Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
VOTD: John Hodgman Asks Is Obama The First Modern Nerd/Geek President?
Posted on Saturday, June 20th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
One of the highlights of the White House Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association Dinner was John Hodgman’s speech about how Barack Obama might be the first nerd/geek President of the United States. Many of you should recognize Hodgman as the PC guy on the Apple commercials, or as a sometimes Daily Show correspondent, but he is also a best selling author and sometimes actor. The speech is great because it features a bevy of geek references, including Star Trek, Superman, Conan, Dune and more. You can watch Hodgman’s entire 14-minute speech after the jump.
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Bryan Singer Fancies Another Go At The X-Men And Superman
Posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Total Film has an interview with Bryan Singer in their latest issue to promote the UK release of Valkyrie on DVD and Blu-Ray. Inevitably, the conversation turned to the two big superhero franchise he’s already contributed to - Superman and X-Men. His quotes on both are after the break.
Back in November, we posted a College Humor animated short called The Dark Knight Meets Superman, and Batman was forced to face his toughest adversary yet: real super powers. And every good superhero film spawns a sequel… In Part 2, Superman goes on vacation leaving Batman to protect Metropolis with the Justice League. Watch the short after the jump.
Mark Millar has been talking about his pitch for an 8-hour epic trilogy of Superman films for w while now. He even claimed that he was working with an unnamed big director on a pitch for the studio. But now the comic book writer admits on his website that it likely won’t happen after all, or at very least, not anytime soon.
“Warner’s talked to us and a few other writer/ director teams, but things seem to be in stasis right now. As far as I understand, nothing is happening with Superman at the moment and so the director and I are just working on another project. If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, no biggie. Kick-Ass taught me that creating your own stuff can be at least as much fun and you don’t have to answer to anyone. It’s the future, baby.”
I think Warner Bros is being very cautious and are very unsure of how they should proceed with Superman . You have to respect that they aren’t trying to rush a new movie into production in a time when it seems like comic book movies are as hot as they’re going to get.
VOTD: Lex Luthor Needs a Bailout, starring Jon Hamm
Posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
How bad is the economy? Even Lex Luthor is asking for a bailout. Filmmaker Eric Appel’s latest Funny or Die gem features Golden Globe-winning television actor Jon Hamm (Mad Men) as Lex Luthor, appealing for Lexcorp to be given a $100 billion bailout. And guess whose fault it was that Lexcorp fell into financial hardship? That’s right, Superman. Watch the video after the jump.
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A Look at the JJ Abrams/Brett Ratner Superman Movie That Never Was
Posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
In 2002, JJ Abrams wrote a script which was supposed to be the first film in a trilogy of Superman movies. Aint It Cool once wrote that the script read “like it’ll cost $400 million” and involved sequences featuring “air combat between five superpowered Kryptonians and fighter jets from 24 nations. Kryptonite missiles. Ass-kickin’ on a level we’ve never seen before on film.” A post-Matrix film project where Superman flies through the air fighting a villain using super-powered martial arts.
Over 30 pages of superfights, more action than 20 of Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns. Superman dies but returns from the dead, and the mind-numbingly horrible reveal that Lex Luthor is actually a second son of Krypton, and also has superpowers. A disaster. Brett Ratner was attached to direct, but the project eventually fell into development hell.
Apparently the project got far enough into development that illustrator Phil Saunders was creating concept art for the project for four months. Recently Saunders released a random image from the failed project on his blog, showing Superman facing off against a Kryptonian Battle Pod called a Rouser in Gotham City (yes, Gotham City). Saunders explained that Production Designer Owen Patterson wanted a straight one-point perspective view “so you could compare scale.” Click on the image above to enlarge.
via: SuperPunch
Rumor Killer: The Wachowski Brothers NOT Offered Superman Reboot
Posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Remember that report that showed up on AICN last week claiming that The Wachowski Brothers had been offered a reboot of Superman? Sorry to get you guys all excited but I have just gotten confirmation from two independent sources that the report was completely false. I don’t know if an interview with James McTeigue actually aired on RTL1 or not (I’m guessing not) but The Wachowski Brothers have definitely never had any talks with DC or Warner Bros to helm a Superman film. This is confirmed.
The Wachowski Brothers to Direct Superman Reboot?
Posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Could The Wachowski Brothers be in line to direct a reboot of Superman for Warner Bros? A scooper over at AICN caught an interview with V For Vendetta director James McTeigue on Berlin television where the filmmaker admitted that Plastic Man was originally scheduled to be the brothers’ next project, but the film has been delayed indefinitely due to a major shake-up of projects at Warner Bros. McTeigue was even signed on to direct second unit, as he has done on past Wachowski Brothers productions.
While the sequel to The Dark Knight is just in the beginning stages of development, Warner Bros is already looking much further down the line. During today’s Time Warner earnings call, CEO Jeff Bewkes compared the Batman series to the Harry Potter film franchise, saying that they hope to release a long line of sequels.
“We look at Harry Potter. It’s fantastic to have franchises that last that long. We want to do that with Batman and Superman and perhaps Sherlock Holmes. The sequels are as good, with new characters added, as were the originals. That wasn’t the case in the years ago. Warners has more tentpoles as an on-going strategy taht very much lifts its distribution and performance. We think that’s going to hold up our slate in the 2009 - 2010 period. We’ve got four more big tentpoles coming this year.”
Bryan Singer Not Involved in Superman Sequel Talks
Posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
UGO got a chance to grill Bryan Singer about his involvement with a new Superman film. Unfourtunately, his answer is somewhat cryptic.
UGO: Are you officially involved in this talk of the new film?
BS: I am not officially involved in the talk, no.
UGO: But when talk happens they’ll call you.
BS: Well it’s, you know, I have relationships with Warner Brothers and with the character and, and, and, and it’s just the way things work out.
UGO: But you are not divorced from Superman at this point.
BS: No.
From what I can gather, Warner Bros/Legendary Pictures/DC Comics are having preliminary discussions about a new Superman film, but Singer is not involved in those talks. I know the consensus behind the scenes is that Singer shouldn’t direct the next film, and there has even been talk of a complete reboot. I have heard rumors that Singer has a stipulation in his Superman Returns contract that forces Warner Bros to go to him first before seeking other directors. I’ve never been able to confirm this. I am actually one of the few who actually dug Singer’s Superman, and would be very interested to see him go all “Wrath of Kahn” with Man of Steel (as Singer once put it). But I just don’t think its going to happen. I think Warner Bros will eventually talk Singer into an producer role so that both sides don’t loose face. But we’ll see…
In the 2006 film Superman Returns, Bryan Singer chose not to retell Superman’s origin story. I mean, heck, we’ve all seen the original Richard Donner classic, right? Newsarama reports that DC Comics will be releasing a six-issue stand-alone series called Superman: Secret Origin, which will retell the Man of Steel’s origin story. Geoff Johns and Gary Frank have been hired.
DC Universe Executive Editor Dan Didio compares Geoff’s new take on the origin story to that of John Byrne made in the 1980’s, stating that it will make the “same imprint now, for 2009 and past that.” The new take will take readers from Clark’s teenage years, through his first adventure with the Legion of Super-Heroes and into his arrival and introduction to Metropolis as Superman.
“We haven’t seen a modern day retelling of Clark’s first adventure as Superboy with the Legion of Super-Heroes, or the day Superman met Jimmy Olsen or the origins of Superman’s long time enemies like the Parasite and Metallo. More importantly, Clark Kent himself will be explored in his earlier years in a way I don’t think he’s ever been explored before. And freaking Gary Frank, one of the greatest Superman artists in history already, is illustrating it. Every cover, every panel, ever line,” Johns told Newsarama. “Unlike previous Superman origin stories, this will be told almost entirely from Clark’s eyes. We won’t be spending an issue on Krypton. We’ll be opening on one of Clark’s earliest memories as a kid and moving forward from there. This is his story of self-discovery and the world’s story of meeting Superman.”
I’m not sure what to make of the new origin story. Sounds like they are just trying to reflect some of the recent continuity changes with Infinite Crisis. I honestly don’t follow the Superman comics enough to know what I’m talking about in this arena, but it does seem a bit odd that DC would release a retelling when it appears, that Warner Bros is looking to completely relaunch the entire film franchise (speculation, not confirmed) complete with origin. As /Film commentor DDD points out, Geoff Johns made a pitch to WB for a Superman reboot and Richard Donner has been publicly saying that Johns should write the next Superman movie.
The Dark Knight Meets Superman
The Pitch: “Batman faces his toughest adversary yet: real super powers.”
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