News on the new Superman Movie

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From two articles talking to Dan Harris and Bryan Singer, it looks like the next Superman movie is going to be a sequel to Superman 1 and 2:

In David Giammarco's Photo Blog at CTV, he mentions he talked to Dan Harris (X2: X-Men United) about writing the new Superman movie.

But Dan Harris assured me that this new Superman film will not be some crazy reworking of the legend as had been rumored. He said it will be similar in tone to the first two "Superman" films and will basically "pick up" where "Superman 2" left off (the best of the series, I might add!!) He hinted that even Terrence Stamp, who played General Zod so terrifyingly well in the first two "Superman" films, "figures" into this new "Superman" film...he was being coy, but it looks like he's got some big surprises in store for the much-anticipated "Superman" film.

Hey Harry -

You published a review of Intolerable Cruelty awhile back...and that's about it. I visit the site. Obviously.

Anyway, Bryan Singer, Michael Dougherty, and Dan Harris ALL visited NYU this morning and spoke to a group of around 30 students, including myself. I was expecting the film students there to diluge Singer with questions about the Usual Suspects, for the most part, but really, for an hour or so, all we did was talk about Superman.

He made no mention of the title whatsoever, although the guy who ran the meeting referred to Singer as the director of the upcoming "Superman Returns." For all we know, he might have just lifted it from the site.

Anyway, here are some tidbits.

- When asked if it will be a sequel, remake, or origin story, he said, in so many words, sequel. He said that the previous movies will be referenced in a "vague historical sense" (this wasn't clarified), and that the origin itself will be handled in the same way it was in the first Batman movie, with intercutting flashbacks.

- When asked the "status," he hesitated, but said that they were moving to Sydney (in which they've rented 8-10 acres) in November (they scouted "several weeks ago"), and shooting would begin IN MARCH.

- Casting came up. He said that right now the main offices are setup in New York and LA, but he has 10 offices "all over the world." He said that he's only looking for Lexes and Supermans right now, but he has a "sense of where he's going to look" for his supporting players. Many students around the room were hoping for a shot at Jimmy. He said that he really wants to cast an unknown in the lead.

- Caviezel came up. He said, with ample humor, that since Caviezel, is KNOWN, he won't cast him. He also mentioned that he's looking for an actor between 25 and 30.

- I asked him afterwards (that's right, I talked to him! Yeah! Sigh...) if he was going to, as a director, go for a mythic Donner-like approach or more character based, like Smallvile aspires to be (i don't that show, consequently, despite the fact that Superman is my religion), and he responded quickly. "Mythic. Definitely."

- He mentioned his pitch to Alan Horn right after the dismissal of McG. He mentioned that at that point, they were still doing the Abrams draft, which he hadn't read, and that he knew, immediately after the pitch, that his plans for Logan's Run would have to be put on hold, that Fox would get pissed at him for dumping X-Men 3, because he KNEW that Horn liked his pitch, and that they would forget about the $50 million they spent over the last 11 years and make it. He said the pitch lasted around 30-40 minutes.

- On related subjects, he says that he's going to have a Logan's Run "room" setup in Sydney so he can develop it during the filming of Superman, and move on it immediately afterwards. He says that he feels bad about not participating in X-Men 3 (which he won't). He mentioned a lot of the pre-visualizations on Logan's has already been done, and he seemed really, really excited about it.

- Also on a related subject, I spoke to Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty regarding Ender's Game. They said they did 3 drafts and haven't heard anything more about it. They told me some details, which I'm not going to share, but I'm really happy with some of the changes they made.

- Back to Superman. He said the look will be "traditional." That's good.

- I'm trying to remember if he said anything else, but I think that's about it. He seemed pretty confident that it was getting made, mentioning that "Warner really wants Superman," which he said contributed to him getting tapped to do it. But it was all his idea - Singer, Harris, and Dougherty did the whole thing when in Hawaii and decided, rather sporadically, to pitch it. And it worked.

I guess that's about it. He was a blast to listen to, very funny and honest. Harris and Dougherty, who look like they're about 12, were great also, and this was a confidence booster to me big time that they're up to it.

Oh, one more thing. He was asked how solid he was on his vision for the now-reassigned X-Men 3 and mentioned only that he would probably have to add in Gambit because "he's so easy." He said that Angel was cut from X2, Beast from X-Men, and that neither, he thought, would ever "come back." That's all.

And lets feel very lucky that Burton didn't make his steamy pile of crap of a Superman film. You can read a review of the Dan Gilroy final shooting script that Burton had worked on and was going to shoot here:
http://www.superman-v.com/reviews/gilroy.php
I am so glad. There are so many plot holes. Luthor finds an alien ship burried under a farm in Smallville, the Kent farm, and announces it to the world. So the reporters of the world, including Clark and Lois, go to the farm to see the ship dug up. Not one person bothers to look through city records, or even at the mailbox to see it is the Kent farm. Lois doesn't say "Hey, this is the Kent from Smallville. You are Clark Kent from Smallville, who now lives in Metropolis. Superman is in Metropolis. So you must be Superman." Just a lot of things. This would have been the biggest disaster. And why is Burton stealing from things that he did in his own Batman movie? Some things are the exact same things that happened in it.

Erica Durance is great as Lois. Here's to her becoming a regular.

 

[General Zod]

I wonder what role Terrence stamp will play I loved him as Zod Just didn't care for the costume though

 

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Not sure, I just know it will be a continuation from 1 and 2. As far as the Donner's producing, I just read where talks had broken down between Warner Brother's and them. Even though it is reported on imdb, Lauren Schuler Donner is trying to get the webmasters of that site to change it. She is also moving forward with X3, and they will continue with the Dark Pheonix story. She also said that there may be a solo wolverine movie after that. A large part of me had so wished that Richard Donner would be a part of this just to be able to continue what he had started 27 years ago when he first got handed the job.

But it seems that Warner's has finally gotten it's act together with their superhero properties seeing the success that Marvel is having with their adaptations. The Green Lantern thing was supposed to be a comedy with Jack Black, but from all the talk back on the web against it, Warner's has scrapped the comedy plan. Does this mean there will be a serious Green Lantern movie? Don't know. I just know that the spoof anlge has been excised. But the main thing is that, like with Batman Begins, Warner's is finally realizing that they will makle more money doing it the fan's way. I am still hoping that there will be a Justice League movie down the line, and that Wonder Woman is done well. I don't believe Joel Silver will make a crappy Wonder Woman movie, it is jsut the character has never been fleshed out as much as the rest of the superheroes in DC comic land, and she is pretty one dimensional. The problem they are trying to have is to maintain integrity with the comics while still trying to make her character something that would be enjoyable to watch.

I still am very torn about Smallville. There are things I like, and there are things that I hate. Why is Jor-El a bad guy. I am glad they got away from the Krptonite truns human freaks thing that they were doing and are not showing the thrust of all of the characters to how they get where they do later in life. And I know the producers think that once he learns how to fly he is Superman, but the reality of the comics is that he flew as a child, and hid it with his other powers. He only becomes Superman later on. And as much as I like seeing Lois on the show, and the actress, now she knows how Clark would look like when he becomes Superman. Clark dons the alter ego later on, before he meets Lois, and so Lois does not know that he and Clark are one in the same. Now she will easily be able to put two and two together when he finally goes to metropolis and works along side her at the Dailey Planet, and as Superman. I just wish they would stay more with the story and stop re-imagining everything becasue the stuff between Clark and Lex are great.