondering why they don't make an animated series on MM the other day. They had some pretty funny shorts.

Glad to see DC pushing forward on projects for lesser-known characters, there's so damn many on their roster if done right

 

[parallax]

Im here for this. Im really suprised how little the metal men have been used in the media altogetherl

you know what would be crack

If DC animated the entirety of the storyline from Identity Crisis to Final Crisis, including all of the tie ins and put it out as a 4 season set of series. They already got Under The Red Hood done.

I only thought about this cause I was wondering which Will Magnus we gonna get, the sorta powerless Reed Richards one or the " nah I ain't took my meds today, why do you ask" one

Naw. Identity crisis needs to be either forgotten, or under a listing of "how not to do events" next to bloodlines, civil war, and amazingly civil war 2

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Was literally wondering why they don't make an animated series on MM the other day. They had some pretty funny shorts.

Glad to see DC pushing forward on projects for lesser-known characters, there's so damn many on their roster if done right

They don’t really have a choice in the matter as they’re running out of source material for animated film adaptations involving Batman and Superman.

 

[ForeverLurking]

They don’t really have a choice in the matter as they’re running out of source material for animated film adaptations involving Batman and Superman.

So high I didn't realize this is an animated film. Either way, it's still good to see the spotlight given to another lesser-known property. And nah, they still have plenty more Batman stories they can adapt, and that's the problem.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

So high I didn't realize this is an animated film. Either way, it's still good to see the spotlight given to another lesser-known property. And nah, they still have plenty more Batman stories they can adapt, and that's the problem.

Other animated films not involving Batman or Superman don’t really sell like that, so that’s why they mainly get the film adaptations or try and squeeze them into other films (JL Dark for example).

They have stories with those characters they can adapt, but they’re out of source material of those characters that people will be hyped to watch and that can sell like that. It doesn’t help matters that they dropped the ball badly with Injustice while pissing people off in the process.

 

[MenacingMonk]

They don’t really have a choice in the matter as they’re running out of source material for animated film adaptations involving Batman and Superman.

They have over 150 years of stories between the 2. They’re far from running out of ideas.

DC should throw me the bag when I finally make it in the industry.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

They have over 150 years of stories between the 2. They’re far from running out of ideas.

DC should throw me the bag when I finally make it in the industry.

Hyped stories that people would actually want to watch hence them using Injustice. Just because you have years of stories to choose from doesn't mean that people actually want to watch them especially considering that a lot of those stories are flops and trash that didn't sell or can't be made into film adaptations for various reasons.

 

[Jello Biafra]

They don’t really have a choice in the matter as they’re running out of source material for animated film adaptations involving Batman and Superman.

They will just insert Batman and Superman as central figures in stories that really didn't involve them like they did with Batman and Justice league Dark.

 

[Jello Biafra]

you know what would be crack

If DC animated the entirety of the storyline from Identity Crisis to Final Crisis, including all of the tie ins and put it out as a 4 season set of series. They already got Under The Red Hood done.

I only thought about this cause I was wondering which Will Magnus we gonna get, the sorta powerless Reed Richards one or the " nah I ain't took my meds today, why do you ask" one

I hated the execution of Identity Crisis but the idea is a really good one.
Its just that to do Identity Crisis the way Meltzer did it required a lot of retconning established history and making characters behave wildly out of character.
As an Elseworlds tale it would've been fine but for them to try and make it part of the primary DCU was just dumb.

Also I think the 'Crisis' book that should be made first should be Crisis On Infinite Earths which could include every DC animated universe from from Bruce Timm's stuff to the Super Friends.

 

[AquaCityBoy]

It's cool, but the Metal Men don't sell.

Their last series barely got saved from cancellation, and even then it was constantly delayed.

 

[MenacingMonk]

Hyped stories that people would actually want to watch hence them using Injustice. Just because you have years of stories to choose from doesn't mean that people actually want to watch them especially considering that a lot of those stories are flops and trash that didn't sell or can't be made into film adaptations for various reasons.

Do you know how dumb this reads?

You get people interested by making sure the stories are worth investing time in. DC hasn’t even done the Earthquake saga for Batman. That’s at least a 2-3 part movie. The War Games story with the mob is another solid one.

People didn’t give a fukk about Iron Man, but Marvel was able to make him a top tier guy in their movies.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Do you know how dumb this reads?

You get people interested by making sure the stories are worth investing time in. DC hasn’t even done the Earthquake saga for Batman. That’s at least a 2-3 part movie. The War Games story with the mob is another solid one.

People didn’t give a fukk about Iron Man, but Marvel was able to make him a top tier guy in their movies.

That's not how it works in the DC animated universe breh where the films go straight to DVD and digital release

They already don't make that much money from those films anyways, so they typically don't take risks in stories that they don't think will sell. It's exactly the reason why it took years for WW to get a follow up solo film as her first one flopped. It's also the reason why GL hasn't gotten one in years either.

This isn't Disney+ breh and never has been at all.

 

[MenacingMonk]

That's not how it works in the DC animated universe breh where the films go straight to DVD and digital release

They already don't make that much money from those films anyways, so they typically don't take risks in stories that they don't think will sell. It's exactly the reason why it took years for WW to get a follow up solo film as her first one flopped. It's also the reason why GL hasn't gotten one in years either.

This isn't Disney+ breh and never has been at all.

I don’t even know what your reply has to do with what I’m saying: there’s plenty of source material to use.

As for your unrelated reply: Don’t forget they put out boring shyt like WW Bloodlines and JL Dark, and fukked up Killing Joke and Hush. I don’t know why you’re trying to say things won’t sell when they put out that crap in the first place, thinking it would sell.

But that’s not what I’m arguing, so please don’t push this topic further.