What's Gonna Come Of The Man Of Steel?

I've had a great tip off that traces back to a decent source with links within Warner Bros. It reveals quite a bit of exciting info about how The Man of Steel is going to go down when Brian Singer steps back behind the camera next year.

Apparently, Singer and Mike Dougherty have crafted a killer pitch and 'concept draft' that had the suits eating out of their hands and even had a knock-on effect for the plans for JLA (I'm told). Several key story points were made clear by the pre-production conceptual art, and here are some SPOILERY details of what those images revealed:

There's a new Kryptonian character coming to Earth as a result of Supes' pilrgimage to Krypton that took place before Returns.

Lex makes a deal with "a new villain" (I read this as new to the films, not new to the mythos, and indeed I have some idea who it is...) in order to have Superman eradicated. This villain double crosses Lex and takes over Lexcorp (yep - sounds like Brainiac to me too). What's more, Jason is a key part in the plot to trap Superman and...

Poor little Jason. He's snuffed out. That should have some of you cheering, you fiends.

So, there's a basic draft of the script (a scriptment?), pre-production art and several sequences storyboarded and, as far as I've been told, it's all going down very well with the execs. Nothing's gonna stand in the way of this film, I'm sure. And, reportedly, this one is really quite action packed with a threatening, smart double team of villains. Can't fail.

Treat this as rumour, sure. If you must. I'm buying it entirely because I know where it comes from.

[And if you don't find this exciting, maybe the big, big Buffyverse splash of the day will float your boat...]

Movie Minesweeper - The Private And Confidential Edition

I'm listening to Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder as I begin today. Nice. Makes a nice change from Horse It Into Ya Cynthia, which was the last thing I listened to. Sheesh.

- Phantasm V is moving forwad, it seems. Bubba Nosferatu? Not so much.

- Some rumours are making Indiana Jones IV sound rather too like The Mummy III for most people's comfort. I'm not buying it.

- The Man of Steel's producers think Superman will be going before the cameras ahead of Harvey Milk. If this means The Mayor of Castor Street never gets made, I'm not going to be happy.

- Rupert Friend has been cast as Prince Albert.

- Aidan Quinn and his director sister Marian are to premiere their new film 32A at the Glaway Fleadh next weekend.

- A Lucky Luciano biopic is on the cards. Yawn.

- Claudia Karvan has taken the female lead role in Daybreakers.

- Fox have pulled the remaining episodes of Drive from the schedules. Again. All the better to bury it, dance on the grave and laught at Tim Minear while he sits sobbing. Villains.

- Pixar's Jeff Pidgeon has been lurking down at the Kwik-E-Mart.

- ABC are holding the rights to screen piles of movies they just don't want to screen - but they've already paid. Why are movies such a turn off on American Network TV, I wonder?

This update included a couple of links that I'd overlooked in the last few Minesweepers. Now we're back to straight.
And I'm not listening to any music at all.

Movie Minesweeper - The Before The Shouting Starts Edition

Welcome to Tuesday morning, GMT and an act of Movie Minesweeping as procrastination.

- AintItCool have published a very heartening statement from George Romero. Romero who, I have to admit, was critically missing from my list of 100 directors. Shame on me.

- According to the LA Daily News quite an astonishing list of lookylikeys is being sought for Snyder's Watchmen: Nixon, Kissinger, H R Haldeman, Ted Koppel, John McLaughlin, Annie Liebovitz, Lennon and Ono, Castro, Einstein, Norman Rockwell, JFK and Jackie, Warhol, Mao Tze Tung and Larry King.

- Has an upcoming location for the Indiana Jones IV shoot been discovered? Well, it seems likely - but, er... so what? It's not a very telling detail at all.

- An alarming little piece of a Google-owned corporate blog kicked off a furore this weekend. The post criticised Michael Moore's Sicko at the same time as encouraging health care companies to buy targeted ads that would ambush Google users searching for details on the film. This was quite clearly against Google's desired reputation as a neutral information outlet - and after a whole heap of fuss, the author of the post had to issue a retraction. Her politics aside (they're obviously very different from my own) I think she's done something very bad here and a simple retraction just isn't enough. Frankly, I'd like to see her fired.

- Magnolia have revealed their launch strategies for cheap 'indie comedies' Cashback and Closing Escrow.

- Disney Animator and Director Art Stevens has died, aged 92.

- The offical Saw IV synopsis and cast list have been unveiled. I've heard rumours that Saw V is to be the last and that it has been, broadly at least, been plotted already - and in a way that will wrap up the whole shebang quite conclusively. I'm asking around and will report any findings worth sharing.

- So, Kylie Minogue is to appear in the Christmas Dr. Who and that's been all over the news here for twelve hours or so - but less high-profile was the casting of Keeley Hawes in Ashes to Ashes, the Life on Mars sequel. I gave a pretty detailed break down of the show's premise a couple of months back and it sounds from that description that Ms. Hawes will play DCI Alex Drake.

- There's a casting call out for the young girl lead in Nowhereland.

- There are more Resident Evil: Extinction pictures doing the rounds.

- Maddy Gaiman has announced a December 2008 release date for the Hellboy 2 DVD. Bless.

- We don't know for sure that The Mayor of Castro Street is to come before Superman Returns Again, but it does seem fairly likely.

- Young @ Heart played on TV here last year - now it's getting a US theatrical release. It's a documentary about a bunch of old folk singing pop songs. It wasn't very good, but I absolutely loved it.

- The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has declined Oliver Stones offer to make a doucumentary about him. The President's media advisor said "It is right that this person is considered part of the opposition in the U.S., but opposition in the US is a part of the Great Satan".

- Brian Hill is to turn this weekend's Live Earth event into a feature for Jeff Skoll's Participant Productions.

- Dana Delaney might turn up in Desperate Housewives - finally, after a string of offers stretching back before the show went into production. Previously, they wanted her for Bree but (obviously) she passed on that one... so, how about Bree's 'Conservative Republican' sister? Seems like she might bite.

Samuel L Jackson Is Nick Fury. And He's On Set Shooting Today

Kudos to Drew McWeeny, once again, for one hell of a scoop over at AintItCool. Apparently, Samuel L. Jackson will be taking on the role of Nick Fury for Marvel Movies, and today, he's on set shooting a scene as that character for the Iron Man movie.

A kind of cross-movie synergy between superhero movies has been a long time coming, but I can see it taking off in a big way within just the next two or three years. And I don't mean simply Avengers and Justice League style films, I mean special appearances from one character in another character's movie. Marvel have been manoeuvring on a business level in ways that have made this much easier, but there's always been the possibility of Superman in Batman, or vice versa, and I suppose there still is, even though Singer's film and Nolan's seem wildly incompatible.

I always got a kick out of Michael Keaton's Ray Nicolet appearing in both Jackie Brown and Out of Sight - not least because I love Michael Keaton. But I love Sam too, so even though I doubt very much that Iron Man will be anything like Out of Sight, much less Jackie Brown, this idea still appeals to me greatly.

Super-Consultant

In a new interview at MoviesOnline, David Goyer admits that he has served as a consultant on a number of big superhero franchises.

I think we can exclude Spider-Man from that list... and Singer's films too... aren't all of the others really bad? Without exception? In the last ten years or so, at least.

Correct me in the comments below by reminding me, oh-so-ironically, that the Goyer scripted Blade II became a thing of beauty in the hands of Guillermo del Toro. And then let me remind you that there's always one allowed to prove the rule. Apparently.

Superbloom

According to Just Jared, Orlando Bloom met with Jon and Mindy Peters and Brian Singer to discuss a role in the next Superman film. That's really all there is to the story, but Bloom was apparently eyeballed and... well... he fits. He definitely fits.

Lots of observers spotted a pattern in the Superman Returns casting. Bloom fits that pattern.

Ahem.

Children Of Men, Superman Series And Tideland: The Sad State Of DVD Publishing Today

If you live in the UK, your first chance to buy Children on Men came in December. The single disc edition was virtually bare bones and when news broke about a replacement 2-Disc edition coming little more than three months later, it felt like a slap in the face. Early adopters had been had.

Luckily, now, Universal are agreeing to replace UK R2 copies of the single-disc edition with the full monty. And virtually for free.

Send your disc with a jiffy bag for the return item, stamped to the value of 70p, to this address:

Children of Men DVD Amnesty
PO Box 188
Woodford Green
Essex
IG8 7RW

You have until June 30th. Ex-rental copies are not elligible. Tell them who sent you.

You won't believe how hard it was to get that address. I called, was put on hold, cut off; called again, was put on hold, given an e-mail address to try; I e-mailed and never received a reply; called again, was cut off again... I could go on. Somehow I don't think Universal want a large number of returns - but they are doing the right thing. Well, almost - they should offer something in return for the postage costs, really. Maybe a discount voucher from other Universal releases?

The Superman series boxset that was issued lat last year was, I'm told, a bit of a botch job. In R1 at least - can anybody confirm the status of the R2 discs? America will find the repressed, corrected set on shelves from May 19th. Frankly, I wouldn't touch Superman IV with a barge pole and way prefer Richard Lester to Richard Donner... I'm not the audience for this box. Not until it gets real cheap.

And finally, the biggest DVD debacle in recent years goes on and on and on. Tideland is still not available in the correct format outside of the UK. ThinkFilm's final official statement?

That they will be replacing the 1.78:1 disc currently on shelves with a 2.35:1 reissue later this year. No amnesty announced, no replacement scheme in place. And worst of all... 2.35:1 isn't the aspect ratio Gilliam wants used anyway. They should be repressing to the 2.25:1 (approximately) master that he supplied.

At least when discs area thing of the past and everything comes as a download, botches like these should be easier to rectify.

Supermarch

Seems that the next Superman will go into production in March of 2008. Apparently, this was always the plan and the World War II film Singer is making this summer was slotted in around it.

Then again, see, Singer had a long planned X-Men 3 that was promised for months if not years yet never saw the light of day. It's early for Superman Again yet, and anything could happen.

Three For McG

In recent months, McG has been linked to family film Me and My Monster, and now IESB seek to shackle his name to The Losers and a remake of Fantastic Voyage. I'd prefer to see the Fantastic Voyage, I think, but I doubt it would dislodge Innerspace from my cushiony heart. Which will it really be? The Losers, I'd bet. The execs will see how similar the comic book original is to The A-Team and pigeonhole McG accordingly, turn on the green light and get scribbling with their Blankety Blank paraphenalia.

Poor old McG. He gets such a hard time. Though I've only seen his Charlie's Angels films (besides any number of promos and music videos) and am still waiting for We Are Marshall to cross the Atlantic, I've got a lot of time for Joseph McGinty Nichol. A Superman film starring Beyonce Knowles and Justin Timberlake? It wouldn't have been Superman Returns, I'm sure, but it certainly had my curiosity piqued.

The motocross sequence in the second Charlie's Angels film was a better action scene than anything in Hot Fuzz, that's for sure. Well, in execution if not conception. The day Tony Scott can direct an action sequence better than McG is the day I'll start tightrope walking the standard line on those two.

John August's Justice League

So, there's a Justice League movie on the cards. We all know that now. But who is writing it? And how will it work alongside the Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman franchises that are already underway or in deep development?

The answer to one of those questions is in the title of this post. John August's next assignment is the Justice League script. He virtually stated it outright on his blog.

There's more news on this just around the corner... stay tuned...

[EDIT: So, Michelle and Kiernan Mulroney are the paid-up hired scriptwriters of the Justice League film. Does that mean August isn't too? I guess so. For now, at least. I'm still waiting on the "more on this" I was promised, and I hope that it a) comes soon b) clears things up and c) vindicates my foolish assumption

I need to pay more attention to films that, frankly, sound lifeless and dull to me - Justice League being a case in point.

Thanks to Drew for the info]

Kenny Beats Clark

The biggest selling DVD in Australia this Christmas - beating Superman Returns into second place at a reported ratio in excess of 3:1 - is the homegrown 'dramatised documentary', Kenny.

I guess I'll have to import this if I want to see it any time soon. The titular Kenny is a portaloo provider and amateur philosopher, and apparently offers up countless quotable gags. Seems like a comfy Sunday afternoon at the very least.

If you've seen it, let me know more in the comments below.