WIRE Buzz: The Batman targets filming date, Game of Thrones reveals runtimes

Today’s WIRE Buzz covers all spectrums of genre entertainment, focusing on two larger-than-life properties (Batman and Game of Thrones) while welcoming two classics (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Moby Dick) into the canon.

But first up: DC news. Writer/director Matt Reeves’ The Batman may have lost its Bruce Wayne, but Ben Affleck’s departure hasn’t slowed things down too much. Reeves was recently asked on Twitter about the film’s upcoming schedule and replied that the film should begin shooting “sometime around year’s end.”

Take a look:

This would fit nicely into the plan already set by Warner Bros. and seems to encourage the theory that Affleck’s departure was long-coming — giving the creative team ample time to regroup so that there wouldn’t be significant production delays. However, we still don’t know who will be The Batman when it hits theaters on June 25, 2021.

Next, HBO has revealed the runtimes of Game of Thrones’ final season’s episodes. With no episode being shorter than 55 minutes, the series looks to go out with a bang, especially considering that its final four episodes are all about as long as feature films.

HBO has confirmed the following runtimes to SYFY WIRE:

Season 8, Episode 1: 0:54

Season 8, Episode 2: 0:58

Season 8, Episode 3: 1:22

Season 8, Episode 4: 1:18

Season 8, Episode 5: 1:20

Season 8, Episode 6: 1:20

That’s an hour-twenty series finale. That’s as long as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope. That’s four minutes longer than The Nightmare Before Christmas. Winter is coming and it’s going to put fans through the wringer.

Game of Thrones begins its end on April 14.

Finally, some literary classics are colliding in a new film adaptation that will bring them both to life. According to Variety, Howard A. Rodman’s upcoming The Great Eastern is getting a film adaptation with Rodman also writing the script. The book is about Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’s Captain Nemo and Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab battling it out during the late 1800s.

Nemo kidnaps civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel in order to get a submarine and all hell breaks loose in this strange blend of historical fiction, literary fanfic, and naval warfare.

The Great Eastern book will hit stores in June, while the movie has yet to zero in on a release date.