According to an interview at the Wall Street Journal, the Superman franchise is going to get a complete reboot ala Ang Lee’s Hulk movie. But this time Warner Bros. is actually taking something away from the big summit it had with DC and some of its creators and the recent success Marvel has had with its properties.
According to the interview with Jeff Robinov, Warner Bros. plans on releasing at least two tent-pole films a year based on DC characters.
“‘Superman [Returns]’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to,” says Mr. Robinov. “It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned.” “Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009,” he adds. “But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.”
The company plans to focus on individual characters at first, then work its way up to the Justice League of America movie ala Marvel’s Avengers. While some people might be saying, “WB is copy catting Marvel’s success,” I will say use the whatever works philosophy. I would much rather see a slew of well produced DC and Marvel flicks, than hacked together, rushed to the box office, fail misserably films that will ruin comic-based movies forever.
While Superman may be the biggest DC superhero, I really hope they don’t push this one into development first. Wonder Woman, Flash, and even that Green Arrow flick might make for a better kick off film.
4 Comments
I heard that Bryan Singer and the actor who played his Superman were being fired.
If I were Warner Bros. I would hire GRANT MORRISON to do the Script. I would also hire John Cassaday to do the Storyboards and Design.
Science Fiction has to be A MAJOR COMPONENT. In fact, I would have an extended opening scene that takes place on Krypton.
I agree cory. I had absolutely no interest in Superman before Grant Morrison took over.
Hmm…what a waste. They could totally have reworked what they had instead of gutting the franchise. If they wrap it around Lex-as-businessman and keep Kal-El from being too weepy and outcast, I don’t see a problem if only because I didn’t love Spacey as Luthor, thought Lois was totally miscast, and the son of Superman? That’s just Singer throwing his weight around to leave some sort of imprint.
As long as there’s not another origin movie. For God’s sake we’ve SEEN IT. WE KNOW IT. GET TO THE MEAT.
Mornin,
Lets just hope that by rebooting the franchiseWB doesn’t try to completely re-envision the man of steel.
They have Smallville, and the first two Christopher Reeve movies to use as solid templates to build upon. He has been around for 70 years and has been a huge influence on comic book creators, and other media visionaries alike. The should stick with what works.
Looking back, one of the aspects of the first Donner film that I really enjoyed was how normal the world of Superman appeared to be. No extremely hi-tech city, no villains in weird costumes (yet) just an extroardinary individual in the real world.
This sense of normalcy also appeared in Smallville, the the first 2 X-men films as well as Batman Begins, worlds that I would recognize and could live in. Superman returns as well as some of the 90’s Batman films were too fanciful to be believable.
Remember the First Superman film.
You will believe a man can fly (or something like that.)