SUPERMAN - Reaching out to Warner Brothers for Sanity's Sake!

Warner Executives,

Once again your Superhero franchises are in disarray. I feel partly responsible for this, because had I just sat on the news about y'all going to Bay to replace Ratner with, Brett would be gone and Bay would be in place, and all of you would be, just a bit happier. However, you still wouldn't have your SUPERMAN.

On the set of SPY KIDS 3, Sylvester Stallone asked me what I would do if I were trying to cast SUPERMAN and make the film, and I just unleashed a whole hell of a lot of advice. Stallone agreed with every step of it, so he was either being exceedingly polite or I was making some sense.

The problem of casting one of these "Actors" that you guys have been testing is that ONE - they haven't wanted to commit to a 3 film deal in blue tights. TWO - they have all not looked a bit like Superman in the tests. Your tests are becoming as infamous as the Richard Donner tests a zillion years ago, when they even called in Stallone to test.

What would I do?

I would call in every Swimmer, Diver, Sprinter, Football player, Trapeze act, highwire act, search circus acts... Anybody that is a dynamic balanced person that looks roughly like Superman looks. Have them do screen tests, charm tests, and dialogue tests. Have them sit in a room that has cameras and have a girl walk in and start talking with them about the weather, politics, whatever... just so you can see if he has a bit of charm. Pick the best one.

SIGN HIM.

Now spend a year training him as an actor, specifically have an acting coach work with him on becoming SUPERMAN. Yes, this is time consuming. YES, this means the movie won't be ready NEXT SUMMER. But what we're talking about here is a potential $3-$4 BILLION Dollar WorldWide franchise. This isn't about making a film that looks alright. That's empty effects. An empty special fx movie means the franchise makes $1.5 billion over 3 films at best. But Warner Brothers... You guys are on the ropes. Careers are on the line. You can't rush a perfect cake, it takes time to bake.

The actor playing SUPERMAN... that's it. That's your franchise. Each time SUPERMAN has been cast he has been a miracle, a godsend. No better case for this than Christopher Reeve. There is no need to rush this, have the wrong director, the wrong cast and once again end up with a product that you don't want, the audience doesn't want and a film that once again diminishes the luster of the once shiny Warner Shield.

DO IT RIGHT! Make the right decisions! Going this route can give Ratner a graceful exit. He doesn't want to sit around in limbo for a year and a half on this thing. He wants to make HONG KONG PHOOEY, he's perfect for that. Then you can bring in whoever you want to direct. Hopefully, that'd be someone with a clue what Truth, Justice and the American Way meant in the late 1930's when Superman took it as his motto.

Marvel's successes are not over-night. These films have been in development many times. HULK was headed towards the screen many times. The time before Ang Lee, I wrote an editorial about the script, thrashing the Hensleigh draft... Wound up in conference calls with Marvel staff folks as I passionately argued that the script was terrible and unsalvagable. Yes, it was a nasty pill to swallow in a public venue. Yes they had spent around $20 million in development money. Yes, they went back to square 1. But guess what? Years later, ANG LEE was there waiting for them. Eric Bana was the actor that wasn't available years before. Digital FX had gotten just that much better. And James Schamus was writing the script.

The current public hell that is swirling around SUPERMAN because the project isn't right at this time. You have the wrong director. You're looking at the wrong actors. And I haven't seen the latest draft, so I can't comment on that, but with the right performer and the right director... With patience and the time to make non-hasty decisions, this film can be HUGE! Or it can just be big.

Whatever you folks at Warners do, do the thing you KNOW is RIGHT. Don't let public faux pas by brattish talent behind the camera or behind this site bully you into decisions. Weigh both sides and see which is heavier with truth. And make the right decision.