Superman Reboot

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Steve

Steve

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/i...ntor-superman-3-0-while-preparing-3rd-batman/

The studio is looking at Chris Nolan to restart the franchise, forgetting the last movie ever existed. Considering how much trouble they went through to bring us the last movie it's safe to assume this will be shelved. I hope if they do reboot they lose Lex Luthor, at least for the first movie. I've seen him enough. In the comment section of the article someone mentioned setting it in the 30's or 40's. That might be interesting.

What decisions would you make if they consulted you on the Superman movie? I'd be interested in hearing everyone's take.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

They've been talking about this since The Dark Knight did so well, talking about making a darker Superman, and even a trilogy written by Mark Miller.

I doubt Chris Nolan's going to have much of anything to do with this. He's busy with his own projects and Batman.
 
Espy

Espy

Nolan isn't going to direct it, merely be a producer from what I have heard, kind of guide it into the land of NOT SUCKING.


Sounds great.
 
phil

phil

I heard they're going to preemptive reboot the green lantern franchise. Pretend like the Ryan Reynolds one didn't happen and go for a darker feeling one with shia labeouf playing guy gardener.
 
A

Alucard

WTF? Superman is never good on his own movies or animated films or tv series.
The only two possibly good superman films ever were Superman I and II. Leave it at that.
 
filmfanatic

filmfanatic

A few ideas:

- For villains, use Lex Luthor (businessman Lex, not mad scientist with real estate plans Lex) and Metallo.
- Tackle the destruction of Krypton quickly. Personally, I'd give some good time to Clark Kent as a teen in Smallville, as I feel that time is pivotal towards his "help out those in need" mentality.
- Major comic book source for story and themes: Superman for All Seasons.

These are just a few ideas. I'm planning on writing a plot summry for my Superman reboot idea over the weekend.
 
Steve

Steve

filmfanatic said:
These are just a few ideas. I'm planning on writing a plot summry for my Superman reboot idea over the weekend.
Click to expand...
Looking forward to reading it. I agree about showing him in his youth as it is critical to his development. I hope they steer clear of a darker movie. Don't think it'd work well for Superman.
 
A

Alucard

Couldn't WB just make a animated origins type movie for Superman instead of using live actors?
It worked well for Green Lantern: First Flight and Wonder Woman. Which were both epic btw.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Nolan on Superman: Good. He knows how to write a good story.
Superman going darker: Not good. Not every hero needs to go dark and Superman sure as hell doesn't suit it.
Mark Millar on Superman: Oh, HELL no. If I want the equivilent of a 12-year writing Superman, then we'll just get a 12-year old.

And frankly speaking, BlackCat, as the resident comic book geek and biggest Superman fan? I'm not crazy about Superman I & II as a whole. Yeah, they have some great moments, but the Krypton stuff in the first one go on way too long and is boring as hell. I tend to skip right to when he's getting to Metropolis. Superman II has great moments with the Krytonian criminals, but the final fight scene is stupidly disasterous. Of course, Superman II has my all time favourite movie moment, when he crushes Zod's hand.

Personally, my favourite rendition of Superman in any medium is the Animated Series. It has all the classic looks of characters and has some damn good stories; especially the ones surrounding Darkseid and Apokalips.

Honestly? If I were given similar control like Nolan, here's some of what I'd do:

-Skip the origin and leave it for the opening credits. Everyone and their dog knows it. Screw a full-on reboot. Let's do an origin reboot along the lines of Incredible Hulk.
-Metropolis is the city of the future because Lex Luthor, businessman extraordinaire, uses the city as his platform to test out the latest gadgets in various fields of science. Metropolis has a LOT of scientists; some employed, some unemployed, some sane, some not so sane.
-Part of the main story is an investigative report by Lois & Clark into these science-related activities, many of which they're finding are being tested through Intergang. And Intergang, headed by Morgan Edge (another corporate mogul) is in direct competition with Lex as they have a secret war within the city. Edge's main guy is Corban Dallas, who will be betrayed by Edge, barely rescued by Superman (blaming him for it) and volunteers for an operation at LexCorp to put his brain in a metal body powered by kryptonite.
-Kryptonite poisoning has Superman disappear while the city's crime rate skyrockets. Clark Kent goes home to Smallville, sick as a dog and recovering while Lois, of course, gets in trouble and investigates Lex a little too closely.
-Big finale includes not only Metallo publically going after Morgan Edge, but Lois in trouble at LexCorp.
-So, it wouldn't be a big city-wide threat but whether or not Superman can save the day with two things going on at once: stop gang violence from destroying the city thanks to Metallo...and Lex doing experiments on Lois for snooping. It ends with Luthor getting arrested, thanks to Clark Kent's expose through the Daily Planet.

This is a very rough draft idea and a lot of it just off the top of my head. Basically, I'd bring back the idea of Superman fighting mad scientists and mob bosses and mix it with some investigative reporting that we never really get to see in many Superman stories. Paul Dini and everyone behind the Animated Series said they wanted to treat Superman like a sci-fi action hero. And you know what? That works. Imagine a superhero version of the new Star Trek, with all the bright colours and cool gadgets (except, these ones are all used to kill Superman because he DARED to come to Lex's Metropolis and steal his thunder) Superman saves the day against Metallo, but Clark saves the day against Lex. I'd likely hint at other employees at LexCorp for future movies, such as John Henry Irons (who later becomes Steel), the janitor who becomes The Parasite, The Prankster, etc. Basically, a lot of LexCorp employees could be set up to become future villains.

And at the end of the credits, Lex gets released from jail of course, steps into his office and gets a memo about from his science team that they found a satellite orbitting Earth with strange alien letters. Lex is familiar with Kryptonian language. It reads "Brainiac".
 
Baerdog

Baerdog

Nick, your idea seems pretty solid to me. I too loved Superman: TAS and it'd be awesome to see a movie that leaned more toward that interpretation of the character. I'm cautiously optimistic about having Nolan on the project. He does know how to tell a good story and I'm willing to see where he goes with Superman.
 
CynicismKills

CynicismKills

I always thought Metallo (stupid name notwithstanding) was a pretty good villain. I'd love to see them use Braniac effectively too. Also, Luthor not getting a hard-on for building evil farms would be nice for once. Where's all that crazy HAHA SUPERJERK HERE'S A ROOM FULL OF RED SUNLIGHT I'M GOING TO EAT BRAINIAC NOW.
 
W

WolfOfOdin

If you want to pick a good battle, especially with the world the way it is.....how about Superman's idealism versus Gog's stark black and white view of morality?
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I love Metallo's name, honestly. It's got such as Silver Age ring to it. =D

Here's the thing, as far as villains go and their threat levels:

-Metallo: Threat to Superman and anyone nearby.
-Lex: City-wide threat; anything global is honestly above him. Potentially threat to Superman, but usually through other means (like Metallo).
-Brainiac: City-wide threat if going with the "bottling cities" but could easily be a great planet-wide threat. Potential threat to Superman, ESPECIALLY if you use Brainiac's origin from the Animated Series and have him be the Kryptonian council's AI. Goddamn, that was brilliant.
-Darkseid: Planet-wide threat and huge threat to Superman. He's the only villain that can not only go toe-to-toe with Superman but can actually trounce him without breaking a sweat.
-Lobo: He once went toe-to-toe with Superman while drunk out of his gourd. That's gotta be worth something, ain't it? I'd love to see a Superman movie with Lobo. Imagine something where half of it is in space and they get into a brawl in an alien bar. *grin!* Again, it's all about just going nuts with the sci-fi elements.
 
R

Raemon777

One of things I did like about the Smallville show, which I think would make an interesting movie: Before Lex knows who Superman actually is (i.e. before Superman actually has come out as Superman), he's seeing all the mysterious goings on around Smallville - mutant freaks, hostile aliens, etc, and honestly believes (justifiably) that there's a huge invasion coming of aliens with unstoppable powers. He develops Luthorcorp into a Mad-Scientist-Company-O'-Superweapons specifically because he thinks its necessary to save the world. He doesn't know that Clark is actually fighting to stop these threats, so he sees him not as savior against the threat but as the most powerful threat of all.

I think it'd be cool to have a movie entitled "Luther" that tells a re-imagined origin story from his perspective. We don't know anything about the character of Clark, instead we just see all the other crazy goings on of the DC universe. Have some super menace (as opposed to petty criminals) threatening the world (as opposed to just Metropolis - always bugged me that Superman devotes his incredible power to keeping one city crime free), at the same time that the first superman sightings are happening, without the knowledge that the two are unrelated.

Have events shape up in such a way so that at the end of the movie, when Superman "outs himself" as a public figure and the world loves him, Luther has a reasonable cause for believing it is all an act, sort of like the sinister aliens in "V" who start out offering free health care.

This doesn't mean portraying Luther as an all out good guy. He's still greedy (you have to be to some degree to be that wealthy in the first place) and is somewhat insane. But show us how he ended up the way he did.

Having said all that, I doubt the above movie would actually get made (in particular because Smallville already did it - basically I'm hoping for a condensed version with better acting all around), and the fact is I think that keeping Superman as the bright, fun heroic hero is the way to go. I liked that Superman Returns was deliberately kept in the same vein as the old movies. If I wanted to watch a dark, serious superhero movie I'd watch... pretty much any other superhero movie made in the last decade.
 
CynicismKills

CynicismKills

I always enjoyed the Luthor in the book that was called Lex or something like that. The whole thing paints Luthor as this awesome guy who's out for the good of humanity and Superman is this big evil entity. When Supes finally shows up in the final pages, even while painted as an imposing shadow with red eyes, the final dialogue between the two shows who the villain in all this really is.
 
Shannow

Shannow

Staff member
hahahahahahaha

---------- Post added at 03:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:58 PM ----------

also:


 
phil

phil

I really just don't like a lot of his villains all that much, or at least I don't think most of them would really translate all that well to the big screen.

I think maybe if they expanded the first animated series appearance of Bizzaro. Have him appear normal at first, and convinced that he's superman, then gradually have him decompose or whatever and turn into a monster. You could even have the movie start from Bizzaro's perspective for a bit of a twist I guess. At the end, after Bizzaro kills himself in some way we have Lex watching the whole thing on a monitor and then he goes into another room and shuts down a cloning station with a half complete superman clone in it. Then it either ends there, or he goes to a computer and opens a file with a series of calculations and DNA models and stuff and says something about trying to find his mistake.

That would be the only time you see Lex Luther in the film. Maybe in passing like in a news report but Superman and Lex are never in the same room.
 
General Specific

General Specific

What they should do is have Lex make some sort of super being with power gained from the sun, just like supes. The call him "Sun-man" or "Solarguy." We find out during the course of the movie that Solarguy is insane and his powers are unstable to the point where he shuts down when out of direct sunlight. Superman beats him by sealing him in a sunless box (like, say, an elevator) and tossing him onto the dark side of the moon.

It'll be the most awesome movie ever. :awesome:
 
phil

phil

General Specific said:
What they should do is have Lex make some sort of super being with power gained from the sun, just like supes. The call him "Sun-man" or "Solarguy." We find out during the course of the movie that Solarguy is insane and his powers are unstable to the point where he shuts down when out of direct sunlight. Superman beats him by sealing him in a sunless box (like, say, an elevator) and tossing him onto the dark side of the moon.

It'll be the most awesome movie ever. :awesome:
Click to expand...

No no no no no. Superman needs to experience loss to build on his character. What we do is, you see, what we do is kill off Lois Lane. Superman is super sad about it and so what does he do? He flies around the world...get this...in the opposite direction of it's rotation. Now this is where we really get the audience's attention because instead of anything making sense at this point we'll just say that the earth goes backwards and with it, TIME ITSELF. Lois is alive, the stuff that distracted him from saving her in the first place is no longer an issue for some reason and everyone is happy!

I think we can get Liam Neeson to play supes. Then at the end we're all like "superman? OR RA'S AL GHUL?" Because batman is there too.
 
General Specific

General Specific

Dude, let's have Solarguy KILL LOIS!!! Supes traps Sloarguy on the moon and since he's in space, he does the time thingy. We won't even need to explain why Solarguy isn't around to kill Lois this time because he'll be on the moon. IT'S PERFECT! No gaping plot holes or anything.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
I second Darkseid. I would keep Superman in the shadows at first. Make him an urban legend, even to the viewer. A blur here, a saved dog there. All hell breaks loose, fire from the sky. Proclamations of the approach of DS. Focus on Clark's life at first and his networked effect as Clark on the people around him. Make us care about Clark as much as Superman. Save that for later...
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I like the idea of Darkseid, but I say build him up for a few movies. Take the gangwar idea that I have between Lex and Intergang. A lot of Lex's science comes from his own mind or own people, but Intergang's? Apokalips. Maybe have Intergang win at the end of the first movie. Second movie is about Brainiac, but he hints at somewhere that fought even his power successfully.

Then we get full-on war with Apokalips in the third. Parademons in the skies, Kalibak comes first as a herald and first general. Then the big man himself.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
Was it? I don't know. I never read it. Wasn't it also the beginning of the animated series and the Byrne reboot, too?
 
A

Alucard

No offense the only Superman I was able to really enjoy was the Superman TAS.Just with who they got the voice actors fit. Storys were well written. I still don't see how they could do it.
They should just leave Supes how he is. He's never been in a film well on by himself.
 
filmfanatic

filmfanatic

ThatNickGuy said:
I like the idea of Darkseid, but I say build him up for a few movies. Take the gangwar idea that I have between Lex and Intergang. A lot of Lex's science comes from his own mind or own people, but Intergang's? Apokalips. Maybe have Intergang win at the end of the first movie. Second movie is about Brainiac, but he hints at somewhere that fought even his power successfully.

Then we get full-on war with Apokalips in the third. Parademons in the skies, Kalibak comes first as a herald and first general. Then the big man himself.
Click to expand...
ThatNickGuy, I like that idea for a trilogy of Superman films. My own idea for a Superman trilogy, though, goes down a bit of a different route in terms of villains.

First Film: Lex Luthor, Metallo
Second Film: Brainiac
Third Film: Doomsday, Bizarro
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I'm honestly not a fan of Doomsday. Yeah, I was back when I started collecting comics because Doomsday WAS what got me collecting again (the Death of Superman). But like Venom, I just think he's too "90s" a character to work on the big screen. Besides, we had Superman/Doomsday, which was pretty good for what it was.

Ooh, would it be too loaded if we threw Metallo and Bizarro into the first movie? Bizarro as Lex's weapon and Metallo as Intergang's? And have the finale be a kryptonite poisoned Superman (after beating Metallo) try and fight Bizarro to save Lois? Hrm. That might be too much for one movie, on top of everything else.
 
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