John Constantine Will Headline Guillermo Del Toro’s DC Comics Supernatural Heroes Film

Perhaps the most interesting of the projects that director Guillermo Del Toro is in the process of developing is the one that will see several of DC Comics supernatural superheroes teaming up to stop a world-threatening menace. Called by some fans Justice League Dark after a similarly-themed series that DC is currently publishing, it’s original working title of Heaven Sent has been changed to Dark Universe and it is possible that the film is an adaptation of writer Alan Moore’s “American Gothic” storyline which ran from Swamp Thing #37 to 50.

At a panel at Anaheim’s WonderCon Saturday, where Del Toro was primarily promoting his film Pacific Rim which opens this summer, discussion turned to the project and the director let loose with a few tidbits of information about the project –

• Del Toro stated that a bible for the film had been written and that there is a screenwriter attached to the project that he hopes to be able to name soon. He did divulge that the film’s through-line would originate with Jason Blood’s history with Merlin and the Knights of King Arthur and how that resonates to create a threat in the present day.
• Unlike when the character was played by the dark-haired Keanu Reeves in 2005’s Constantine, Del Toro promised that in his film the character of con man/mage John Constantine would be blonde as he is in the comics.
• While he declined to get into too many specifics, Del Toro stated that the film would feature Constantine recruiting the other supernatural heroes.
• Among the heroes recruited by Constantine are Swamp Thing, the Demon, Deadman, the Spectre and Zatanna. The film will also deal with some of their origins over its course. “Swamp Thing is at peace with who he is but Deadman is still trying to find out who shot him.”

Del Toro also stressed that he wouldn’t be able to get to serious work on the film until at least after he finished his haunted house film Crimson Peak.

Via Coming Soon and Bleeding Cool.