Spielberg Announced to Work on DC Films

Just one day after earning the honor of being the first director to exceed $10 billion at global box office, for “Ready Player One,” Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment are once again collaborating with Warner Brothers on a film. The film, titled “Blackhawk,” will mark Spielberg’s first time directing a film based on characters from DC Comics.

First published in 1941, through Quarterly Comics’s “Military Comics #1,” Blackhawk focuses on a squadron of World War II pilots hailing from multiple countries and guided by a man only known by the codename “Blackhawk.” The Blackhawk Squadron take their eponymous name from the group’s leader and regularly engaged in skirmishes with Nazis and more bizarre entities. Will Eisner, an icon within the world of comics, is one of the three men responsible for Blackhawk’s creation; the other two being Chuck Cuidera and Bob Powell. DC Comics acquired the book 16 years later, eventually discontinuing the book in 1984.

Toby Emmerich, Chairman for Warner Brothers Pictures Group, expressed company pride at being the studio responsible for Spielberg’s most recent hit film and the impending comics film. Spielberg commented that Warner Brothers’ involvement made for a great working experience while filming Ready Player One and added that the studio excelled in its passion and professionalism for cinema. Spielberg went on to reiterate his excitement at another collaboration with Warner Brothers in Blackhawk.

When looking beyond Blackhawk’s access to the iconic name of Spielberg, a few other names emerge. David Koepp, a regular ally of Spielberg, has been announced as a screenwriter for the project. Kristie Macosko Krieger, of Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, will serve as producer for the project and Sue Kroll will work in an executive producer capacity through “Kroll & Co. Entertainment.” While several names and roles have been confirmed for Blackhawk, the timing of its production is considerably far more nebulous. Spielberg already has at least two other projects lined up; he is making a fifth film in the “Indiana Jones” franchise and also tackling the musical known as “West Side Story.”

Although the Blackhawk name has occasionally popped up in DC’s more modern fare since the 1980s, they mostly amounted to winking nods to the fans. DC’s self-imposed reboot, known as “New 52,” introduced a completely new group of Blackhawks, led by a “Lady Blackhawk” and having no connection to the previous group. The New 52 Blackhawk book lasted eight issues.