Latest on Superman

I hope Millar's right.

What I wouldn't give to write a Superman script.

 

I really hope this is true and WB is not going forward with McG directing that godawful Abrams script(with Jon Peters producing no less). If it's not gonna be released til 2007 at the earliest, why not just let Smallville run its course and turn that into a movie series? It would certainly help make up for the 50 mil they've already dropped on this project(and I'll bet good money they've spent at least twice that amount).

 

Sorry for derailing the thread, I dont get WB up here in VA. Do you guys think the show is good enough to buy the first or second season on DVD. I saw a 10 minute clip with Kristen Kreuk in it, and I fell in love with the girl, I dont know if it is worht buying the season on DVD or not...

 

First seasons pretty solid, but then it gets really sloppy predictable and repetitive with the whole "will they or wont they" shtick. I still watch ocassionally with my girl- friends (friends who are girls) but nowadays when I watch I do the whole MST3K commentary.

Seriously, chicks dig superpowers. I would've told her in the first episode.

Great 1st season. Buy it.

 

Thx, Plus I just figured I get a 10 dollar discount at CCITY... sweet

 

I actually really liked Season 2 up to the "Rosetta" episode. After that however it was all downhill. The second-to-last episode of the season was solid, but the rest sucked. And Season 3 has been uneven at best. It feels like a retread of the first year in a lot of ways.

 

McG just signed on to do an Evel Knievel biopic. Hopefully between this and "Hot Wheels", he'll be too busy to ruin Superman.

 

Ding dong teh mcbeyotch is dead.

 

I read yesterday that Mirimax has decided to do a "Green Hornet" movie to be written and directed by Chasing Amy's Kevin Smith. In the article about this announcement, Smith reffers to the "trouble" he's had with the studio on superman.

I know McG is slated to direct (or not, considering the above post) but did Smith write the script? Did they contact him for re-writes?

Here's the link to the "Green Hornet" article.
http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=17057

 

Kevin Smith wrote a Superman script in the late '90s, before Tim Burton signed on to direct and Nic Cage signed on to star. Said script has been long abandoned. Smith is completely out of the Superman business at this point.

The story is entertaining, though, worth renting the "Evening With Kevin Smith" DVD just for that and the Prince story.

 

If anyone is interested, here's a nice synopsis of the past 17 years of the developement of this movie. Great read.

The whole thing started in 1987. The Israeli producing team of Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus (who were cousins, by the way) had bought the film rights to Superman from Alexander and Ilya Salkind, the obnoxious father-son duo who made the first three films. WB gave Golan and Globus’ production company Cannon Films $40 million bucks to make Superman IV, and Golan Globus took the money and spent it all on their other pictures. They only spent $17 million on Superman IV, chopping out key plot sequences and gutting the FX in order to keep the costs down. Anyway, Superman IV bombed because of the hack job Golan-Globus did on it, but since they still had the rights to Superman, they decided to make a fifth film for release in 1989, with Captain America (the one with Matt Salinger and Ronny Cox) director Albert Pyun at the helm. They also planned to reuse all the edited material from Superman IV and to recast Superman with another actor (their antics on IV left Reeve outraged with them). However, Cannon fell on hard times and Golan left to make his own company, 21st Century Films (which went under in the early ‘90s), and the rights to Superman reverted back to the Salkinds. This is when Superboy was in full swing on TV, and the Salkinds decided to restart the Superman film series using Superboy as the prequel. Hence, Superman comic scribe and his Superboy writing partner Mark Jones were drafted to write a script pitting Superman against Brainiac in a story set in the bottled city of Kandor. Under the working title Superman: The New Movie, this film was to have been released in 1994, with Superboy star Gerard Christopher taking over for Reeve as Superman.

Well, 1993 rolled around, and WB bought all the non-comics rights to Superman lock, stock, and barrel. WB forced the Salkinds to pull Superboy from the airwaves completely so as not to interfere with the planned Lois & Clark series (which Gerard Christopher auditioned for, and was turned down because he’d played Superboy-that’s how Dean Cain got the part), and scrapped the Bates/Jones script. Deciding to base the movie on the "death and return" story from the comic books (they figured that the big sales figures the story racked up would translate into box office success), WB turned the project over to their pet producer Jon Peters, an illiterate, abusive, womanizer (I wish I was making this up, but I’m not-this is all true, every word of it) who got his start as Barbra Streisand’s hairdresser/lover and produced the Tim Burton Batman films. Peters, who hates the classic Superman in every way imaginable, set out to reinvent Superman in the "sex, killing, rock & roll, and whatever movie was a hit last weekend" style that all of his movies are based in. So he hired Jonathan Lemkin to write the script. Lemkin’s draft had Superman dying in battle with Doomsday, but managing to impregnate Lois as he’s dying by way of immaculate conception. Lois is killed off later in the story, but not before giving birth to a baby who grows 21 years in three weeks’ time, and takes over as the new Superman and saves the universe from Armageddon. Lemkin’s script-which even he proudly boasted was campy and silly-was scrapped because WB thought it was too similar to Batman Forever. So Peters hired p*rn veteran Gregory Poirer-who scripted Peters’ Rosewood-to start over. Poirer’s script had an angst-ridden Superman visiting a shrink in order to deal with his feeling of being an outsider and a freak by virtue of his alien heritage, and being killed by a Doomsday who bled kryptonite, the Silver Banshee, and the Parasite. WB liked the script, but when Kevin Smith was offered to be a consultant on the film, he blasted the script for its lack of respect for the source material. He made such a convincing case that WB hired him to write the film.

And this is where things got really ugly. Peters demanded that Superman be stripped of his red and blue suit, arguing that the suit was "too pink, too faggy." So Smith stuck Superman in the black and silver suit from the "death of" story. Peters also hated the FX in the 1978 Superman film with Chris Reeve, so he wanted to get rid of Superman’s ability to fly. So Smith portrayed Superman as a red blur while in flight, creating a sonic boom every time he took off (he took this from The Dark Knight Returns). Peters them told Smith to have Brainiac fight polar bears at the Fortress of Solitude, demanding that the film be wall-to-wall action. Smith thought it was a stupid idea, so Peters said, "Then have Brainiac fight Superman’s bodyguards!" Smith responded, "Why the hell would Superman need bodyguards?" Peters wouldn’t let up, so Smith caved in and had Brainiac fight the polar bears. Then Peters demanded that Brainiac give Luthor a hostile space dog, arguing that the movie needed a cuddly Chewbacca character who could be turned into a toy. Then, after watching Chasing Amy, Peters liked the gay black character in the film so much that he ordered Smith to make Brainiac’s robot servant L-Ron gay, asserting that the film needed a gay R2-D2 with attitude. Then Peters demanded that Superman fight a huge spider at the end of the film, which Smith refused to do-he used a Thanagarian Snare Beast instead. (However, Peters did manage to recycle his spider idea and use it in Wild Wild West.) When all was said and done, Smith’s script was severely compromised by the time it came to its second draft, but WB liked it enough to give it the green-light. When it came time to cast Superman, Peters wanted to cast Sean Penn, because he "has the eyes of a killer and the charisma of a caged animal," per his performance in Dead Man Walking. But when Nicolas Cage offered his services as either Luthor or Brainiac, Smith pleaded with WB to cast Cage as Superman, feeling that Cage had the gravitas to pull the role off. Peters agreed, for totally different reasons. "Being an outsider and feeling like we don’t belong is the essence of Superman," Peters boasted, saying that Cage could play up the alien side of Supes. Smith tried to get his friend Robert Rodriguez to direct the film, but Peters and WB saw the film as a vehicle for Tim Burton, who they hired shortly after Cage. Burton, having been given almost total creative control, hated Smith’s script because it was too faithful to the comics (Burton doesn’t read comics, and he always brags about it). So he fired Smith and trashed his script, hiring his Batman Returns crony Wesley Strick to recreate Superman per Burton’s vision.

So what was Burton’s vision? Not much different from Peters’, in fact. Burton hated the flying FX in the 1978 film, too, so he didn’t want Superman to fly. Instead, he put Superman in a Supermobile. He also hated the classic costume, too, hence the oddball designs he proffered with the silver ElectroSupes S-shield and armored Keaton Batman-style boots, which are as follows:

1. A partially translucent suit that would allow full view of Superman's internal organs, as reported by the magazine Cinescape shortly after Burton assumed control of the film. (This design was confirmed by Burton's camp, but was never committed to paper, leaving some people following the project wondering if Burton was really planning to use this or if this was a hoax. Nevertheless, Burton's diehard fans adored this idea and praised it as the height of genius and coolness, while most Superman fans were left scratching their heads over it.)

2. An all-black, alien-looking suit that resembled a "cool cross" between Edward Scissorhands, Batman, and a Borg.

3. A silver body armor/healing suit with details that would make Superman's body look robotic.

4. An all-dark blue suit with a "blood-red" cape.

Burton was also opposed to the casting of Cage, who’s a diehard comic book geek and was protesting Burton’s planned changes. Even though he put on a public face of being delighted with the casting of Cage, Burton was privately trying to get Cage fired and replaced with Ralph Fiennes, and he kept trying to do so all the while he was on the film. Hulk Hogan was then approached to play Doomsday, and he immediately agreed (this was reported on the WCW/NOW site at that time). However, Burton envisioned Doomsday as being "kinda chunky" and told Hogan to gain weight for the part. Hogan blew a fuse and turned Burton down flat, so Burton had Doomsday redesigned to look like a cybernetically-enhanced Rancor and dropped the idea of casting Hogan. Jim Carrey was briefly considered to play Brainiac-envisioned by Burton in a variety of weird forms, one of them an Independence Day rip-off and another a green head in a glass ball balanced on a black pyramid, but Burton made a handshake deal with Tim Allen to give him the role (Allen said to the Chicago Sun-Times, "I’ll shave my head in a second!"). Burton also made a handshake deal with Chris Rock to cast him as Jimmy Olsen, who Burton envisioned as a smart-ass street-punk type. (Burton had wanted to cast one of the Wayans brothers as Robin in Batman Returns, but WB wouldn’t let him.) Then he made similar arrangements with Kevin Spacey and Cameron Diaz to cast them as Luthor and Lois, respectively. He also intended to shoot the Metropolis exteriors in Pittsburgh, making use of the Gothic buildings there. Meanwhile, Jon Peters saw a group of Shaolin monks performing on Jay Leno, and liked them so much that he tried to get them cast in the film. He also tried to have the Eradicator-now renamed "K" by Burton (to be voiced by Jack Nicholson) and reinvented as a robotic Alfred to Superman’s gadget-dependent Batman (swear to God, I’m not kidding; Burton and Peters’ Superman was to be reliant on Batman-style gadgets)-tote around an "Eradicator stick," because he saw visions of posters and toys based on it. And the Eradicator wasn’t the only computerized character to be radically reconceived; Burton planned to end the film with Luthor and Brainiac merging Dark Claw-style to become a single villain called either "Luthinac" or "Lexiac" (he hadn’t decided yet). But the most controversial thing Burton did was brag to a radio news service in Texas during an interview that he intended to play up "Superman’s darker, more murderous side" and that he hoped Cage was up to the task of portraying that aspect of Superman. Also, Michael Keaton announced to MTV that he was going to be in the film (he and Burton are pals-he only did the Batman films as a favor to Burton; he actually hated playing the role and said so to E! when Jack Frost was released), but when asked if he was going to play Batman, he said, "Not exactly." (In fact, Burton had cut Kevin Smith’s hoped-for Batman cameo out of the film, so nobody has any clue who Keaton was to play.)

Anyway, the Strick script-which Burton adored-was rejected by WB. (In fact, low-level WB execs-then-WB head honchos Bob Daly and Terry Semel were in total support of Burton-Peters-were calling up Kevin Smith and complaining about how Burton and Peters were destroying Superman.) So Burton hired Akiva Goldsman of Joel Schumacher’s Batman films to rewrite Strick’s script. Goldsman’s rewrite was rejected. Then Burton hired Ron Bass to rewrite Goldsman’s rewrite of Strick’s script. Bass’s rewrite was rejected. Then Burton hired Dan Gilroy to rewrite Bass’ rewrite of Goldsman’s rewrite of Strick’s script. For the moment, WB was appeased. Meanwhile, Burton kept changing his mind about the film’s design scheme, and was constantly ordering the art teams to change whatever it was they were doing every day (SFX ran an article about Burton’s slave-driving the art team). Nicolas Cage, having been fighting tooth and nail against Burton and Peters’ vision of Superman (even though he’d been putting on a happy public face about working with them), angrily demanded that he be allowed to wear the classic Superman costume and fly. So WB relented much to Burton’s dismay, ordering up a rubber Superman suit and flying FX tests. (A chintzy, Sam Jones-as-Flash Gordon-type Superman suit was dished up, but it went over like a lead balloon.) However, when Cage tried on the rubber suit, it looked stupid. And when they stuck a long-haired wig on him, it looked even worse. And after Burton and Gilroy were finished with their rewritten script, WB looked it over and loathed it. So, in April 1998, just weeks before the film was to start shooting, WB put the film on indefinite hold.

It was at this point that Lorenzo DiBonaventura, a WB exec who was and still is a long-time ally of Peters, joined the production and openly supported everything Burton wanted to do with Superman. It was with DiBonaventura that Burton and Peters had Gilroy rewrite the script completely, mixing and matching elements from the Strick, Goldsman, Bass, and Gilroy drafts into a single script. The end result had Jor-El inventing Brainiac, only to abandon him when Kal-El is born. Brainiac is jealous of Kal-El, so he blows up Krypton. However, Kal-El is sent to Earth, so Brainiac vows to hunt him down and kill him. Jump forward 30 years. Superman-who’s been having a full-blown sexual affair with Lois-is forced to reveal his true identity to her when she finds out that Superman’s escape rocket landed on the Kent farm. (The Kents were dead in this draft.) Anyway, Brainiac comes to Earth with a kryptonite-bleeding Doomsday and merges with Lex Luthor-who in this draft was basically portrayed as the Joker in a business suit-to become "Lexiac." So Lexiac tricks Superman into coming to the LexCorp tower, where Doomsday kills him in combat and runs off. (He never shows up again in this draft.) Then Lexiac seizes control of all the world’s nukes and seduces Lois-who’s pregnant with Superman’s love child!!!!! Meanwhile, Superman is revived by "K," the combined, still-living essence of Jor-El and Lara. Initially powerless upon his rebirth, Superman is told by "K" that all he needs to do is have faith in himself, and so regains his powers by sheer force of will (yes, yes, I know he’s supposed to get them back by exposure to sunlight, but bear in mind what we’re dealing with here). And so Superman engages Lexiac in combat and saves the world with 10 seconds left on the nuclear clock, separating Brainiac and Luthor, who has no idea that he was possessed by Brainiac. And while Lois and Clark are undecided if they want to get married or just live together, all that matters is that they’re happy.

This was the script Burton proffered in late 1998. WB loved it, but Burton’s egotistical attitude was wearing thin on them. It came to the point where Burton started smart-mouthing them, trying to bully them into giving him his way. As such WB finally fired him in late ‘98/early ’99. (Burton later tried to pin the blame for the project's lack of momentum on WB in his book Burton on Burton, claiming that he was innocent and that it was everyone else who was screwing things up. Of course, everyone knew he was lying, and blew him off.) Peters and DiBonaventura-now Peters’ co-producer on the film (and he still is, by the way)-continued to polish the Gilroy draft, deleting the Lois pregnancy at WB’s behest. Meanwhile, an aspiring screenwriter named Alex Ford tried to talk WB out of the Peters/Burton/DiBonaventura plans for the movie, instead proposing a series of 6-7 Superman films. He went so far as to write a "Year One" script featuring Luthor and Metallo-posing as a superhero-as the villains. But WB, being so enamored of Peters, refused to even consider the Ford script and trashed it. Peters then tried to get Michael Bay, Brett Ratner, Shekhar Kapur, and Martin Campbell to take over as director, but they all hated Peters and the script, and refused to even consider it. So the Gilroy script was dumped in late 1999, and William Wisher was hired to start over. However, with The Matrix being a big success, Peters and DiBonaventura decided that Superman should ditch his red and blue in favor of Matrix-like duds. As such, press blurbs for the new script announced that Superman would be killed off and reborn in a brand-new incarnation, and that the new script would recreate Superman "sans the tights and more Matrix-like." Oliver Stone was then approached to direct the film from the Matrix-ized Wisher script, but he ultimately turned it down. Cage got fed up with the whole thing, and finally quit in mid-2000. So Peters reportedly offered Russell Crowe $30 million to play Superman, but Crowe wasn’t interested. (And if you thought the backlash against Cage was bad, the backlash against Crowe was even worse-people were hoping Dennis Quaid would be cast as Luthor so they could root for the bad guy to win.) The Wisher script was tossed out, and Paul Attansio was then hired to rewrite the script, now retitled Superman Destruction. Then in July 2001, as Planet of the Apes was being released, Coming Attractions reported that WB made a handshake deal with Tim Burton to rehire him to take over the film should POTA make over $250 million at the box office. (In fact, WB wanted to rehire him after Sleepy Hollow proved successful.) Promising Burton even more creative control than he had the last time, WB apparently offered to cast Jim Carrey as Brainiac and David Duchovny as Superman to sweeten the deal. However, POTA didn’t make that much money, so Burton was given the boot again. And so Peters and DiBonaventura hired McG of Charlie’s Angels to direct the film, and so far McG is (a) aiming to make a Superman movie in the spirit of Charlie’s Angels and Tomb Raider and (b) has offered the role of Lois to Catherine Zeta-Jones (formerly one of Jon Peters’ many conquests), Cameron Diaz, and Jennifer Lopez. (This news hails from Superman CINEMA, by the way.) Additionally, while Attansio has yet to deliver a script, rumor has it that Thing to Do in Denver When You’re Dead and Con Air writer Scott Rosenberg is being courted to rewrite the script.

 

*The rest*

Attansio was then cast a side for Joy Ride screenwriter J.J. Abrams. Along with McG's involvment in the development of Charlie's Angels 2, Superman was in an uphill battle against Wolfgang Petersen's Batman Vs. Superman. With all the in fighting within the upper mangement of The WB, it looked like BvS would come first, then would be followed by Batman 5 and Superman 5. Then two things happened: Troy and Abrams. The Iliad had been Wolfgang Petersen's pet project for awhile, and with the chance for a green light he jumped on board. Things suddenly could go either way, then Abrams delivered the first draft of his script and "it has apparently knocked the socks off of everyone there." Superman 5 was bordering a greenlight. Then McG had to choose between Superman and Charlie's Angels 2... He choose the angels.

Jon Peters then signed Rush Hour director Brett Ratner. Rater was looking for a more traditional Superman; Anthony Hopkins was being courted for the role of Jor-El and Superman was going to be played by an unknown actor. With a highly praise yet locked away script and a director which did not shatter fan confidence, Superman: The Man of Steel looked like it was about to fly. Then the **** hit the fan... Again.

Ain't it Cool News got a hold of this reportedly perfect script, and tore it to shreds. The draft included a planet Krypton which didn't blow up, Lex Luthor as a CIA agent who is also Kryptonian, and tosses away everything set up by the current TV series Smallville. Fans were outraged; The WB, fearing another Batman & Robin, went balistic. The script went under major re-writes by Abrams and Ratner was now under great pressure to cast a well known actor as the lead and get the damn thing in the can. But once Ratner's contract went up, he walked away and never looked back. Jon Peters turned again to McG, who had then just completed filming on Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, but after some time McG again dropped the project. Jon Peters was once again left with nothing... nadda... zip.


http://www.x-human.net/superman_5.shtml

 

And if I'm not mistaken, didn't Tim Burton and Nick Cage have pay-or-play deals? There's no way with nearly a decade of pre-production work on this movie that it's only cost WB 50 mil.

I've been saying this for years, but I'll repeat it once more just for good measure. Jon Peters needs to get run! His knowledge of the Superman mythology is limited at best(dude didn't even know who Kal-El was for chrissakes!) and the little he does know, he has zero respect for. I'm still trying to figure out how this guy is drawing a paycheck considering the failure of Wild Wild Worst and the fact they've spent all this time and money to get this movie made and have nothing to show for it.