WB wants more Batman, Superman, and Sherlock Holmes

That's what's been reported as what was said on the earnings call this week. My guess is that Sherlock Holmes must have that great of a screenplay if it's going to get more than just a sequel or two. Man, Robert Downey, Jr. is going to be busy following the success of Iron Man and Tropic Thunder!

Reported yesterday on Time Warner's earning call, an analyst asked Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes what the company has learned overall from The Dark Knight. Jeff's response "The obvious thing we're going to take from [the film's success] is more Dark Knight," Jeff goes on to say "We look at Harry Potter...It's fantastic to have franchises that last that long. We want to do that with Batman and Superman and perhaps Sherlock Holmes. The sequels are as good, with new characters added, as were the originals. That wasn't the case in the years ago. "Warner's has more tent poles as an on-going strategy that very much lifts its distribution and performance." We think that's going to hold up our slate in the 2009 - 2010 period. We've got four big tent poles coming this year."

I'm a little surprised Superman and Sherlock Holmes were on the CEO's list. As Superman hasn't lifted off quite yet, and no new news stating otherwise. I'm sure that would be Warner's long time goal for Superman to turn him into a token franchise, but shouldn't that be the studio's goal for any project they decide to make a major summer tent pole? Sherlock Holmes is even more of a long shot to turn into a 8 or 9 movie franchise, but I'll just have to wait and see the film before I can comment on any future potential Sherlock franchise plans.