Kiefer Sutherland doing his Jack Bauer thing.

EW is reporting that a big screen version of the TV series is very possible. In fact, Billy Ray, who wrote last year’s “State of Play,” has apparently pitched an idea for the film to the studio, and now is in talks to officially sign on for the project.

There is a problem, though, in that the fate of the TV series is uncertain. Ratings are way down this year, and if the Fox network decides to end it, the series creators will want to work on a series finale. This doesn’t seem like a problem to me; isn’t every season ender for this show essentially a season finale, since the seasons are only loosely connected?

EW isn’t clear on whether a decision to end the series would favor a big screen version or not (of course, they may be implying something and I’m just not getting it). If they decide to cancel the show because of low ratings, they may decide that that’s a signal that it’s not worth investing money into making a movie from the show. Or they may think that a big screen version would be a cost effective way of continuing the franchise; a 24 film every other year probably might not cost as much as a season of TV episodes, and it is a known brand with a decent following. As Kiefer Sutherland said to EW, a TV series can act as a trailer for a film.

I stopped watching “24″ a few years ago, so I can’t comment on its viability as a TV series. As a stand alone action movie, it probably would hold up better than many other TV series to film translations. If Sutherland doesn’t demand huge money, it could be a good deal.

Can this man be saved? 

According to Deadline, Christopher Nolan is being asked by Warner Brothers to take charge of the development of a new “Superman” movie. Nolan would not direct, and will also continue to work on a third Batman movie, while helping to get the Man of Steel up and running on film. Again.

(The article, or at least the studio, uses  the word “mentor” to describe Nolan’s role, but that feels weird to me–it makes it sound like he’s overseeing a bunch of interns who are studying producing at film school. Or worse, like a neophyte director will be put in charge who will need to check in with Nolan before making any decisions. Collaboration and the exchange of ideas are important to the creative process, but if a director needs that kind of help, he/she is probaby the wrong person to be put in charge of a big budget blockbuster that is supposed to revive one of the most important characters in US 20th century pop culture. I’m just saying.)

The Deadline article has a pretty interesting history of the struggles to successfully get Superman back on film since the end of the late 1970s/early ’80s Christopher Reeve franchise. The last attempt, the 2006 “Superman Returns,” starring Brandon Routh and directed by Bryan Singer, wasn’t seen as awful, and wasn’t a major bust, but it simply wasn’t good enough or as successful as Warner Brothers believes a Superman movie could be, thus the latest effort to start over.

They also have to do something soon. The heirs of Superman creators Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster won a court case a few years ago that is going to eventually return the rights to the characters to them. I will quote to make sure I get this right:

“…if Warner Bros does not start production on a new Superman sequel or reboot by 2011, the Siegels could sue to recover their damages on the grounds that the deal should have contained a clause in which the rights returned to the owners after a given time if no film was in development. The heirs of Siegel have already been awarded half the copyright for Superman. And in 2013 the heirs of co-creator Joe Shuster get the remaining half.”

After 2013, WB would have to try to work out a new deal with the estates, and that’s not a sure thing.

Anyway, Nolan obviously has won a lot of respect with his work on the Batman franchise, so I guess WB sees him as a savior. Can he do it? Can he create a truly original Superman universe, or will it just end up looking like another Batman movie with a different guy in tights? Will they be able to attract the right director if there’s a thought that the director would have to “report” to Nolan? Could be tough. Then again, like I said, Nolan has earned respect and latitude from the studio and industry, so it’s worth a shot.  

Most people would probably say Tim Robbins’s greatest role was in “The Shawshank Redemption.” 

I still can’t believe Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon broke up after all this time. If those two crazy kids can’t make it, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Luckily, Mr. Robbins can find solace in work. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Robbins has joined the cast of “The Green Lantern.” He’ll play Senator Hammond, the stern father of bad guy to be Dr. Hector Hammond, played by Peter Saarsgard. I’m not a Green Lantern expert. Does Hector become a bad guy because his dad is tough and disapproving? If so, that is rather impressively 1950s-ish psychology.

It feels like a long time since Robbins has done anything substantial (and this is probably a small part, too) on film. In 2008, he was in the barely-seen Iraq vet drama “The Lucky Ones,” but before that, his last good role was in “Mystic River,” in 2003. He never was a typical leading man type, but is a good enough actor that it seems like he should have done more. Unless he really hasn’t been looking; I know he produced a play off Broadway a few years ago. Anyway, good for Robbins. He gets a trip to New Orleans, where filming for “The Green Lantern” begins in March (oh, those Louisiana state tax breaks and incentives for filmmakers…).

“The Green Lantern” stars Ryan Reynolds as the main man in green. Blake Lively plays the love interest, and Martin Campbell gets to direct the whole thing.

“The Green Lantern”

Elrond ponders his role in “The Hobbit.” 

I love Hugo Weaving, but not even his presence in “The Wolfman” would make me go to that movie. Give me a free ticket and I wouldn’t go. Plunk it on cable in front of me and I’d change the channel.

The good news about “The Wolfman,” though, is that it means that Weaving is out doing publicity, and luckily seems to be willing to talk about other things–such as “The Hobbit.” Hitfix got to ask Weaving a number of questions about the upcoming prequel to “The Lord of the Rings.”

Not many LOTR alum will get the chance to be in “The Hobbit” films; either they’re characters aren’t in it, or they’re too old to play the roles in the films, which take place years before “The Fellowship of the Ring” begins. As an elf, though, Weaving’s character Elrond can fit into the time scheme plausibly. So is Weaving locked in yet? He told Hitfix:

“…what I’ve heard is that, yeah, they’re interested in me.  I haven’t had any conversations, and I haven’t read any scripts because they’re being closely guarded.  I don’t think the studio has even got the second script yet.”

But if they do contact him…?

“I’d be interested in doing it.  I would love to work with Guillermo Del Toro very much.  I think he’s a fantastic talent, a great director.”

Good news, then! And how does he think playing the part would be different in a film set prior to the events in LOTR?

I think there’s a slightly more innocent quality to it [”The Hobbit”]… and it’s a slightly different world.  It’s the same physical world but the writer was at a different age when he wrote it, and he wrote it in a different spirit.  So you might be using some of the same actors and the same team but you might want to have a slightly different take on it and I think that would be pretty interesting.”

It sounds like Mr. Weaving is ready to pack his pointy ears and head for New Zealand. Unfortunately, that won’t be happening too soon. Production was rumored to start in late spring/early summer, but Weaving said he had heard that it wouldn’t begin until the end of the year. No one really knows what is true, yet, other than we know the films are happening–barring any bizarre, completely unforeseen events, of course. Yikes. Don’t even think about it.

How I spent my Hogwarts vacation: Tom Felton will make a horror movie. 

Are you one of those people who likes the bad boy? Is Harry Potter too nice and helpful for you? Ron Weasley too upstanding a citizen? Instead, perhaps you like someone darker (no, Voldemort is too old for you, kids!). Like that Draco Malfoy fellow.

Tom Felton, the actor who plays Malfoy, hasn’t done much outside the Harry Potter films since the series started, so we haven’t been able to see much of him outside his resident bully role. Now, though, luckily for you Draco groupies, Felton is doing something non-HP: ShockTillYouDrop is reporting that Felton has joined the cast of “The Apparition.” The horror movie also stars Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan, Julianna Guill, Luke Pasqualino and Suzanne Ford.

Wow, so the presence of Greene and Felton means that this film has nabbed supporting players from two major franchises! And a “Gossip Girl” boy. That’s quite the lineup. Now we just have to hope that the presence of stars (relative) in a small horror movie don’t bring it down. You know the theory–the lower the budget, the more no-name the cast, the better the horror.

“The Apparition” is about “a couple haunted by a supernatural presence in the wake of a college experiment.” Todd Lincoln wrote the script and is directing.

Eh, they’re old news. 

Did you ever see that old movie, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith?” No, not the really old one with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery–the other old one, you know, with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, where they play a married couple who are secretly professional assassins who are then hired to kill each other? You know, the movie where Brad and Angelina fell in love and he got divorced from Jennifer Aniston so he could be with Angelina and have kids with her and adopt kids too, an action that singlehandedly saved Us Weekly and InTouch Magazine. Wow, that was long ago…like 2005.

Yup, only five years ago, but it’s all old hat now. New York magazine is reporting that Fox is planning a “reboot” of the film (since it’s not a franchise or series, is it really a reboot? I loathe the word reboot), a prequel of sorts to be called “Mr. & Mrs. Jones.” Here’s what they’re saying:

Jones will serve as an origin story about a similar but differently named couple, showing how a pair of twentysomething spies are set up as a fake married couple when they graduate agency training. Oscar-winning writer/producer Akiva Goldsman (Hancock, I Am Legend) is attached to produce.

So what’s the reasoning behind this? Well, here you have a (sort of) original story, but you can attach it to a recognized name, which always makes studios feel a little better about greenlighting a project. Also, you can recast it with younger, cheaper actors! Imagine the difference in salary between Angelina Jolie and say, Blake Lively or any other pretty girl from a CW series. It’s a lot. A real sequel to “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” with Brangelina would be a high-budget film; without them, suddenly it’s relatively low-budget and easy. Welcome to the new Hollywood, where being high profile and successful doesn’t help get a movie made anymore…

Batman hopes his project gets greenlighted. 

Last week I saw a post on Deadline saying that David Goyer had left his job as show runner of the TV series “Flash Forward.” I didn’t pay much attention, because I don’t watch the show and since it’s TV news, it wasn’t news to put in this spot. Au contraire! How wrong I was!

Luckily, ComingSoon was paying more attention–they point out a throwaway line in the post that is, indeed, very interesting to movie fans. Here’s what we should notice:

Of course, Goyer’s feature career is really heating up, since he co-wrote Batman Begins, and penned the story for The Dark Knight, and is now writing the third Batman installment with Chris Nolan’s brother Jonah.

So that means that a third “Batman” movie is actually in progress, and it’s now a pretty fair conclusion that Christopher Nolan will be back to direct. Considering the success of “The Dark Knight,” all of this should seem like a given, but Nolan has very pointedly not signed on yet for the third film. I don’t think any deals are done, in fact. But if Nolan’s brother is writing the screenplay, one would think he plans to be involved, right? I guess it’s too late to put this together for 2011, so maybe we can expect to see the film in 2012, provided all the pieces (including everyone’s favorite, budget) come together and the world doesn’t end, of course. Hopefully this will all become official soon so we can start casting rumors.

Next week’s number one movie already spawns a sequel. 

It’s not even open yet, but the makers of “Valentine’s Day” feel pretty confident about its prospects. So confident, in fact, that Deadline says they’re already working on a sequel. No, not the logical choice, ”President’s Day,” but a turn back of the holiday calendar: “New Year’s Eve.”

Early reviews of “Valentine’s Day” say that the multistory, multistar movie is pretty awful, but it seems like a sure bet to make lots of money this weekend (gullible movie ticket buyers will think, “I get 600 movie stars for th eprice of one?! Give me one adult ticket and two jumbo popcorns, please!”). Even better, it didn’t cost much to make. Deadline says that most of the stars took a smaller than usual paycheck to match the small size and commitment they had to make. Plus it filmed in LA, so most of them barely had to leave their neighborhoods.

Katherine Fugate, writer of “Valentine’s Day,” has already turned in a draft of “New Year’s Eve.” The producers hope that they’ll be able to retain a few of the actors from “Valentine’s Day” to give the illusion of continuity. This shouldn’t be hard. It’s not like Ashton Kutcher is doing anything other than tweeting anyway.

I guess as long as they can crank out these movies for a low price and a high return, they will. I can’t wait to see “Flag Day.”

Is it me or is the sheer amount of comic book superhero movies getting a little out of hand? If a series is done well, and spawns sequels with the same cast (X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, Iron Man) then that’s all good. But the continual rebooting of failed attempts is starting to wind me up a little.

I know why it happens: to prevent the rights reverting back to original owners. And to make lots of money as there’s no greater box office gold than a successful comic book superhero movie. Well, except for a big-budget James Cameron film, obviously. But it still annoys me.

The latest character to get the reboot treatment is Daredevil, last seen in 2003, with Ben Affleck playing the lead role, ably (well, kind of) assisted by Jennifer Garner, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Colin Farrell.

A reboot has been on the kinds for a while now, and was leaked last September. But it’s now definitely on, with Deadline Hollywood reporting that peter Chernin is on board to produce, with David Scarpa writing the screenplay.

Let’s hope they get it right this time. But I’m not convinced they will. Never mind eh, as I’m sure there’ll be another reboot planned five years later if it cans.

The last we heard of the Planet Of The Apes reboot/prequel was a couple of weeks ago. Then, Mark Wahlberg gave his opinion on the last attempt to reboot the classic story of evolution gone wrong. It was also stated that a new director was being sought after Scott Frank left.

And a new director is still being sought, as the first choices have all reportedly declined the opportunity to helm the movie. Vulture claims the directors who have passed are Kathryn Bigelow, Robert Rodriguez, and Tomas Alfredson.

This means Fox is heading down a level and actively seeking one of what is described as the “meat-and-potatoes action directors.” This list includes Albert and Allen Hughes, Pierre Morel, James McTeigue, Dennis Illiadis, and Scott Stewart.

I have no doubt Caesar (the name of the movie) will be made but it remains to be seen who will step up to the plate to direct. If this second-string of directors also all turn it down then I hate to think who we’d be left with. Vulture suggests Uwe Boll shouldn’t give up hope quite yet. And the thought of that makes me shudder.