News & Rumours

This is a place for current and historical news and rumours relating to Swamp Thing films and television series.

Joel Silver film

Dec. 10 2003: The website MyPDFScripts hosted a 113 page Swamp Thing film screenplay written by Len Wein.  The screenplay is dated December 10, 2003 and is property of Silver Pictures (Joel Silver‘s production company) and Warner Bros.  MyPDFScripts is no longer online but the screenplay can be found elsewhere on the web.

Aug. 28 2009: In a press conference for the film Whiteout, Silver is questioned about 3D films.  He replies: “I’m developing a picture now that I’d like to do… I’ll hopefully do Swamp Thing, which is a movie we’ve had for a long time. We think that would be great to do in 3D.” [Source: Collider]

Oct. 19 2009: In an interview, writer/producer Akiva Goldsman mentions his involvement in the film: “We want a film with real Southern, dark horror overtones, a little bit like a classic Universal horror film.” [Source: LA Times].

Apr. 7 2010: At WonderCon, Vincenzo Natali expresses interest in adapting the Alan Moore version of Swamp Thing into a film.  [Source: MTV].

Aug. 2 2010: At San Diego ComicCon, Len Wein gives an update on the production.  He mentions that Silver is producing and Goldsman is reworking Wein’s script, but there are some issues with the rights. [Source: ComicBookMovie; originally reported by MovieWeb].

Nov. 5 2010: Natali provides an update on the status of the project: “Joel Silver was going to do Swamp Thing, and he actually had a couple of scripts in, only to discover later on that the film rights were held by another company …  And it’s even more complicated than that, I’m told. So unfortunately, it’s not going to happen any time soon.” [Source: MTV].

July 13 2020: Natali is interviewed for the podcast Best Movies Never Made as part of the episode ‘Vincenzo Natali’s HIGH RISE Part 2’. From 48:41, Natali recalls that he asked Joel Silver if he could direct a new Swamp Thing film, but Silver explained that the rights to this were complicated and that a movie probably would not get made. Apparently Silver had paid for a script to be written before learning about the complications, which involved Wes Craven owning partial rights to future films, and contracts having been destroyed in a fire. Natali decided to write a script for Silver anyway, thinking that it may motivate Silver to untangle the rights situation, but Natali only wrote about 40 pages before giving up. In June 2015, he posted to Twitter the first 4 pages of the script that he had written. [Source: Best Movies Never Made].

Justice League Dark film

Nov. 13 2008: When prompted, Guillermo del Toro says that he would love to make a Swamp Thing film.

Nov. 1 2012: Guillermo del Toro is involved in developing a film with Warner Bros. starring some of DC Comics’ supernatural characters.  The name of the project is reported to be Heaven Sent. [Source: Latino Review].

Jan. 7 2013: Del Toro mentions that the project now has the working title Dark Universe and mentions some of the characters who will be involved, including Swamp Thing, Constantine, Zatanna, Etrigan, Deadman and the Spectre. [Source: IGN].

Mar. 30 2013: At WonderCon, del Toro reveals more details about the plot, which will involve Constantine recruiting other heroes to stop a threat that has something to do with Jason Blood, Merlin and Arthurian legend. [Source: SuperHeroHype]

Nov. 25 2014: Del Toro reveals that he has submitted the script to Warner Bros.  I don’t believe he has yet revealed who the writer is. [Source: Forbes].

Apr. 1 2015: Del Toro reveals that a revised script has been submitted, and that he may not necessarily be the director. [Source: IGN].

June 29 2015: It is reported that del Toro is no longer involved with the film. [Source: Hollywood Reporter]

Oct. 8 2015: Scott Rudin is rumoured to be the new producer, and that the plot involves “a series of ancient tomes stolen by a madman hellbent on the destruction of humanity”. [Source: The Tracking Board].

Aug. 24 2016: Doug Liman is announced as the new director, and Michael Gilio is the writer. [Source: Variety].

May 23 2017: Doug Liman leaves the project due to scheduling issues. [Source: Variety].

Aug. 29 2017: Gerard Johnstone is hired to polish the script. [Source: Deadline].

Jan. 21 2020: J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot is linked to Justice League Dark film and/or TV projects. [Source: Deadline].

Apr. 16 2020: A press release confirmed that Bad Robot is producing a Justice League Dark TV series for HBO Max. [Source: HBO Max].

Mar. 16 2021: Rumours suggest that Swamp Thing will appear as part of the Justice League Dark TV series, and may get a spinoff series. [Source: Geekosity].

Sept. 16 2022:  Several websites report that HBO Max have passed on the Justice League Dark-related series Constantine and Madame Xanadu. [Source: Deadline].

Swamp Thing film

Feb. 1 2023: In an announcement on YouTube, James Gunn (Co-CEO of DC Studios) announced a number of future projects including “a very dark horror story and the origins of the monster who is Swamp Thing”.  Rumours begin to circulate about the involvement of James Mangold as director. [Source: Hollywood Reporter]

Apr. 7 2023: James Mangold confirms that he is the director and that he is currently writing the film. [Source: Collider]

June 29 2023: In an interview, James Mangold explains that he plans to create a story influenced by Frankenstein or Robocop: “…the idea of making almost a noir, mystery, horror film about a guy who wakes up and he’s this thing. There’s an amnesiac quality of, ‘How did I get here and who did this to me?’ So I’m envisioning a horror-noir film following a creature that can’t be seen, trying to piece together from fragments of memories what happened and who did it.” [Source: Happy Sad Confused podcast]