From AICN - Superman Script Review?

[Guest Tony149]

McG is out, Brett Ratner is in as SUPERMAN director.

 

I got this from http://www.superherohype.com

 

Warner Bros. has made it official, Brett Ratner will direct Superman, and it looks like Jon Peters is still producing. Here's the official press release which just went out...

 

Brett Ratner to Direct Superman for Warner Bros. Pictures

 

BURBANK, Calif.--Sept. 25, 2002--Blockbuster director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour 2) will direct the feature film action-adventure Superman for Warner Bros. Pictures, it was announced today by Jeff Robinov, President, Domestic Production, Warner Bros. Pictures. Produced by Jon Peters (Ali, Batman) and written by J.J. Abrams (Armageddon, executive producer of TV's Alias), the project is a re-imagining of the Superman legend. The screenplay is based upon DC Comics' classic character, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

 

"Superman is an American icon and a timeless hero who shares a rich history with Warner Bros.," said Alan Horn, President, Warner Bros. "We are very happy to be working with Brett, Jon and J.J. on this important new chapter in the Superman legacy."

Stated Jeff Robinov, "J.J. Abrams and Jon Peters were given the daunting task of re-imagining the Superman epic and J.J. met the challenge, delivering a terrific script with emotion, depth and scale that bring new dimension to this legendary character. We couldn't be more pleased to entrust the next chapter in the Superman mythology to Brett Ratner, a dynamic director whose skillful blend of action, comedy and drama has captured the imaginations of audiences worldwide."

 

WB is looking for a Summer 2004 release date. Ratner also said he was born to direct SUPERMAN.

 

I guess there is good and bad news about this. The good news: the script review that was leaked was a first draft. Hopefully J.J. and the producers saw the negative feedback the changes got and decided to correct it. The bad news: they don't give a shit and will end up using most if not all of the changes made to Superman.

 

To be quite honest, I'm not a big Superman fan -- I prefer Batman more. However, if I was writing the script no way would I do the changes J.J. did.

 

If this movie bombs, it'll probably be a long time before we ever see a superhero made by WB. It will also mean WB killed two of the most popular superhero characters of all-time (Batman & Superman) due to bad decisions.

[Guest Sassquatch]

The movies did not hurt the sales of the comic books so much as it killed off any possible future sequel's for the once huge blockbuster.

 

I too am not a Superman fan but the first draft of the script that I read was just an insult to the character and it's 60 + plus years of history.

 

WB back in 2000 said that they had wanted to release a Superman movie by June 2003, which would be out in time for Superman's 65th Anniversary.

 

But I guess they can throw those plans out now.

 

I am actually praying that this movie gets mired in red tape and studio BS and is never made if this is the possible story for the movie that we might see in theaters.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I could write a better SuperMan script than this in the amount of time it takes me to write those TNA reviews.

 

I swear...I was questioning changing my major away from Media Studies...but now I will continue on and make it my goal to see that all scripts like this are destroyed.

 

We have all been insulted by this.

[Guest Ozymandias]

What is there he can change? The sole reason this is being made is so WB can have 2 more films follow it. The trilogy is dependant on the very script ideas that spit in our faces (Lex as Kryptonian, Krypton never exploding).

This script is BROKEN, the only thing that can be done is to start over, which won't happen because the ignorant fucks at WB (not to mention The Incubus) love this idea.

 

Sign the petition, send letters and make phone calls to WB expressing your disgust and let them know you plan to boycott ALL WB films (and actually do it), and give serious consideration towards asassinating Peters and/or various WB studio heads because that's all that there is left for us to do. Hoping it'll get better isn't going to do any of us any good.

 

Unless you have a morbid sense of humor about these things and can't wait for Superman 5 to make $27 million during it's entire US run and destroying the careers of all those involved. In that case, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

MAybe we should write a script and then mail it to the writer.

 

He can take all the credit for it...just as long as this piece never gets made

[Guest Lethargic]

The thing about that story that scares me is that they keep mentioning that it's a "re-imagining" of Superman. Which to me says, everything is changed. So I fear that the majority of stuff in the first draft is still there.

 

And everybody keeps saying....well the reason they want to make this is so they can do the trilogy and make more money. Huh? Hello? Why would you want to write yourself into a corner of only having a trilogy? Doing a normal Superman story can give you 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 movies. However many you can get away with. Seems like a much better plan to me.

 

The funny thing is that when I wrote my Batman vs Superman script a year or so ago, I made a few changes to Superman. His reaction to kryptonite was a little bit different. He had went to the darkside after after Lois had been murdered and Batman was the hero of it. I thought if I ever let anybody actually read it that people would hate me for destroying all the good things about Superman. Then I read crap like this. And mine doesn't seem to suck so bad anymore.

[Guest starvenger]

> The thing about that story that scares me is that they keep mentioning that it's a "re-imagining" of Superman. Which to me says, everything is changed. So I fear that the majority of stuff in the first draft is still there.

 

More than likely. At this point it more resembles Stan Lee's "Just Imagine" Superman than the modern age Superman. And that version didn't work either.

[Guest Tony149]

WB wants to aim for STAR WARS, HARRY POTTER type of movies with SUPERMAN. That's why they're going with a trilogy.

Petitions to WB won't work. They don't care about the fans at all. There's even talk WB might get "SMALLVILLE" cancelled so they could go ahead with the huge changes to Superman.

 

I guess they felt like they were competing with the Donner SUPERMAN movies and decided to change a lot so people wouldn't compare, or did it just to give it their own spin. If this Superman movie gets made...they'll be compared alright, but not in a positive way.

 

I never thought BATMAN & ROBIN could look good until I read what might happen to Superman. I've read better fan scripts then what Superman fans might get.

[Guest Tony149]

WB shits their pants!

 

From Superman Cinema

 

WB ARE IN BIG TROUBLE!

 

Got this from my source today, 101% trustworthy:

WB are absolutely furious at Aint It Cool News' review of the script and is complete panic mode. Heads are rolling and the entire studio is in turmoil. It seems they are scared to death they may have another BATMAN & ROBIN situation on their hands (they do) where negative buzz kills the film before it is even released. This time before it is even shot! The entire project is now in jeopardy and that they may have to throw out the entire script and start over.

 

Someone who HATED the script and fought against it is the one who leaked it. But basically, there are a few people in the company who understand how bad the script is and that it will be a disaster the likes of which the company has never seen. We're talking a "CUTTHROAT ISLAND" sized bomb.

 

The Aint It Cool News review is 100% correct.

 

By the way, the studio heads, many of them have never seen the Donner film and do not know ANYTHING about the origins of SUPERMAN, which explains why they loved the Luthor is an alien concept.

 

How scary is that? They don't know jack about Superman. Thank God, Batman is still in the Batcave.

 

WB would be better off kissng fans' ass by getting people who know their shit on Superman & Batman, then doing a contest letting fans summit scripts. The 2 winning scripts selected by the people who know all about the two superheros, one being a Batman & Superman script, would be made into a movie.

 

At least it looks like this time the fans made a difference killing this crap.

[Guest Lethargic]

Yeah but, what the hell is Superman Cinema and what have they ever done to show that they have any credibility to know what's going on? I've just never heard of them so I don't know.

 

To me, I'd say if they were having 2nd thoughts about they would've made the big announcement yesterday about the movie.

[Guest Tony149]

That's a good point. I got that from another board I post it. I didn't bother checking if that site's legit. I'll check right now.

[Guest Tony149]

Well, I checked, and that's a real site. Wheather the story is true or not is unknown, but I wouldn't be shocked if WB did do rewrites. Lots of movies go through rewrites even when a director has been announced before finally being filmed.

 

Here's the link:

 

http://www.deceptions.net/superman

[Guest starvenger]

Yep, the site is legit, but is it trustworthy? I'm gonna wait and see if a bigger site like Coming Attractions or Dark Horizons picks up on this particular tidbit.

 

The problem I have with this 'scoop' is it's saying that the movie suits greenlighting this have no idea of who or what Superman is. While this might be believable if the character were, say, the Huntress but if you mentioned the names Spider-Man, Batman and Superman to people chances are that they'll have a decent idea of the character. A suit that does not "know ANYTHING about the origins of SUPERMAN" would probably have had to have been living in a hole over the last 60 years.

 

A more likely theory is that the suits WANTED a different take on Superman, and that's exactly what they got.

[Guest Pop Culture God]

Guys, do something about this. The online petition has over 1200 sigs in just a few days and it's still going strong. Boycott ALIAS, JJ's pet project, Boycott RED DRAGON, Rattner's new film. Get Marney to threaten the WB execs. (The last one might actually work.)

 

Ebert: If you care ANYTHING about Superman you will do something. You're the most famous film critic of all time.

 

NOW... WHO'S WITH ME?

[Guest Sassquatch]

Roger Ebert is one of the biggest comic book fans of all time if you have followed his work over the years. I can only imagine what his reaction would be after he read the Superman script.

 

Honestly, Ebert is probably furious right now that if he read the script and I imagine he already has.

 

I'm also not surprised that the execs in charge are rubes because anyone with one iota of Superman knowledge would have laughed this piece of garbage out of the studio.

 

I mean, who writes this shit?

 

A pair of chimpanzees could come up with something better than this shit.

[Guest Lethargic]

Are you talking about THIS petition? Because this one has nearly 4000 so far. Is there a different one?

[Guest Lethargic]

Superhero Hype is running the story from Superman Cinema now. Unfortunately they can't prove it, they're just reporting that THAT site is reporting it. haha

 

Here's something else to piss you off...

 

"It's been a dream since I was a child to do this movie," Ratner said. "I was born to make this movie. It's the perfect time to make this movie, as everyone is looking for someone to save the world, and who better than Superman?"

 

He also has Superman #1 framed in his house.

 

If he loves Superman so much how can he really sit down and do this?

 

Personally I don't agree with the boycott Alias and every single thing Abrams does. It's not his fault. He was told by the studio to completely revamp the story. He did what he was told and paid to do. If WB told him to stay faithful, he would've done that.

 

What I want to know is does Abrams only have ONE story that he can write? Why is it ALWAYS about a prophecy? Alias was a great secret agent type deal until the completely screwed over the show and brought in the prophecy deal and turned the show into a totally unbelievable X-Files type thing. And then with Superman he does the same thing. He brings in a prophecy which makes the entire thing seem retarded. It's also funny how this script sounds so much like the Phantom Menace storyline.

[Guest Sassquatch]

Because Ratner is a damn fool and a tool of the suits who want MEGA~! cash from the new Supes movie. If that means spitting on all continuity and the history of the Superman movie/comic book/TV franchises then so be it.

 

Hearing how Ratner feels that he was born to fuck up Superman is funny after having read the pile of shit that the WB is trying to pass off as a Superman movie script.

 

I wonder if Ratner actually read that copy of Superman #1 that he owns. Any person that has read at least one Superman book or watched one of the many different TV series out there could probably write a better script then this shit.

[Guest starvenger]

If he loves Superman so much how can he really sit down and do this?

Well, didn't Schumacher say the same thing about Batman before he destroyed THAT WB/DC franchise?

 

I dunno, maybe (and I'm seriously grasping at straws here) Ratner made these remarks BEFORE he saw the script.

 

Or else he's already seeing Superman as Jet Li flying around and doing wire-fu. Hell, if you're gonna "reimagine" Superman you might as well go full out with it...

[Guest Sassquatch]

Screwmaker said he started collecting Batman and Detective Comics when he was 12 years old (he was born on August 29th, 1939). He said that his favorite period of the Batman comic book franchise was the late '50's to mid '60's period, which was the most embarrassing period in Batman's illustrious series. It was in this time that Batman was fighting space aliens, changing costumes every other issue, the Batman '60's show and the villains were turned into funny book jokes.

 

I wasn't surprised that Joel killed off the Batman franchise. He jumped at the chance to turn Batman & Robin into a piece of retarded kiddy crap after the WB asked him to give the movie a "light-hearted" and "feel good" mood to it. He was prefect for the job and the WB got what they wanted and in the end it killed off one of their most successful film franchises at the time.

[Guest Lethargic]

If he loves Superman so much how can he really sit down and do this?

Well, didn't Schumacher say the same thing about Batman before he destroyed THAT WB/DC franchise?

 

I dunno, maybe (and I'm seriously grasping at straws here) Ratner made these remarks BEFORE he saw the script.

 

Or else he's already seeing Superman as Jet Li flying around and doing wire-fu. Hell, if you're gonna "reimagine" Superman you might as well go full out with it...

He said that yesterday so no it wasn't before the he read it.

[Guest Pop Culture God]

About the petition, I haven't checked it for a few days so I wasn't sure.

 

Oh, and Shumacher is quoted to have answered questions about the tone of Batman And Robin by saying: "Some of the purists will be upset, but after all it's just a comic book."

 

Instant Karma's gonna get you.

[Guest Sassquatch]

Screwmaker said that he wanted to be the director for either the 5th Batman or 5th Superman movie.

 

I guess if Joel was going to direct the Superman movie that he would have Superman fighting the evil but cuddly cute Salgo Alien's who look like Snarf from the Thundercats. Or else Batman would fight the EVEL~! Dr.Double X in the new movie.

 

For someone who read Batman comic books as religiously as Joel said he did. I am still shocked that Joel killed off the franchise. But I guess when you are living in a different era that will affect someone's perception of how things should be.

[Guest Tony149]

Ain't it cool news has a report up with some details on what JJ told them about the Superman script.

 

It seems like Luthor will be human after all, but JJ said "We'll see" on wheather or not Kyrpton explodes. Oh, he could of taken some heat off if he just said it explodes.

 

As for Joel -- don't forget Akiva Goldsman. He rewrote the Batchlers BATMAN FOREVER script. Most of the campy stuff in that movie was his, and he wrote the script that put Batman away -- that being BATMAN & ROBIN.

[Guest Sassquatch]

The WB is more to blame for the debacle of Batman & Robin. They wanted the movie to be campy and Joel jumped at the chance to direct the movie. He said that he would take Batman back to his campy '50's/early '60's roots like what he had grown up with.

 

I blame Warner Brothers more for giving into the Parent's Groups who said the first two Batman movies were too dark for them to take their children to and how they bent over backwards to please them. And Joel is a dipshit who is living in his own little world.

 

Goldsman was just a tool who did what the WB asked of him and Screwmaker went all out in trying to recreate the campy Batman theme and in the process helped kill off the franchise.

[Guest Tony149]

You're right. Didn't Joel say after B & R that he was going to make Batman more dark again in the next movie?

 

Of course, that didn't happen. When B & R bombed it stopped the next film from being made. Joel then pitched the Year One idea, which now seems lost.

 

Plus, OnStar did a commerical using Batman where a contest was held with the winner getting a part in the next Batman movie. Man, whoever won that might have to wait a very long time to collect their prize.

[Guest Sassquatch]

After Batman & Robin bombed in theaters, Joel said that he needed to reevaluate why he liked Batman and why his vision of Batman failed. In the summer of 1998, when the new Batman movie rumors were starting up, Joel said something to the affect of that he would go back and change some of the elements that he felt caused the movie to be a disaster. In otherwords, Joel knew he fucked up by making the tripe that he did and helped kill off one of the WB's best film franchise's. But yeah, he basically was condemning his own vision of Batman and probably would have sucked it up and would have done a darker version of Batman & Robin then he originally did.

 

I liked the OnStar commercial's Batman who looked like Michael Keaton (who is IMO the best Batman out of the bunch).

 

Whoever the winner was from that commercial would have a better chance of starring in Aliens vs. Predator movie than another Batman movie.

 

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

What I don't get is, why do people think they have to fuck with proven success? Superman's been around forever. I'm reading something from one of these links about them wanting to make Superman wear basketball shorts and stupid shit like that. Do the people making these decisions think people are morons? People know what they like and they have liked it for 60 damn years.

[Guest Tony149]

The basketball shorts deal was tossed around when Tim Burton was going to direct SUPERMAN LIVES.

 

Most of the people in-charge don't seem to like the red underwear.

 

I don't know why they change things, but they do.

[Guest Sassquatch]

You can thank the Matrix Zombie's for the intense dislike of tights. Everyone that is part of the (ugh) sci-fi genre must now look like something from a rave with no stand alone features or independence in looks.

 

Leather > tights

 

Every producer now feels that every movie starring comic books characters must not be able to wear tights.

 

Funny how Spider-Man's costume wasn't changed at all and his movie went on to shatter box office records and the fans loved it. Too bad the suits in charge do not feel this way.