In what isn’t very shocking news, it has been confirmed by Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov in the Wall Street Journal that Superman is indeed going the way of the reboot.
Warner Bros. also put on hold plans for another movie starring multiple superheroes — known as “Batman vs. Superman” — after the $215 million “Superman Returns,” which had disappointing box-office returns, didn’t please executives. “‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to,” says Mr. Robinov. “It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned.” “Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009,” he adds. “But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.” … Like the recent Batman sequel — which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far — Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.
Mixed feelings here. While I enjoyed Superman Returns more than most (I found it mediocre, but not flat-out bad), I feel it should have been a reboot in the first place and not relied so heavily on staying faithful to Richard Donner’s earlier films. That was the great mistake. I’m always a fan of the dark and morbid, but this whole darker tone idea just seems to be jumping on a trend with hopes of creating another Batman-like phenomenon – but really I feel like Superman needs to be something distinctly different from WB’s Batman franchise (especially because Superman is the anti-Batman), more in the vain of Marvel’s Spider-Man movies – lighter, not taking itself quite as serious, lots of pretty colors. It does not have to be campy to achieve this.
Although if they do plan on doing the Superman versus Batman crossover eventually (something that could potentially turn out pretty cool, although it’d be tough to pull off – it’s a ridiculously great storyline), it would definitely not work to have such a distinct difference between the two worlds (try to picture Nolan’s Batman universe and Singer’s Superman universe coming together – I don’t think it could possibly work).
So, is it safe to say that Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh will no longer be involved? If so, who should direct and star? Do you think the reboot as a darker, more The Dark Knight-ish movie is a bad or a good idea?
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