The Authority Film Delayed: Gunn Struggles to Match The Boys' Tone

It seems that the DCU movie *The Authority* is facing some challenges, as DC Studios co-chief James Gunn has admitted that the project has been placed on the "back burner." Announced as part of Gunn and Peter Safran's ambitious Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters DC Universe reboot two years ago, *The Authority* was intended to bring the notoriously brutal superhero team from the WildStorm Universe to the big screen. Gunn had initially described it as a "big movie," but it appears that the project has encountered significant hurdles.

During a DC Studios presentation attended by IGN, Gunn revealed that *The Authority* is the "hardest" of the announced Chapter 1 projects. He cited the success of Amazon's *The Boys* as a contributing factor to the challenges they face. "Honestly, Authority's been the one that's been the hardest, both because of the shifting overall story and because of getting it right in a world with *The Boys* and a world with all the things that *The Authority* influenced that came out after it," Gunn explained. He also mentioned the desire to continue the stories of characters already filmed and to see them interact, which adds to the complexity of the project.

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One character from *The Authority*, the electronics prodigy The Engineer / Angela Spica, is set to appear in the DCU kickstarter *Superman*. The Engineer is arguably the most powerful member of the group, with abilities such as self-duplication, technopathy, genius-level intellect, and radio-induced telepathy. For more information on the team, check out IGN's article, "Who Are the Authority: The WildStorm DCU Characters Explained."

*The Authority* isn't the only project in Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters facing difficulties. Gunn mentioned that *Waller*, a spinoff of his own HBO Max hit series *Peacemaker*, has experienced "a couple of setbacks." On a more positive note, the HBO Max series *Booster Gold* "is going pretty strong," and *Paradise Lost* is "totally, still important and we're working heavily on it," according to Gunn. "It seems to be going pretty well," he added, with Peter Safran confirming that the pilot is currently being written.

As for *Swamp Thing*, Safran stated that DC Studios is willing to wait for director James Mangold, who is currently working on another project titled *A Complete Unknown*. "Our writer-director went off to make another little movie, *A Complete Unknown*, and we hope that he'll come back to *Swamp Thing* when he's ready, because again, that was one of those ones that we love him as a filmmaker, so we're happy to wait for him," Safran said, referring to Mangold's upcoming *Star Wars* movie, *Dawn of the Jedi*. However, Gunn clarified that *Swamp Thing* "is not integral to the larger story that we're telling," and was brought to them by Mangold himself.