Everything Old is New Again: Superman Reboot Confirmed

It’s very hard to find a good Superman. 

Again, I follow up on the greatness that is Dave–he wrote earlier this week that the future of Superman was in jeopardy, as Warner Brothers has struggled with finding the best way to proceed after the disappointing Superman Returns. Now ComingSoon reports that in a Wall Street Journal article, WB Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov confirms that the character is going to be “reintroduced.”

The success of The Dark Knight has encouraged WB to focus more on big, expensive movies, especially those featuring its stable of DC characters. Superhero movies have not only been domestic box office successes, but also have been enormously profitable internationally. Beyond the theatrical release, the toys and games related to superhero characters also sell well globally. In other words, when you strike gold with a big expensive comic book/superhero movie, you strike downpours of gold. If you strike lead, like Warner Brothers did with Speed Racer, the $150 million movie that earned about $10 at the box office and has left thousands of dusty boxes of merchandise languishing in warehouses everywhere, well, then you’ve also picked up lead poisoning.

Robinove said that by 2011 the studio hopes that DC related material will form the basis of two of the six to eight of the studio’s big, expensive, tentpole films in their works. WB is trying to play catch-up with Marvel, who has managed to deploy their characters more effectively to this point–witness the success of Iron Man.

Warners, meanwhile, has struggled to get anything going beyond Batman. The Justice League of America movie has languished due to script problems and issues about where to film it. Warners had hoped that JLA would provide a boost for some lesser known characters, such as the Green Hornet. Now as JLA has struggled, WB is going to try the Marvel Model of introducing characters individually first before putting them together in a multi-hero movie. Robinov says that the studio is working on developing every DC character they have.

Meanwhile, a Batman vs. Superman movie is also on hold while Superman floats in limbo. Regarding Superman, Robinov said:

“‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to. 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. But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.”

Also, look out for the next group of DC based films, including a Superman reboot, to be a lot more like The Dark Knight in tone. Christopher Nolan, TDK’s director, gives Robinov credit for encouraging them to play up te evil side of te characters. Robinov says:

“We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it.”

Hmm, I’m no Superman expert, but I usually don’t think dark side when I think about Superman. Well, I’m sure they can find one somewhere. Maybe he doesn’t like ice cream. Whatever, they decide to do, it has to be an improvement over the dull Superman Returns. And surely they’ll have to find a better casting choice than the charisma free Brandon Routh. Here’s a tip, casting directors–when you cast someone as a superhero, cast someone who makes people say, “What? Him? Are they kidding?” That’s what happened with Tobey Maguire and Robert Downey Jr. when they were announced for Spider-Man and Iron Man; there was a similar response when Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker. But they turned out to be exactly right. Go for the more character type of actor–they seem to do a lot better than your square-jawed, chiseled leading men types.

The studio plans to announce soon their lineup for near future. The Superman reboot and a third Batman movie are definites, with two more DC character films as well. Characters with films in development include the Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Wonder Woman. Seems like all of those have been in development for years.