I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I didn’t know this was Superman’s 75th anniversary.  But now I know, and I’m happy to report that DC Comics and Warner Bros. will spend the next year honoring the iconic superhero.  Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel is obviously the biggest part of the 75th anniversary, but there are plans beyond the summer blockbuster.  Most notably, Snyder and Bruce Timm (Superman: The Animated Series) will be creating an animated short film honoring the character’s history.  According to Heat Vision, details are being kept under wraps, but sources says Snyder envisions the short as “one continuous shot, without edits, that’s an homage to the Man of Steel and his many iterations over the past 75 years” all the way through Man of Steel.  I wonder if the short will all be done in Timm’s art style.  Man of Steel storyboard artist Jay Oliva, as well as DC’s Geoff Johns and Mike Carlin and WB Animation’s Peter Girardi will also participate, and the short will debut at Comic-Con.  Warners and DC will also continue honoring the Last Son of Krypton with a series of comic books throughout the 75th anniversary, at which point they’ll turn to honoring Batman’s diamond anniversary.

To keep your Superman fix going, hit the jump to check out a new behind-the-scenes featurette, which contains new footage.  Man of Steel opens in 3D on June 14th.

Collider was recently invited to attend a special event, held at the Avalon Bardot Theater in Hollywood, celebrating the creativity of Geoff Johns and benefitting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which is dedicated to the protection of the First Amendment rights of the comics art form and its community of retailers, creators, publishers, librarians, and readers.  The purpose of the evening was to recognize Johns’ work on Green Lantern, that started in 2004 with Green Lantern: Rebirth, reintroducing Hal Jordan to the DC Comics Universe and beginning a journey that would make the series one of the most exciting and best-selling franchises in the comics industry.  After nearly a decade of work, Johns now concludes that run with Green Lantern #20, leaving the franchise with hundreds of new characters and worlds that will be explored for generations to come.

During the event, Geoff Johns sat down for an intimate Q&A, in which he talked about bringing back Hal Jordan, escaping the typical comic book trappings, the mixed emotions he felt while finishing Issue 20, what it was like to start getting the finished pages back, how he decided where and when this story would end, the reaction he got from DC when he finally told them, what he discovered about himself while writing the story, creating the first Arab-American Green Lantern, and when he doubts himself, as a writer.  He also talked about his time working for director/producer Richard Donner, and the time he wrecked one of his cars.  Check out what he had to say after the jump. 

A few minutes before DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns was scheduled to sign at Golden Apple in Hollywood on Comic Book Day, we sat for an exclusive interview.  During our wide ranging conversation we talked about his run on Green Lantern and when he first realized it was coming to an end, Aquaman, his thoughts on digital comics, The CW’s Arrow, future DC properties on TV, his reaction after watching Man of Steel, future animated movies, the reaction to The New 52, the status of the Booster Gold TV series, future Green Lantern plans, his most prized comic book,the status of 100 Bullets, Wonder Woman, favorite DC Collectibles, and so much more.  Hit the jump to either watch the interview or read the transcript.

While Warner Bros. will be taking another stab at Superman on the big screen with this summer’s Zack Snyder-directed Man of Steel, it’s no secret that the studio worked for years on a new iteration of the character before both Man of Steel and Bryan Singer’s 2006 film Superman Returns came to fruition.  A number of screenwriters and directors tried to crack Superman, and one of the better-known versions that never made it to the screen is the J.J. Abrams-scripted Superman: Flyby.  Abrams’ take was an origin story that saw Krypton besieged by a civil war that spills over onto Earth, but it was eventually passed over in favor of Singer’s Returns story.

Steve recently landed an exclusive interview with DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, and during the course of their conversation Steve asked Johns if DC would ever consider turning one of the many Warner Bros.-owned unproduced screenplays for a superhero movie into a direct-to-video animated feature.  Johns revealed that, in fact, that notion has come up before.  Hit the jump for more.

The CW drama series Arrow has really proven that it’s not afraid to go there.  With a hero who often has questionable behavior and villains who sometimes do the right thing, the show has been surprising, in the best way possible.  And as its getting closer to the Season 1 finale, the stakes are getting higher and higher, with things promising to get even darker, both with what Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) went through on the island and in his present.

During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, DC Comics’ Geoff Johns talked about writing Episode 16, “Dead to Rights,” how every single moment of the episode was plotted out before he sat down to write, his collaboration with director Glen Winter (who he also worked with on Smallville), the ramifications the big identity reveal will have in future episodes, that his favorites to write are the action-driven, emotionally-charged scenes, how much he loves the Oliver Queen and Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) island bromance, how much fun the villains are to write for, and what a celebration it is to already know that they’ll be back for Season 2.  Check out what he had to say after the jump, and be aware that there are some spoilers.

As a preamble to this week’s Top 5, I’d like to take a few lines to recognize my own personal “Top 2″ from the past 7 days: the St. Louis Cardinals and Warner Premiere’s animated adaptation of Frank Miller‘s classic tale The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1. Beginning with the former, my beloved Cardinals completed yet another historic comeback last night against the Washington Nationals. Win or lose, I think it’s necessary to get in writing here that I won’t have a single negative thing to say about this team the rest of the way. As for the latter, I had a chance to sit down with director Jay Oliva‘s animated adaptation the other day and I found it to be a worthy retelling of Miller’s classic Bat-story. If you have any interest in animated comic adaptations and have yet to check it out, I recommend doing so.

But enough of my own personal favorites, included in this week’s trip around the bases (yep, that’s another baseball reference) is our coverage of New York Comic-Con 2012, the first trailer for director Sacha Gervasi‘s Hitchcock, Seven Psychopaths interviews with Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken and more, a new trailer for Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained, and a slew of interviews for The CW’s new superhero series, Arrow. A brief recap and link to each awaits.

The CW’s highly anticipated new drama series Arrow tells the story of billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), who has returned home to Starling City after being missing and presumed dead for five years, following a violent shipwreck. His devoted mother Moira (Susanna Thompson), much-beloved sister Thea (Willa Holland) and best friend Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) welcome him home, while his former girlfriend, Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), is not so happy. Now, along with reconnecting to those closest to him, Oliver has secretly created the persona of the vigilante Arrow, to right wrongs and restore the city to its former glory.

During this recent interview held at the DC Comics office in Burbank, producers Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim, along with DC’s Geoff Johns, talked about bringing Oliver Queen/Arrow to life in this format, adding characters from the DC universe throughout the season (including The Huntress, Deadshot and The Royal Flush Gang), how often viewers will get flashbacks to what occurred on the island, the darker elements of the series, how someone will discover Oliver Queen’s secret early on, the more long-term plan for the show, adding John Barrowman (Torchwood) to the cast, and big bad villains.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

Though Collider is primarily a film and television news website, from time to time we post art that we think our readers might take an interest in.  Mondo posters have almost become a regular staple, and today we’ve got some art news to share that should be of particular interest to fans of DC Comics.  Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Entertainment yesterday unveiled a collection of artwork entitled “Darkness & Light: Art Inspired by Heroes & Villains, Hope & Heroism.”  The exhibit features a collection of original fine art inspired by the DC Comics universe.

We’ve got a few photos that give us a look at a key set of works including Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, and they’re pretty damn impressive.  The exhibit will be hitting the road for a series of public exhibitions that will benefit and raise awareness for the We Can Be Heroes charity.  Moreover, there will be a showing at the Michael J. Wolf Gallery in San Diego during Comic-Con.  Additional dates have yet to be announced.  Hit the jump to check out some of the art.

For the past few days at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, Geoff Boucher of The Los Angeles Times hosted the second annual Hero Complex Film Festival.  In attendance were Warren Beatty for Dick Tracy, director Nicholas Meyer for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, writers/producers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof for Star Trek (2009), Richard Donner for Superman and Superman II (with an appearance by Geoff Johns), Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. (who was a surprise guest) for Iron Man and Iron Man 2.  Of course they both talked a bit about Iron Man 3, The Avengers and Magic Kingdom.

In addition to the previously announced guests, Captain America: The First Avenger screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely premiered the new trailer and talked about the movie, and Mike Mignola talked about going back to Hellboy.  For more on the Festival, hit the jump.

Update: Added some video of Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr.

If you’re curious how Warner Bros. Green Lantern movie came together and why certain decisions were made, you’re in the right place.  That’s because last summer I got to visit the production on the last day of filming in New Orleans.  While there, I got to participate in a group interview with producer Donald De Line, production designer Grant Major, costume designer Ngila Dickson and Geoff Johns (Chief Creative Officer at DC Comics).

During the interview they talked about the design of the aliens and the look of OA, is the Green Lantern movie more Star Wars or Superman, how the film is a space opera on a grand scale, designing costumes for aliens and such a wide cast, are the different colored energies going to be explained in the movie, casting the actors, the decision to release in 3D, are there any hidden easter eggs for the fans, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.

Though a film adaptation never came to fruition, last September brought news that Neil Gaiman’s seminal comic book series The Sandman may head to television in the form of a series from Warner Bros. and Supernatural creator Eric Kripke. However, at a PaleyFest red carpet event, Kripke had some disappointing news, telling The Live Feed “Unfortunately, for a lot of varying reasons, Sandman is not in the works, at least for this season.” He elaborated that the potential adaptation “just didn’t quite happen this season through nobody’s fault, and hopefully we can do it again in the future.”

So it sounds like there is still hope for those looking to see Gaiman’s favorite comic book get its due diligence on some sort of screen whether it’s big or small. But for now the project won’t be getting off the ground anytime soon. I guess it’s not surprising since a film adaptation was attempted several times since the 90s with no success. Neil Gaiman fans will just have to be a little more patient. Hit the jump for a synopsis of The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes.

Update: DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns has tweeted a status update on the project.  Johns tweets that Gaiman is on board and that development on the series continues.  It’s possible that the development simply now continues without Kripke’s participation.  Here’s Johns’ tweet:

Correction to world: The Sandman is AWAKE! Psyched to be working with @neilhimself on developing one of the greatest series ever!

There are new details regarding the upcoming stage show Batman Live.  The Telegraph reports that this isn’t an ice-show or a musical, but,

“It’s a play of sorts, but it’s going to be performed in Britain’s biggest, grandest arenas rather than theatres. There will be acrobatics, pyrotechnics, stuntmen, supervillains and screeching Batmobiles on a 100ft-wide, 60ft-deep performance area. Behind them, a giant video wall will flash panels from comic strips and special effects, and give the appearance of interacting with the live performers on stage.”

Hit the jump for how Batman Live will be different than the train wreck of Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark along with the first images from the show.

Thanks to the galactic scope of the comic, Green Lantern promises a slew of interesting CG creature designs.  The first trailer gave us more than a few glimpses, including a brief look at the entirely CG characters Killowig and Tomar-Re.

The latest issue of the Green Lantern comic features an image of the filmic Tomar-Re which provides a lot more detail than the long shots of the trailer.  The image is accompanied by a helpful introduction to the character from DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns.  Hit the jump to see both in full.

Earlier this week we brought you the official announcement of BATMAN LIVE, the arena show set to tour the world starting in July 2011. Details on the story of BATMAN LIVE were scant, but that has changed. Geoff Johns, DC’s Chief Creative Officer, revealed that the show will focus on Robin’s evolution from an orphaned boy to a Boy Wonder.

“Batman lost his parents, but he can cope with his pain and owns it. Then he sees this boy and it reopens all those wounds. He’s a little bit harder – he can take it and own it, all this pain, and then there’s this other kid all this happens to. It opens up all these wounds and makes him even more angry. I think very much that Robin brings out a whole new level to Batman.”

Though Johns’ participation as a writer on the show is unconfirmed, he expressed his interest in getting more involved. For the rest of the interview, hit the jump.

If you’re a fan of DC superheroes and curious what the company is doing to bring more of their characters to movie and television screens, you’re going to like the interview I did with Geoff Johns last night at the 2010 Scream Awards.  While most will recognize Johns name because he writes a number of DC comics every month, he’s also the Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment, so he’s one of the few that shapes what direction DC is going in the future.

During the interview we talked about what announcements will be coming and when, is the upcoming Green Lantern trailer a teaser or a full trailer, how tough is it to work on Green Lantern 2 since the first film isn’t finished, what’s the status of Green Lantern and the 3D post conversion, will DC be putting more of their superheroes on TV, what is he writing, will DC superhero movies always be tentpoles (huge budget movies) or will they possibly release lesser known characters as smaller budgeted films, and a lot more.  Again, if you’re a DC fan, you want to hit the jump: