Brandon Routh leaving Superman?

[Admiral_Young]

Surprised no one has jumped all over this already...but apprently according to this article

http://www.mania.com/routh-done-superman_article_116066.html

Brandon's contract for the sequel has expired!!! I guess this means that whenever Warner Bros gets their act together and starts prepping another Superman movie that they can re-approach Brandon if they want and will need to negotiate a new contract. It's kind of pathetic that they seem to be sitting on their hands again with the Superman franchise....they brought Batman back with a bang and are looking to introduce Green Lantern but their biggest property is just gathering more dust again.

 

[Daneel]

I don't think the Superman franchise can really be called Warner's biggest property right now, certainly not after Returns failed to make as much as the studio was hoping for (granted, I wouldn't say it flopped, and that insanely high budget was always going to be a problem for it, but compared to some other recent comic book movie franchises, it did underperform). In light of that, as well as the somewhat mixed fan response, I'm not too surprised that they aren't in a hurry to move forward with another installment. They know they have a definite hit on their hands with the new Batman series though, and with the aforementioned Green Lantern film in development, I'd imagine their attention is going to remain focused away from Superman.

 

[Aragorn]

His post-Superman roles where he's been one of the leads have either been straight-to-DVD or never been able to find an audience outside of small film festivals. Maybe they could get him back at an even lower rate.

Or better yet, just forget the last movie and reboot with a new cast.

 

[JacksonArcher]

I think rebooting is a dumb idea.

Superman Returns was not a failure. Did it underperform? Yes. Guess what? So did Batman Begins. And the two film's budgets were pretty identical -- the only thing people presume that Returns had a higher budget because of the accumulated costs from the previous unproduced attempts, which quite frankly shouldn't count.

Yet The Dark Knight was an even bigger success. I think with Singer's proven track record at making a bigger, better and more successful sequel (X2), I think it is very dumb on WB's part to sit idly by.

The solution should have been simple: reduce the budget, and make it a more action-packed story, which Singer had wanted to do in the first place!

Now, it's been three years, and a sequel should be out in theaters by now. But it's not.

WB keeps on missing the ball with this franchise.

 

[Jax]

The problem with Returns was it made BB Box Office numbers but the budget was totally stupid though the film did walk away with a healthly profit at the end of the day. Superman is not a major comic book character that I care about but I did enjoy the film and am a little dissapointed I will never get to see a Singer sequel.

 

[The_Emperor]

Rebooting the franchise is what Superman absolutely needs. The first movie was complete dreck. Moreover, continuing from the crappy foundation that it laid would be terrible.

Superman Returns gave us evil real estate agent Lex (Which was awful in the old movies. Why did Singer regurgitate that?), Lex marrying an old biddy and screwing around with her for her money (Ugh!), Superman abandoning the Earth for six years, deadbeat dad Superman, and oh yeah, superbrat. Thanks, but no thanks. Any one of those elements would be enough to warrant a reboot, but all of them together?

They rebooted Hulk just fine, so I say reboot Superman. That's the only way we'll finally get a Lex Luthor onscreen who's actually worth a damn, rather than the pathetic joke we've been subjected to for all these movies. Rebooting is also the only way to get rid of that ridiculous superkid (That's something that comes at the END of a franchise, not vomitted up at the beginning of it) and undo the asinine "ditched the Earth for six years" background part. All those things are going to drag down any future Superman movies, so better to reboot rather than trying to work around them.

Oh yeah. Did I forget to point out the stupidity of going with a younger cast when the plot calls for a Superman who'd been gone for six years, and had been active for a number of years as Superman before that? So Superman was 21 when he left Earth? Lois was 17 when she gave birth to superbaby? Ugh! If you're going to cast a younger cast then start the story at the beginning. If you're going to hang your hat around a plotline requiring the hero to have been active for a number of years before disappearing for six years, then go with an older cast. But for the love of God, don't do both!

 

[Admiral_Young]

It was never implied that Lex had sex with Vandermeer...he was obviously just using her to get her money and probably bailed out of jail (although this isn't stated either). I won't argue that there were a lot of flaws in Superman Returns (really didn't post this thread to get into yet another Returns bashing debate) but it was a decent film that went over budget and tried too hard with the emotional and drama aspects. Superman should be an action film. Unfortunately unlike Spider-Man or Batman there aren't that many villans that Supes can have a slugfest with or are interesting. Lex Luthor happens to be one of them, I would have liked to seen an original film from Singer myself not a "vague" (his term not mine) rendering of the Donner'Verse. Kevin Spacey would have played a bad ass Lex Luthor if he was allowed to be the corperate mongrul from the current comics. It doesn't matter to me if they reboot the franchise or continue with a direct sequel...either way they should be figuring out a way to make Superman fucking work.We should be debating about the sequel by this time as Dan pointed out in his thread not discussing why there isn't a movie or how lame Superman Returns was or isn't.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Personally, I had my doubts that Brandon Routh would really be back for the reboot unless it was something that was already being filmed right now. I just think that the more time that elapses, the more the studio might start considering other actors for the role in order to give the franchise a totally fresh restart...

 

[Admiral_Young]

I'm actually really curious about the status of the franchise right now. The last time we heard anything was a few months ago when it was announced that Warner Bros was reviewing proposals for pitches for the movie. Remember there was quite the hub bub about Mark Millar's Godfather type suggestion.

 

[DarKush]

I support the reboot idea. Nothing against Routh. I thought he was adequate in the role, but I blame Singer's direction in having him channel Christopher Reeve, and he came off as a pale imitation of Reeve, both as Clark and Superman.

I think Returns did well enough financially, but I don't think it left many theater goers necessarily wanting more like either of the new Batman films have done. Singer had a chance to update the Superman story, to make it more relevant to our times and I think he screwed it up. All of Singer's changes felt off: the idea of Supes leaving Earth after he promised the President he wouldn't in Superman 2 (which Returns was supposed to be a continuation of), Superman being a deadbeat father, Superman looking at Louis through the walls of her house (stalker vibe), Superman being a messianic figure (though potentially that could be an interesting angle to be honest). The only thing that should've been taken from the Donner films was the John Williams theme.

Perhaps Singer should've looked closely at Smallville to see how they had incorporated elements of the Superman movies into their reimagined, updated take on the Superman legend instead of just trying to recreate the Donner films with a younger and far more charmless cast. Spacey was the best thing going among the SR cast, and he was wasted. A Spacey Lex based more on the Bryne reboot would've been awesome.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Superman Returns was not a failure. Did it underperform? Yes. Guess what? So did Batman Begins. And the two film's budgets were pretty identical -- the only thing people presume that Returns had a higher budget because of the accumulated costs from the previous unproduced attempts, which quite frankly shouldn't count.

Even without the money spent on the previous unproduced Superman films (which I agree shouldn't count), Superman Returns was a good $50 million more expensive to produce than Batman Begins, and BB was a huge hit in home entertainment, while SR merely did respectable numbers there. BB earned its sequel handily.

Green Lantern in 2011, the next Batman in 2012 and then a full reboot with a new cast for Superman in 2013 is the way to go at this point. The ship has sailed for a sequel to SR.

 

[Admiral_Young]

One of the problems I have with Superman Returns is the reason for the movie in the first place, as mentioned above he leaves after telling the President at the end of Superman II that he wouldn't. Now as I've mentioned in this thread and Singer stated himself...Returns takes place in a vague continuation of Superman II...the novel has an offhanded thought by Clark that he hasn't encountered General Zod yet but recalls him from the Jor-El simulcrum. Anyways if it was mentioned in the movie somewhere that Superman had informed the public the reason he left was because scientists had thoght they discovered Krypton's remains (as he tells Lois on the rooftop) and he had to go investigate the possibilty himself then I think everyone would understand. Clark was so wrapped up that he couldn't bring himself to even tell Lois. He thought he was leaving for good and didn't or couldn't tell anyone except Martha.

I was really excited that Singer was directing Superman Returns and Kevin Spacey was Lex Luthor because I thought we were going to be seeing an original take (much like Singer showed us his take on the X-Men). Disapointing to learn that it was a subpar but somewhat entertaining continuation of the Donner verse.

 

[The_Emperor]

It was never implied that Lex had sex with Vandermeer...

I haven't watched it in a while, but the old lady actually has a line where she talks about the pleasures she's experienced with Lex, clearly indicating that he was diddling the old lady for her money. Ewww.

I won't argue that there were a lot of flaws in Superman Returns (really didn't post this thread to get into yet another Returns bashing debate) but it was a decent film

To each their own, but I didn't think it was decent at all, and was downright awful in many respects. And man, I hated the costume ("90's style" costume, I take it?). What was up with that shade of red? It looked like Superman had dipped those costume pieces in a bucket full of blood. The "S" symbol on his chest was also way to small, and what was the point of repeating it on his belt? It was such a useless change. Oh yeah, and thank you Bryan Singer, for making sure we all noticed Routh's schlong. Yeah, cause when I go see a Superman movie, that's what I want to see.

Unfortunately unlike Spider-Man or Batman there aren't that many villans that Supes can have a slugfest with or are interesting. Lex Luthor happens to be one of them

He has several, actually. Let's see... Brainiac, Mongul, Metallo, Bizarro, Parasite, General Zod, the Eradicator, Darkseid, and Doomsday, for starters. This movie really trashed the character of Lex Luthor, though. After this and the Donner movies, it's going to be hard for the general public to accept Lex Luthor as anything other than an incompetent oaf with a fetish for cheaply made wigs. Which is a shame, because I think there's plenty of room for making Lex a great overarching villain for a trilogy of Superman movies. It'd be awesome, having Superman trying to take down Lex over the course of three movies, and Lex creating bad guys like Metallo and Parasite to take on Superman, before eventually donning the battle armor and duking it out with Superman, himself.

We should be debating about the sequel by this time as Dan pointed out in his thread not discussing why there isn't a movie or how lame Superman Returns was or isn't.

Personally, I'm glad we're NOT talking about a sequel to Superman Returns, because that would've likely been as abysmal as the first one. I'd like a Superman movie too, but you know what? I want a good one. And any sequel to Superman Returns is going to have NUMEROUS albatross's tied to its neck, from superboy to Lex Luthor the mediocre villain. Superman Returns set up so much crap that any sequel to it is pretty much guaranteed to fail. ESPECIALLY when it comes to dealing with that damnable kid.

They really need to get on the ball and make a Superman movie, but first and foremost it has to be a good movie. And to get a good movie, they're going to have to do a reboot. There's just no building off Superman Returns, as it made a ridiculous mess of the franchise right from the outset. The only movie I've ever seen that did a worse job of setting up a movie franchise was Highlander. And in that case a movie franchise wasn't originally planned, whereas Superman Returns was supposed to be the basis for a movie franchise.

 

[T'Baio]

The studio is waiting, biding it's time.

It's waiting for contracts to expire.

Then, it's gonna' wait a little a longer for all of us to move on a little.

Then, they're gonna "reboot."

They're just waiting for everyone to walk away and not care anymore.

 

[Finnegan]

We need Supe back on the big screen. Just no more Goddamn Lex Luthor, ok? That was the entire problem with "Returns" underperforming at the box office--no one cared to see Luthor yet again. Get a decent villian, or crisis of some kind, make it a decent story. People will see it....

 

[Mr Light]

I really didn't care for Routh as Superman so I really hope they get someone else for the eventual reboot that ignores Returns completely.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I took the pleasures with Lex line as to mean non physical...I'm not ruling out the posibilty that Lex had sexual relations with the woman (after all he would lower himself to get what he wanted. Mongul and Darkseid aren't really exclusive Superman villans, they're DCU villans that Superman has had to deal with. His rouges gallery has never been the greatest. I wouldn't mind seeing Metallo as a villan, afterall he was the villan in the Superman Returns video game and looked pretty cool too. The costume wasn't based on a "90"'s design perse...it was pretty original and the only two problems that I had with it was the rubber, and the small S crest. I like Perry's line from the movie about the suit though "Is that a new suit?" and directs it at his fashion department. As for having a large cod piece...I honestly didn't notice that myself. Was busy trying to figure out what Superman, the star of the movie and what it was named after barely had any dialouge in the movie at all. Again though I really didn't want this thread to be another let's bash Superman Returns thread. It really was about Brandon's contract expiring and the lack of progress on getting the franchise back up and running. I tend to agree with T'Biao's statements....j

 

[Forbin]

I'm not thrilled about the idea of a reboot, 'cause I'm sick to detah of seeing the origin story. We KNOW what happened, ferchrissake! Now go have an adventure with a villian worthy of needing a near-god to defeat him.

 

[barnaclelapse]

His post-Superman roles where he's been one of the leads have either been straight-to-DVD or never been able to find an audience outside of small film festivals. Maybe they could get him back at an even lower rate.

Or better yet, just forget the last movie and reboot with a new cast.

I wouldn't mind that so much, but I'd keep Kevin Spacey as Luthor.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

I'm not thrilled about the idea of a reboot, 'cause I'm sick to detah of seeing the origin story. We KNOW what happened, ferchrissake! Now go have an adventure with a villian worthy of needing a near-god to defeat him.

A reboot wouldn't necessarily have to go over the origin again in any detail.