Superhero fans, we interrupt your regularly scheduled discussion of all thing “The Dark Knight” to bring you breaking news. A long time ago, in the 1980’s, there was another superhero who sat atop the comic film mountain named Superman. Sadly, his greatness dwindled with each passing film. We try not to even discuss “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.” But the pendulum never swings too far one way, and director Bryan Singer brought the Superman” franchise back to the middle with “Superman Returns.” It was a decent attempt to move the son of Krypton’s story forward, but the idea of Superman using his X-ray vision in a voyeuristic manner just creeped us out. The question at hand is where does the man of steel go from here? The rumored response is now into the hands of the Wachowski Brothers.
Nothing is confirmed yet, but Ain’t It Cool News received word from Ballack, whom they consider a credible source, about a television interview with James McTeigue in Berlin that he sat in on. In the interview, McTiegue discussed a major shift for the ‘Superman’ saga in which the directors of “The Matrix” franchise would step in for Singer. How did this happen? Ballack says it’s because “Bryan Singer has refused to undertake a re-boot of the Superman franchise and has left the Executives at WB with no choice but to take a fresh creative direction.” So it appears that Warner Bros. is taking their cape and blue tights elsewhere.
Ballack stated that “McTeigue confirmed that Plastic Man was the next project in the pipeline for the Wachowski’s and he had been signed on to provide Second Unit support.” However, a major shake up has delayed the film indefinitely. Enter Superman.
“The Wachowski Brothers had been approached to re-boot the franchise as a trilogy and they are currently reviewing their options as its like being asked to take the final play in a superbowl final,” Ballack quotes McTeigue as saying. He continued by stating “if they do agree, he [Mcteigue] will likely either succumb to providing second unit support on the movie or will champion the directorship of Plastic Man.”
There will definitely be critics of this alleged choice. The Wachowskis have provided one of the most polarizing trilogies in The Matrix saga. Comparing the original to Matrix: Revolutions is about as satisfying as trading Beck tickets to go to a Jonas Brothers show. But there’s no question that the brothers push the pedal to the metal when it comes to technical filmmaking. And they were successful in another comic effort with the adaptation of “V for Vendetta.” We would be seeing Superman on-screen in an unprecedented manner. It might be just what Superman needs to be relevant again.
The scope of the trilogy is one that is up for discussion as well. Will the Wachowski siblings play it relatively safe and retrack the vision of Richard Donner, a la Singer? Or will they make a cinematic leap with an epic trilogy like the one Mark Millar is pitching to Hollywood? We’re not sure. We are certain that a comic franchise can be re-booted successfully, as evidenced by Christopher Nolan’s masterful directing of the two latest ‘Batman’ films. That was no easy task. A decade has passed, and it still isn’t enough time for us to forget the images of “Batman and Robin.” When Joel Schumacher dies, he should not be permitted into Heaven solely because he made the Batman suit have nipples. So long as the Wachowski siblings lean more towards the original ‘Matrix’ and less towards “Speed Racer,” we’re interested. Go another route by sacrificing story and character development, and critics will unleash a wrath on Superman that will make kryptonite seem fun.
’70s sci-fi fans should note according to AICN’s guy, “Bryan Singer is looking to move on to “Logan’s Run” a movie to be produced by Joel Silver.”
