UPDATE 9/15: “Grodd and Lantern Dicks” as the new face of HBO is irking a lot of people, per sources, and Paramount is now holding meetings over the backlash.
UPDATE 9/10: These set pics are now Exhibit A: David Ellison is putting together an epic DC dream team — and James Gunn just blew it.
The first set photos and videos from The People v. Gorilla Grodd hit X on Wednesday, straight off the show’s Atlanta shoot.
DC’s Grodd is a guy in a gorilla suit. Not a mo-cap performer covered in tracking dots, a full practical gorilla suit, dressed in a sweater vest.
Our insiders described this series back in July as a mockumentary “superhero Spinal Tap.” Wednesday’s footage is that description on camera.
What The Set Photos Show
The shoot is set up on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta, dressed as Metropolis University, with school banners hung around the quad, per the fan accounts posting from the set.
Photos shared by ATL DC (@AtlantaDCFans) and set photographer @Tris10KnowsBall show the Grodd performer in a white button-up, a patterned sweater vest, and gray slacks, standing next to an actress in a brown jumper. College-kid clothes on a gorilla.
Another photo puts Grodd in a gray graduation cap and gown, walking with a crowd of extras in matching robes.
Home of DCU’s post of the graduation shot passed 1.3 million views and 24,000 likes within hours.
There’s video, too. Per Superman Saga News, Grodd is a member of Metropolis University’s a cappella group, and the clip shows performers in black tuxedos and white gloves huddled around the suit mid-number.
Other clips making the rounds: Grodd serenading a woman fans are guessing is a love interest, and Grodd dancing in the middle of a plaza while a crowd of extras looks on.
Per DC Film News, one clip even has Grodd singing “Party Rock Anthem,” the 2011 LMFAO song. The account’s reaction: “WHAT IS THIS SHOW?!”
Green Lantern DCU Updates went the other way: “Anyone that was hating on the amazing idea of giving Gorilla Grodd an HBO show can #stayonthatside.”
An Actual Gorilla Suit, Out In The Open
Every previous live-action Grodd was CGI. The CW’s The Flash built him entirely in post.
What’s on camera in Atlanta is a man in a full gorilla suit — fur, gorilla feet, the works — performing outdoors in broad daylight in front of extras and onlookers.
Whether Jimmy Tatro is inside the suit isn’t known. DC Film News says the suit is a placeholder and Grodd will be CGI in the finished show, and nothing is official from HBO Max either way.
Either way, the wrongful-conviction gorilla mockumentary is currently filming with a guy in a gorilla suit doing musical numbers on a college quad.
Exactly The Show Our Insiders Described
The June rumor said DC was casting a lawyer role and Grodd could end up on trial.
On July 7, our insiders described the Jimmy Olsen series as a mockumentary “superhero Spinal Tap“ — American Vandal with a cape — and a facade, visible development activity while the DCU’s big guns sit idle.
One day later, Deadline reported American Vandal star Jimmy Tatro was in talks for Grodd, and his deal closed July 15.
On August 21, HBO Max greenlit The People v. Gorilla Grodd: eight episodes, a half-hour comedy per HBO’s own release, with Skyler Gisondo’s Jimmy Olsen reopening the case of a superintelligent ape convicted of murdering his father, the King of Gorilla City.
The show presents itself as a Daily Planet “true” crime docuseries, and a true-crime doc digs through its subject’s past. The college footage lines up with that: Grodd’s Metropolis University days, before the conviction.
Sources: The Goofy Stuff Ends With Ellison
Also on Wednesday, our longtime source laid out where DC television goes after the Paramount merger: David Ellison wants shows built to reach Spider-Man numbers, general-audience and family-friendly, not HBO-sized prestige.
A gorilla mockumentary is the exact “goofy stuff” our sources say won’t survive the new regime.
The merger’s next hearing is September 24. The show has no premiere date.
What it has is footage: a gorilla in a cap and gown, singing on the quad. Our insiders called this show a superhero Spinal Tap in July. Now there’s video.
