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Word from DC Entertainment: "Superman" movie not in near future

JacksonArcher

JacksonArcher

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SuperHeroHype! reports that Diane Nelson, newly appointed exec behind DC Entertainment, was asked about any potential development on a new Superman movie and her response basically put kaput any rumors circulating over a new movie.

Superman is back in development hell.

Which I think is possibly for the best. I think it's obvious now whenever WB does decide to move forward with a new film it will be a complete restart, barring no ties to Superman Returns. Even Brandon Routh said he had no clue the status of a new movie, merely stating he was waiting to hear from WB.

However, with the court order stipulating WB must move forward with a new Superman movie by 2011 or the movie rights revert back to the Seigel estate (...I think -- someone please correct me if I'm wrong...) the future of Superman on the big screen certainly looks grim.
 
It amazes me they can't figure this one out. The pieces are in place with the Singer universe, now just have him fight someone instead of just lifting stuff.
 
JacksonArcher said:
However, with the court order stipulating WB must move forward with a new Superman movie by 2011 or the movie rights revert back to the Seigel estate (...I think -- someone please correct me if I'm wrong...) the future of Superman on the big screen certainly looks grim.
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My understanding is that the rights won't revert completely to the Siegel estate in 2011, but after that point they will likely have sufficient co-ownership of the Superman rights that Warners would have to pay them out in order to produce a Superman film.

Also, I think Diane Nelson was simply saying that they haven't settled on a direction for the Superman films and they're not in active development with a script being written. That doesn't mean they're not taking meetings about what to do with the property or that a Superman film couldn't go into active development in the near future.
 
Well I think a quick and dirty Superman movie could be done, it doesn't have to be super duper visually stunning with lovingly shot scenes of Superman flying above the Earth and staring down spying on people... in their own homes.

Just have him kick some ass, have Clark not be such a pussy and at least once have the bad guy tossed through a building.

Pick any one story at random from a box of Superman comics and make it a movie.
 
NickRyder said:
Well I think a quick and dirty Superman movie could be done, it doesn't have to be super duper visually stunning with lovingly shot scenes of Superman flying above the Earth and staring down spying on people... in their own homes.
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:rolleyes:

This incessant complaining about Superman's "spying" (or other scenes in SR) really gets old after a while.
 
Anyone ever hear of the Fantastic Four movie from the 90s? That's all they really have to do, technically, as they would've produced a Superman movie.
 
Yes, it's been well established Superman is a voyeur, no need to bring it up. :p

Smallville is better than Superman Returns, or any of the Superman movies. It's the live-action Superman for the current generation. There, I said it.

(I'm not sure I believe it myself, but...;))
 
nx1701g said:
Anyone ever hear of the Fantastic Four movie from the 90s? That's all they really have to do, technically, as they would've produced a Superman movie.
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The situation with the Superman rights doesn't correlate to that. Warners doesn't have an option on the Superman rights which is set to expire unless they make a movie before 2011 (as was the case with the Fantastic Four rights in the 1990s). It looks like the Siegel estate will get back certain rights in 2011 no matter what. The difference is that if Warners makes a new movie before 2011 then it'll be made under the current arrangement where Warners owns almost all of the rights and can produce a movie without any payment to the Siegel estate (as long as they don't use the origin and certain other elements that appeared in Action Comics #1). If they make a movie after 2011 then they're going to have to reach an accomodation with the Siegel family in terms of payment.
 
It isn't the voyeur thing, its just the long lovingly shot scenes of him doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I think a couple of those shots were nearly 3-5 minutes long, of him just... watching stuff.

I mean if I wanted to watch someone just sitting around... watching stuff. I'd put in a stoner movie.

Even the title sequence as awesome as it was the first time around... its damn long. They really need to subscribe to the brevity camp. Get into the action and you'd have a movie that people will be going "that was an awesome movie!" after it. I'd love to see some of the classic rogues gallery, like Brianiac or Metallo, or even a Lex Luthor who is closer to the Lex many of us know FROM THE PAST 25 YEARS! Lex hasn't been a bumbling scientist/land grabber since the early 80s. Let's just go with the corporate megolith and go from there. Show him as the guy behind the scenes no one can touch. And he's unleashing all manner of super powered baddies at Supes.

And I want Lex played by Faran Tahir. :D
 
This news isn't really news, its just now officially the state of the character. Everybody knew that after that last film and the longer we moved away from it without positive news that Superman was back in limbo.


T'Baio said:
It amazes me they can't figure this one out. The pieces are in place with the Singer universe, now just have him fight someone instead of just lifting stuff.
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There is no Singer universe. That was Donner-verse 2.0 and nobody cares for land grab Luthor and the rest of what Returns offered up. Its why for a year or so Wal-Mart can't give away that movie. It sits in the $5 bin with movies that are 20yrs old, but at least they are 20yrs old and not selling. Says alot when no one wants a 2yr old movie for $5.
 
Yeah, SR really tanked in dvd sales fast. I mean, when I was working at Target when it came out, it was $19.99 for a while, then around Christmas it went down to like $14.99 then you see it on the $13.78 rack, then it moved to the $9.44 rack, then to the $7.50 rack, and now you see it sitting in $5 bins and sometimes its even BUNDLED with something!

That movie could not be given away now. I bought the Special Edition of Superman Returns, I enjoyed it in the theater and even after the first viewing at home it was fun, but by the second home viewing I had no desire to see it again. I had fun with parts of it but other parts... blech. Needed a "Phantom Edit" honestly, but even that couldn't really save it.

I mean c'mon the character has had so many comics based adventures that could be ported over to screen. Why is it so hard to do that? I can understand the whole "Donner-verse love" but c'mon... Kevin Spacey was a decent Luthor, but then they HAD to go into that crazy ass landgrabbing Luthor of old and it fell apart. If he was the "old" Luthor, but had become "respectable" and had LexCorp and people forgot about his schemes of the past - not that many would know, since really he hid underground during Superman 1 and in Superman 2 only a handful of people knew he had anything to do with the 3 Kryptonians and then in Superman 4 he was still little known, even though he was clearly in prison.

But geez louise simonson just make him Lex as we've known him, put Superman against some larger than life villans that he can FIGHT. And even if the story is simplistic, it can still be fun and cool.
 
Captain Craig said:
There is no Singer universe. That was Donner-verse 2.0 and nobody cares for land grab Luthor and the rest of what Returns offered up. Its why for a year or so Wal-Mart can't give away that movie. It sits in the $5 bin with movies that are 20yrs old, but at least they are 20yrs old and not selling. Says alot when no one wants a 2yr old movie for $5.
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Are you sure that's not the single-disc full-screen edition in the Wal-Mart bin? Who would buy that? :shifty:
 
NickRyder said:
Well I think a quick and dirty Superman movie could be done, it doesn't have to be super duper visually stunning with lovingly shot scenes of Superman flying above the Earth and staring down spying on people... in their own homes.

Just have him kick some ass, have Clark not be such a pussy and at least once have the bad guy tossed through a building.

Pick any one story at random from a box of Superman comics and make it a movie.
Click to expand...

Does the world really need another Superman IV?
 
zzzz.... snirkle snorkel... zzzz.... *snap* huh? what? Superman news? No? okay... hm... zzz...
 
The term "Superman" is offensive to those who are differently abled. Thus the movie they make will be called "Above Average Man."
 
Aragorn said:
The term "Superman" is offensive to those who are differently abled. Thus the movie they make will be called "Above Average Man."
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What about 'Normality-Challenged-Man'?

Seriously though, I'm not surprised insofar it's been evident for some time - mainly since the lukewarm reaction to SR - that WB have no idea what to with Superman as a movie series. 20 years since the previous movie, 10 years of development hell, a realm of directors, writers and actors linked to the part, only for it to result in a movie that underperformed financially and was disliked by a lot and liked by a large minority at best (myself included). Can't blame them for being loath to pump another $200m into another Superman movie, be it sequel or reboot.

I am surprised, though, insofar as (a) comic book movies have still been big perfomers since SR, not least of all WB's own The Dark Knight. Batman Begins was viewed as a financial disappointment on its initial release but look how well its sequel did. Admittedly BB engendered much more enthusiasm among those who did see it than SR did. But still, WB should take note.

I'm surprised because (b) I was pretty sure that the recent lawsuit would result in WB being anxious to knock out some sort of movie, even as just a 'Shaft the Siegels' operation. The Corman Fantastic Four movie did come to mind - even some sort of mid-budget effort, say in the Blade/ Hellboy type budget range.

The fact that they're not doing so makes me think that they're not interested in Superman in the long run - if they were planning on making lots of bucks from this previously-lucrative franchise, then I'm sure they'd want to ensure they had to pay as few of those bucks as possible to the Siegel estate.

Of course, it's possible that WB are finally prepared to be decent to the Siegel estate ... and it's also possible that a pig will fly ...
 
1. Over in the Batverse, Batman is currently on the run.

2. It's a given that no normal person has a chance of catching Batman.

3. The authorities call in Superman to deal with the Batproblem. Fun ensues.
 
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