You may recall our coverage of new DC Entertainment President, Diane Nelson's, plan for the future direction of her division. Well, news is coming down the pipe that that new direction does not include The Man of Steel, as Nelson confirms that there are no present plans to bring the Last Son of Krypton to the silver screen in the near future. "We've obviously done a lot of great things behind the property in our history, and it's a key part of our family," says Nelson, "but we don't have current plans behind Superman." This comes as something of a surprise after all the talk about the future of the franchise, from James McTiegue's comments on what he would do with the property, to comic writer Mark Millar's constant threats to write a screenplay to reboot the series. Absorb some yellow sun rays and hit the jump to read more.
In an interview with MTV, DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson comments of the current state of DC Comics adaptions at Warner Brothers, speaking highly of current Lantern Bearer Ryan Reynolds (starring as the titular character in Martin Campbell's "Green Lantern"), but most importantly, speaking of the uncertain cinematic future of The Man of Tomorrow. While it's been clear for a while now that Bryan Singer's "Wrath of Khan"-esque sequel to the disappointing "Superman Returns" was probably not going to happen, the frequent talk of rumblings behind the scenes have made it seem that a new Superman film was in the pipe.
With the recent legal developments between Warner Brothers and the estates of Superman creators Siegel and Shuster, the idea of what a Superman film could be was greatly changed, with key elements of the character's origin such as Krypton, his biological parents Lara and Jor El, Superman's birth name Kal El, and his Kansas upbringing being rendered as the intellectual property of the Siegel and Shuster estates. While many were concerned about how a Superman story could be told without these elements, it actually would have created the perfect opportunity to craft a story that would be fresh and exciting for a character many consider to be stale.
This makes this news even more depressing to me, as I was really looking forward to a balls to the wall, scifi styled Superman film where we didn't have to get bogged down in the origin story. Everyone knows Superman's origin. People who've never so much as opened a comic book know Superman's origin, it's such a waste of time and money to include the origin in a Superman movie in this day and age. So with all those origin pieces pretty much off limits, we would have had a great opportunity for a new kind of Superman flick, where he can fight someone or something with as much strength as he has. Superman vs. Brainiac, or Superman vs. Darkseid, instead of another two and a half hour film of Superman lifting things. We get it, he's strong. Oh well, nothing's set in stone, here's hoping we get that Superman flick some day.
