Looks like changes are underway and DC Entertainment is finally moving forward with its plans and getting things in order. Today, DC Comics announced changes to its executive management structure including the promotions of Editor-In-Chief Dan Didio to Co-Publisher with Jim Lee as well as naming Geoff Johns to the position of Chief Creative Officer. This announcement follows the departure of publisher Paul Levitz, who stepped down in September of 2009.

The full details from a press release posted on DC’s The Source blog are reprinted below.

Jim Lee and Dan DiDio Named Co-Publishers DC Comics
Geoff Johns to Serve as Chief Creative Officer

John Rood Named EVP, Sales, Marketing and Business Development

Patrick Caldon Named EVP, Finance and Administration

(February 18, 2010 – New York, NY and Burbank, CA) DC Entertainment, founded in September 2009 to unleash the power of the DC Comics library of characters across all media platforms, has named its executive management team, including new co-publishers of DC Comics and a Chief Creative Officer, as well as heads of Sales/Marketing/Business Development and Finance/Administration. Diane Nelson, President, DC Entertainment, made the announcement today.

The new senior executive team includes Jim Lee and Dan DiDio, who have been named Co-Publishers of DC Comics, and Geoff Johns, who will serve as Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment. Additionally, John Rood has been named Executive Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Business Development, and Patrick Caldon will serve as Executive Vice President, Finance and Administration. Each of these executives will report directly to Nelson.

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Principle photography for DC and Warner’s newest superhero flick, Green Lantern, starts up this month. With that, we’re expecting to see lots of news on the casting front of the film. On that note, Heat Vision is reporting that Academy Award-winning actor Tim Robbins will be joining the cast.

Robbins is set to play Senator Hammond, the father of the film’s villain Hector Hammond, played by Peter Sarsgaard. The role will be mostly supporting, but with a name like Robbins filling the shoes, we can expect it to be longer than 30 seconds.

Robbins will join an already hearty cast of Ryan Reynolds, Sarsgaard, Blake Lively, and a rumored Mark Strong as Sinestro. Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) is taking on the task of directing, and he’s already reassured the easily irritable fan community by stating that most of the film will take place off-planet.

Last week, some interesting concept art got leaked online, and may have given us a first glimpse of what the rest of the Green Lantern Corps could look like. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as more information on the film comes our way.

On Wednesday, there was a collective sigh of both disappointment and confusion when Peter Saarsgard was announced as Dr. Hector Hammond, the villain in the upcoming Green Lantern film, starring opposite Ryan Reynolds. The idea of Saarsgard as a villain was definitely a fun one, but the fans of the franchise wanted Sinestro, and we didn’t understand why we weren’t getting him.

It seems like we all just needed to wait a few hours, as DC and Warner Bros. have stated that they will be including Sinestro in the film, and they only have one actor in mind to play him: Jackie Earl Haley. The folks over at Hitfix did some legwork and uncovered Warner’s plan for the character.

With Sinestro, don’t expect him to stroll in and suddenly be pure evil in this film.  And don’t expect him to be onscreen for the entire movie.  But unless something drastically changes, he is in the film.  And I’m hearing that based on the relationship they have with him from “Watchmen” and “A Nightmare On Elm Street,” Jackie Earle Haley is the only choice for Sinestro by the studio.

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Hollyscoop has reported on a rumor going around that 2009 Grammy winner Taylor Swift is in talks to put on the blue and red costume in an upcoming remake/reboot of the 1984 film Supergirl, that once starred Helen Slater and Faye Dunaway. Their sources say that Warner Bros. is looking to create a new film, and/or possibly a TV series, for the character, despite the original film being a financial failure.

Since this is merely a rumor as of now, the more interesting part was what the source’s said about the scarcity of female superheroes at the moment, “Hollywood is short of female heroes and the time is right for a new Supergirl.” This part seems logical enough – despite the mandate from a couple years ago when studio head Jeff Rubinox supposedly said, “Warner Bros. will no longer feature movies with female leads.”

This comes after a number of financial flops featuring some of the biggest female names in acting (Jodie Foster, Nicole Kidman, and Hilary Swank all from 2007 in The Brave One, The Invasion, and The Reaping, respectively). However, this may be shown to be false by the number of movies released since 2007 with leads that are women, such as Sex in the City, Whiteout, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 along with the 2011 Zack Snyder film, Sucker Punch and the Sex in the City sequel. So take that as you will.

Taylor Swift, who will next be appearing in February’s Valentine’s Day (along with most of Hollywood), has only other acting credit to date; an episode of CBS’s CSI. What do you think about the idea of a new Supergirl movie, and/or with Taylor Swift in the role?

International Creative Management (ICM) has started zeroing in on the comic industry’s more notable assets, with the announcement of signing writer Grant Morrison. Being one of the world’s largest talent and literary agencies, ICM already boasts an impressive list of clients such as actors Jodie Foster and Al Pacino, director Woody Allen, television personality Ellen DeGeneres, author Patricia Cornwell and musician Beyoncé, to name a few.

As detailed by The Hollywood Reporter, Morrison has 20 years under his belt, penning fan-favorite works like JLA, X-Men, Doom Patrol and the current Batman and Robin. The spotlight has shined on him even more lately thanks to his ‘Batman: R.I.P.’ and Final Crisis projects, and the gaming world got a dose of Morrison thanks to his classic Arkham Asylum: A Serious Place On Serious Earth graphic novel that became the inspiration for the hit video game Batman: Arkham Asylum.

The newly formed DC Entertainment also counts on Morrison’s contributions and consulting as their goal of emulating Marvel Studios’ approach to comic movies intensifies. Other notable comic creators under ICM’s management are Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and legendary artist Neal Adams, who signed with them in August.

General Zod is one of those characters that has an interesting back story in the Superman franchise. The character was originally created in 1961 by Roger Bernstein and George Papp, but didn’t become remotely as popular as when portrayed by Terence Stamp in Superman I & II. Since then, each reincarnation of the character has only been a monument to that role. Until now, that is.

Callum Blue has been added to this season’s cast of Smallville as the general who was sentenced to the Phantom Zone after attempting to rebel against his Kryptonian government. He was released at the end of the last season, and looks to be building his own army already in tonight’s premiere.

Blue comes from the popular Showtime series Dead Like Me, so he’s no stranger to the world of fantasy. The irony of the in-place Smallville cast is that Terence Stamp is already a regular as the voice of Jor-El, Clark’s father. Somehow, there is bound to be a moment when the new and old Zod cross paths, so keep an eye out.

Check out a clip from tonight’s premiere after the jump, and if you’re a Battlestar Galactica fan, see if you notice something familiar about it. All that seems to be missing are octagonal dogtags and the line “So Say We All!” Don’t forget to catch Smallville as it kicks off season 9 tonight on The CW at 8PM/7PM Central.

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This week we’re bringing you lots of new interviews with some of the people behind the scenes of the new DC Animated DVD Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. Yesterday, we talked to screenwriter Stan Berkowitz on both adapting Jeph Loeb’s original story and possible plans for cameos in the film.

Today, we bring you an interview of a different ilk. Introducing Michael Goguen, who some may know by name, but most know by style. MIchael has been working in as a character developer and producer for animated series for nearly 20 years. He had worked on the original Batman: The Animated Series, as producing The Spectacular Spider-Man and another DC animated DVD in Justice League: New Frontier.

Michael was able to speak with us on animating Ed McGuinness’ art style (which is already quite animated) into something slightly darker and more coherent to the adaptation. Check out the interview after the jump, and keep it here for more Superman/Batman: Public Enemies interviews all week in preparation for it’s September 29th release!

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The DC Animation department looks to be hitting the world with another DVD smash next week as they release Superman/Batman: Public Enemies on DVD and Blu-Ray on September 29th. We got the chance to talk to some of the cast and crew of the DVD movie and we’ll be bringing you those interviews all week long.

Our first interview was with the man who had the pleasure of adapting Jeph Loeb’s original script for Public Enemies into a 90-minute feature. Stan Berkowitz has worked with DC for quite some time now, from his work on Batman: The Animated Series to Justice League Unlimited, he’s made his way across the DC Animated Universe.

Check out our interview with Stan after the jump, where he spills the beans on many things including what (and who) got cut during the move from comic panel to video frame. Also, Berkowitz was kind enough to let us in on a bit of casting news about an old friend of The Flickcast’s who takes on a new, busty hero. Public Enemies hits DVD and Blu-Ray shelves next Tuesday.

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With DC Comics rebranding itself as DC Entertainment recently, many anticipated a slew of movie announcements and the like to emerge after the deed was done. One such update we hoped for was what plans the company had for Superman. Many hoped the franchise would get a reboot, or at the very least a sequel to Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns.  It should be noted at this point that while Superman Returns faced lackluster reviews, I for one liked it. Well, an update actually did come, and the news isn’t good.

DC Entertainment’s Diane Nelson told MTV:

“We actually don’t have any current plans for Superman,” said Nelson when asked if the new environment (and the recent legal decision regarding the character) made a “Superman” movie more or less likely in the near future… We’ve obviously done a lot of great things behind the property in our history, and it’s a key part of the family, but we don’t have current plans behind Superman,” she said.

No current plans? Nelson, and DC collectively, have to be aware of the recent lawsuit they lost which means they could lose all control over Superman by 2013 if they don’t do something with the property, right? Sure, this could be media spin and development is, in fact, underway. But what if it’s not?

If a project doesn’t start shooting by early 2010, it seems unlikely DC will able to bring a new Superman film to the big screen in time to satisfy their contract. Even more unsettling is the possibility that DC could lose the Superman rights in their entirety and the new Disney/Marvel giant could scoop them up. Welcome to “Bizarro World.”

Though the announcement of DC Entertainment last week has turned a few heads in the world of comics and film, the plan for DC’s animated DVD features has stayed strong since the first release of Superman: Doomsday back in 2007. It looks like the next film for DC’s animation department looks to be taking a different direction, as they take on a Crisis on Multiple Earths storyline.

The next film in the works is based on the Jeph Loeb Superman/Batman: Public Enemies story arc, which hits DVD shelves September 29th. On the DVD is a special feature showing the details of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. From a Warner Bros. press release:

Warner Home Video will distribute in Spring 2010 (finalizing date soon)

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