James McTeigue On Comic Book Rumors: Plastic Man Probably Won't Ever Happen, Won't Confirm Or Deny Superman Reboot

Later this week we'll be publishing our full interview with director James McTeigue (V For Vendetta, Ninja Assassin), but until then I've been posting some of the more newsworthy bits to come out of our discussion. Yesterday, McTeigue revealed his next project, a Se7en-stlye thriller titled The Raven, and he gave us an update on the development of the sci-fi adaptation Altered Carbon. You can read about both projects in our previous post.

James also took the time to address three comic book movie related rumors that have been circulating the interwebs recently, including Plastic Man, X-Men Origins: Magneto and a Superman reboot. Rumors debunked and quotes after the jump.

A project that has long been rumored is a big screen adaptation of Plastic Man. The Wachowski Brothers wrote a screenplay based on the comic book in the mid-1990's, before The Matrix took off. However, recently an AICN report sparked rumors that Plastic Man might be next project for the Wachowskis, with McTeigue providing second unit support, or possibly directing the Wachowski-produced project himself. McTeigue says that NOT ONLY ARE the rumors not true, but he doesn't believe Plastic Man will ever hit the big screen.

"Obviously, Larry and Andy, did a script for Plastic Man back in the day. I'll be very surprised if that movie gets made. We haven't ever really talked about it. But I know it's still a Joel [Silver] property or a Warner property..."

In May it was rumored that McTeigue was in talks to replace David Goyer on X-Men Origins: Magneto. The IMDb page for the film even started listing McTeigue as "in talks" for the project. But when I asked James about the project, he joked "I think that David Goyer would be surprised about that actually."

"[Magneto] was just one of those rumors that started out and I don't know where it came from or how it came up."

Then the filmmaker paused for a second before admitting, "I mean, you know, it's not a bad idea."

Last week IESB reported a rumor that Warner Bros and DC Comics were in talks with Andy and Larry Wachowski to produce a Superman reboot directed by McTeigue. I asked James if there was any truth to the rumors what-so ever, and he laughed kinda nervously, and paused for a second, before giving me an interesting non answer:

"You know... I... I would say... I'll keep you guessing, actually. It's good not to dispel every rumor, right?"

James had been so forthcoming on previous questions, and quick to deny false rumors. I hate to read too much into his answer (or as it may be, his non-answer) but his hesitation seems to suggest there might be something to it. Maybe there have been some early talks, or possibly it is something the Wachowski Brothers are developing. But the non denial seems rather odd, especially coming off of denials on a handful of other rumored projects.