Singer has recently put together the two very successful superhero movies X-Men and X2: X-Men United. His strength on those movies was largely in respecting the original comic book characters. He went for some design changes along the way in the interests of believability but kept the characters largely intact from the comics. That resulted in movies that were satisfying to both die hard fans and those unfamiliar with the X-Men comics.
Singer will be working with writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, the same ones he worked with on X2. Production is expected to get underway in Australia late this year. What this means for the other two movies on Singers plate, X-Men 3 and a Logan's Run remake, is unknown at this point.
It would appear that Warner Bros., tired of incessant delays, cleaned house and started fresh on the project. Gone is director McG, who was the latest in a line of directors that included Tim Burton and Brett Ratner. Recently, Michael Bay was reportedly sniffing around the project as well. Producers Neal Moritz, Gilbert Adler and Jon Peters have apparently been jettisoned as well. Also, the J.J. Abrams script that Warners was so high on for a long time has been given the heave ho.
The big question now returns to who will play the man of steel. A long list of candidates has come and gone in the last few years. Mentioned at one time or another were Nicolas Cage, Matt Bomer, Jason Behr, Josh Hartnett, Henry Cavill, Jared Padalecki and Ashton Kutcher. Singer has shown to have a good eye for casting, most notably for casting the then largely unknown Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in X-Men.
“My interest in ’Superman’ dates back many, many years,” Singer said in a statement late Sunday. “In fact, it was the (1978) Richard Donner classic film that was my day-to-day inspiration in shaping the ’X-Men’ universe for the screen. I feel that ’Superman’ has been late in his return and it is time for him to fly again.”
Clearly Warner Bros. thought so as well. It must have been more than a mild annoyance to watch the explosion of superhero movies based on Marvel comics while their own DC based flagships Batman and Superman were lying in ruins. Batman has recently been revived under the hand of Memento director Chris Nolan. Singer seems a fairly inspired choice. He is clearly capable of handling such material and perhaps more important, really loves the material.
Thanks to Variety.
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