James Mangold In Talks for DC Movie – The Hollywood Reporter

Mangold is said to be a massive fan of the character and the stories. According to sources, he approached Gunn and Safran with his ideas. Swamp Thing would be a few years away, however, and Mangold’s next project after Dial of Destiny will be a Bob Dylan biopic for Paramount.

Swamp Thing was created by writer Len Wein and horror artist Wrightson, first appearing in a stand-alone story in 1971’s House of Secret No. 92. The character proved popular enough that he got his own book soon after, although it was short-lived.

The character achieved his peak in the 1980s during a seminal run written by Alan Moore and drawn by John Totleben and Stephen R. Bissette. The book was on the foreground of burgeoning and envelope-pushing comic titles that included Moore’s The Watchmen, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, Art Spiegelman’s Maus and other works that brought new energy into comics.

It was during this run that Swamp Thing evolved from a simple horror comic into one with a deep elemental mythology featuring concepts such as the Parliament of Trees and tackling complex themes of life and death. The run also introduced another supernatural hero, John Constantine, and its more adult nature led to the creation of the mature readers comics imprint Vertigo.

Swamp Thing has seen several comics runs since, with the character being folded back into the proper DC Universe, where he was a part of Justice League Dark, DC’s supergroup of supernatural characters.

The character first appeared on the big screen in 1982, in a feature directed by horror master Wes Craven and most recently in a short-lived series showrun by Gary Dauberman and Mark Verheiden that streamed on the now-defunct DC Universe platform.

At Tuesday’s presentation, Gunn and Safran said the new movie “investigates the dark origins of Swamp Thing.” And while calling it a “horrific film,” the character would still be interacting with other DC characters, with the tonal clash a key allure of any mashup.  

Mangold co-wrote Dial of Destiny, which is the first Indiana Jones movie not to be directed by Steven Spielberg and will be released June 30. Before that, he directed Oscar-winning racing drama Ford v Ferrari and co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed X-Men-centric movie Logan.

Mangold is repped by WME, Entertainment 360 and Sloane Offer.