Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I get as much mail about Warner Bros. and SUPERMAN as I do about almost any other single project in development out there right now. People are fascinated by this, whether they love it or hate it. It seems like they just can’t get enough of it. And I get a lot of rumors in my inbox, too. The last few days have produced a couple of doozies, and I have a couple of sources who are working to verify all of this. One guy wrote to tell me that the working title of the film was now SUPERMAN: THE FLIGHT, but offered no detail to back his story up at all. These two reports I'm publishing, though, both contain details that would seem to be true based on other things I've learned. At first glance, it might seem like these reports contradict each other, but not really. Casting can continue on a project even if construction is postponed. The search for Superman himself is the single most important thing happening on this film right now. I know they’ve been doing some costume and screen tests recently, and I keep hearing Josh Hartnett’s name come up.
Because of that, the rest of this letter strikes me as plausible. Consider it rumor for now, but from a source that seems informed:
Dear Harry:
Following last week's Superman screen tests, I can now give you the names of three of the young actors being strongly
considered for the role.
Ashton Kutcher.
The WB people liked him very much, and were eager to see how Just Married would perform at the box-office. That film's surprisingly huge opening cume may bode well for Kutcher. (On a personal note, I think this is a terrible idea).
Kip Pardue.
Recently seen in Remember the Titans and Rules of Attraction. Supposedly a big star in the making.
Barry Watson.
Star of WBTV's 7th Heaven. WB execs like the idea of using someone "in-house." Apparently tested very well.
That's all I can give you for now. Obviously, they're going for a handsome, young, all-American type. No surprise there. Also, Josh Hartnett is once again in the running. Apparently, he's very enthusiastic about winning this part. One final note... Tom Welling is absolutely positively NOT being considered.
Hmmmm... don’t know what I think of those names. I saw Ashton Kutcher at the Arclight Theaters in Hollywood last night as I was waiting to see 25TH HOUR. He was darting in and out of an auditorium, and was pretty hard to miss. He’s been a goofball in pretty much everything he’s done so far, but that doesn’t mean he can’t play serious. He’s also got the advantage of being a lot taller than most contenders. In person, he’s surprisingly substantial. Kip Pardue is a good guy, and anyone who survived DRIVEN deserves some sort of compensation from Warner Bros. Still, he’s a little too All-American, maybe. I don’t know if I buy him as an alien hiding among us, and there’s always got to be something that makes Clark and Superman stand out, I think. Barry Watson... I don’t know him, really. I can’t say I’ve been watching SEVENTH HEAVEN, so if he’s a great choice, it’ll be a surprise to me. This next e-mail seems to suggest that the recently delivered draft by JJ Abrams is still coming in pricey (and believe me... once they start budgeting your script, you learn a hell of a lot about how much certain things cost), and it wouldn’t surprise me to see Abrams keep working on it and refining it. Here’s hoping he’s focused what worked in that first draft and improved what didn’t. And here’s hoping Warner Bros. realizes that they can’t lowball this film. They have to spend here like they spend on THE MATRIX or HARRY POTTER. They have to spend with reckless abandon if they want to make something that will be genuinely breathtaking.
Hey, Harry. First time contributor, long time reader. I have received word from insiders @ Warner Bros. Studios working on the prep for Superman and this person is temporarily out of a job because Superman has been 'Temporarily' shut down for approximately 2 months. According to this person the reasons are that there are MAJOR problems with the script and the budget and they are trying to get things down to reasonable size. Apparently there really is no budget as they are in preproduction and moving superfast to make a release for next summer. I don't know how true this next part is but he said the budget is currently running at nearly 8 MILLION DOLLARS PER PAGE!
Another interesting note is that apparently the director (Ratner) isn't happy at all with the preproduction going on (and mention that he's either leaving the project or being asked to leave), on the 5-6 stages at Warner Bros. and that there's also a possibility of the movie being filmed in CANADA!
I just heard this yesterday as it was happening. I'll take the polygraph on all of this as it came out of the mouth of my trusted source.
Anonimus
There’s been some set dressing going on at Warner Bros. lately, so that verifies part of Anonimus’s story. I know one guard told me directly when I was on the lot that it was for BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN, but I figure she just got her wires crossed and didn’t realize they’d abandoned that idea. The “METROPOLIS” signs would certainly be a giveaway.
That’s the first rumble I’ve heard anywhere about an unhappy Ratner, though, and I’ll be following that up to see if there’s any fire attached to that smoke, or if it’s just idle chatter, and I’ll get back to you soon.
"Moriarty" out.
