Its that time again! Time for the drill!!! Instead of talking about current events and what not, I thought I'd share with you the story of one of the biggest upcoming releases of the year. I think you'll find it interesting. If not, then I apologize for wasting your time. ;-) Lets get to it..I call this story:
Superman (Finally) Returns
On June 30th, 2006 one of the most beloved superhero's and an icon of Americana will return to the big screen. "Superman Returns" reintroduces the story of "The Man of Steel" to movie goers.
Longtime fans of the character may be saying "ABOUT F'N TIME!!!" ;-) This film has been in development hell for almost 20 years!!! Talk of a "Superman V" started almost immediately after the fourth installment hit theatres back in 1987. However when that film's gross didnt exactly live up to expectations the franchise was shelved.
Flash forward to 1998, when acclaimed director Tim Burton seems to have everything set in place. With a star in Nicolas Cage slated to play Clark Kent/Superman and a script by Kevin Smith it seemed like only a matter of time before Superman would return to the big screen.
Burton's vision for the film would set it after the death of the hero. Dubbed "Superman Lives", it wouldve told the story of how Superman dies and comes back to life to restore order to Metropolis. Production was so far along that costume designs were already being considered for the character
However when ticket sales for the last Batman movie of the 90's (The horrible Batman & Robin) came in far lower than expected, Warner Bros. started having second thoughts about the whole superhero genre. The Superman project was placed on hold and Burton and co. decided to move on to other things.
We move onto 2002 and with the success of "Spider-Man", Warner Bros. decides its time to dust off the Superman project and get it up and running. This time around director McG of "Charlie's Angels" fame gets his crack at it. McG brings in screenwriter J.J. Abrams to bring Superman into the 21st Century. Casting rumors start flying and the most prevalent name being tossed around is Brendan Fraser of "The Mummy" fame.
Things once again looked like they were coming together, but once again something caused the project to stall. This time around it was McG's conflict of schedule as he was already directing Sony's "Charlie's Angels 2" and wouldnt be shooting Superman til after. Warner Bros however wanted Superman in theatres ASAP so they gave McG the boot and brought in Brett Ratner of "Rush Hour" fame.
Ratner started setting things in motion again and even signed Anthony Hopkins to play Jor-El (Superman's brith father). Around this time, J.J. Abrams script hit the net and the reaction was overwhemingly negative.
Abrams totally revamped the Superman origin and in doing so angered many fans of the character. Abrams later stated that the script was just a first draft and that several of the more "controversial" elements would be taken out. Still, the damage was done and several online petitions were started to get Abrams thrown off the project.
Despite the turmoil, Ratner continued to go forward and was on the verge of hiring his leading man to play Superman, but yet once again Warner Bros halted the project. This time the excuse was that they didnt like the choice that Ratner had made to play Superman (Soap opera actor Matthew Bomer) and wanted Ratner to choose someone else.
Warners wanted whichever actor that would be selected to commit to 3 films over a 7 year period. Because of this stipulation, many of the actors who audtioned for the role (The list included Ashton Kutcher, Paul Walker, Josh Hartnet and Jason Behr among others) passed on the movie.
Kutcher, Hartnet and Behr all passed on donning the red cape.
When Ratner saw that his vision for Superman was not going to come to fruiton, he decided to ditch the project as well.
So now we've got no director, no leading man and a script that nobody seems to like. It seemed like Superman was dead again. But just like in the comic books,you cant keep a good hero down..
To Be Continued...
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