DC’s new chief is a Christian who wants Hollywood to make more family movies 

For years, DC has had a reputation as the edgier of the two superhero movie giants, with films that tend to be darker, more violent and more likely to receive R ratings than Marvel’s.

Now the company is turning to a veteran of its biggest rival who has spoken openly about his Christian faith and Hollywood’s shortage of family movies.

Jeremy Latcham, a former Marvel Studios executive who helped bring Iron Man and The Avengers to the screen, will take over as DC Studios president and chief creative officer Dec. 1, succeeding James Gunn and Peter Safran, the company announced this week.

Latcham brings a background in family entertainment to a studio known for gritty titles. This summer, he produced The Breadwinner, a family comedy starring Nate Bargatze as a dad learning the ropes at home. He also served as a senior adviser for Wonder Project, the faith-focused company co-founded by filmmaker Jon Erwin that produces House of David and operates its own family streaming service.

Latcham held various producing roles on six Marvel superhero movies, including Spider-Man: Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy.

“DC’s pantheon of characters is among the most iconic in American popular culture,” Latcham said in a statement. “I’ve had the privilege to help bring some of the most celebrated superhero stories to life on the big screen, and I’m excited and honored for the opportunity to now lead DC Studios into its next era.

“The chance to steward the incredible cast of DC characters to the screen in a way that excites lifelong fans while introducing their timeless stories to the next generation is a massive responsibility that I do not take lightly.”

Christian faith and a desire for more family movies

While promoting The Breadwinner this summer, Latcham spoke in a series of interviews about his Christian faith and his desire to make more movies families can watch together.

At the time, he was living in Texas and figuring out how to keep his filmmaking career going after leaving Los Angeles.

“Every day, people say to me, ‘How did you know you could leave L.A. and make it work?’ And I go, ‘I don’t know. I just believed that it was going to work out.’ And I just have this sense that if we work hard, we do good, we try to be good people – and I trust that God’s got us,” he told the Bible Bros podcast.

Latcham lamented the decline of family movies in Hollywood.

“Like Solo Mio this year – I loved that movie,” he said of the romantic comedy starring Kevin James and Jonathan Roumie. “I thought it was beautifully made and beautifully done. I like those brothers that made it. I’m glad Angel released it. But PG romantic comedy was a genre that made so much money over the years – While You Were Sleeping and Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail … [and] My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And then one day they were just like, ‘We’re only going to make R-rated romantic comedies anymore.’”

A more diverse slate of movies

Latcham told the Bible Bros podcast he wants to build a slate that brings more variety back to theaters.

“The cinema is best when there’s all kinds of movies in the cinema,” he said, pointing to the late 1980s as an ideal. “There were so many different types of movies, and right now we’re in this era where the genres are R-rated horror, spectacle-action film, animated movies – that’s it, and then weird art films. But we’re missing adult drama, we’re missing family comedy, we’re missing PG romantic comedy, we’re missing G-rated live-action movies. We’re missing a whole bunch of genres, and so to me, what I’m really trying to do is build a slate of movies that are really diverse because I want to have healthy options when I go to the movie theater.

“I find it really frustrating when it’s the same thing over and over again at the box office.”

Latcham also said he wants to make movies that give audiences something to reflect on after they leave the theater.

“I’m trying to build movies that are all redemptive, that all have heart, that all give us a little something to think about, to do better, to grow, to learn, to try to make ourselves better in this project of being a human.”

(Image credit: Screen Grab/CBN, DC)