Hey folks, Harry here with the latest on SUPERMAN - everything in this report jives with what my sources have told me so far. And you'll notice Singer's response regarding "Jesus" ahem.... Mark - I told ya so! Anyway, seems like Bryan is aiming at a March start date for shooting! And so far, it ain't derailing! Here ya go...
Hey Harry -
You published a review of Intolerable Cruelty awhile back...and that's about it. I visit the site. Obviously.
Anyway, Bryan Singer, Michael Dougherty, and Dan Harris ALL visited NYU this morning and spoke to a group of around 30 students, including myself. I was expecting the film students there to diluge Singer with questions about the Usual Suspects, for the most part, but really, for an hour or so, all we did was talk about Superman.
He made no mention of the title whatsoever, although the guy who ran the meeting referred to Singer as the director of the upcoming "Superman Returns." For all we know, he might have just lifted it from the site.
Anyway, here are some tidbits.
- When asked if it will be a sequel, remake, or origin story, he said, in so many words, sequel. He said that the previous movies will be referenced in a "vague historical sense" (this wasn't clarified), and that the origin itself will be handled in the same way it was in the first Batman movie, with intercutting flashbacks.
- When asked the "status," he hesitated, but said that they were moving to Sydney (in which they've rented 8-10 acres) in November (they scouted "several weeks ago"), and shooting would begin IN MARCH.
- Casting came up. He said that right now the main offices are setup in New York and LA, but he has 10 offices "all over the world." He said that he's only looking for Lexes and Supermans right now, but he has a "sense of where he's going to look" for his supporting players. Many students around the room were hoping for a shot at Jimmy. He said that he really wants to cast an unknown in the lead.
- Caviezel came up. He said, with ample humor, that since Caviezel, is KNOWN, he won't cast him. He also mentioned that he's looking for an actor between 25 and 30.
- I asked him afterwards (that's right, I talked to him! Yeah! Sigh...) if he was going to, as a director, go for a mythic Donner-like approach or more character based, like Smallvile aspires to be (i don't that show, consequently, despite the fact that Superman is my religion), and he responded quickly. "Mythic. Definitely."
- He mentioned his pitch to Alan Horn right after the dismissal of McG. He mentioned that at that point, they were still doing the Abrams draft, which he hadn't read, and that he knew, immediately after the pitch, that his plans for Logan's Run would have to be put on hold, that Fox would get pissed at him for dumping X-Men 3, because he KNEW that Horn liked his pitch, and that they would forget about the $50 million they spent over the last 11 years and make it. He said the pitch lasted around 30-40 minutes.
- On related subjects, he says that he's going to have a Logan's Run "room" setup in Sydney so he can develop it during the filming of Superman, and move on it immediately afterwards. He says that he feels bad about not participating in X-Men 3 (which he won't). He mentioned a lot of the pre-visualizations on Logan's has already been done, and he seemed really, really excited about it.
- Also on a related subject, I spoke to Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty regarding Ender's Game. They said they did 3 drafts and haven't heard anything more about it. They told me some details, which I'm not going to share, but I'm really happy with some of the changes they made.
- Back to Superman. He said the look will be "traditional." That's good.
- I'm trying to remember if he said anything else, but I think that's about it. He seemed pretty confident that it was getting made, mentioning that "Warner really wants Superman," which he said contributed to him getting tapped to do it. But it was all his idea - Singer, Harris, and Dougherty did the whole thing when in Hawaii and decided, rather sporadically, to pitch it. And it worked.
I guess that's about it. He was a blast to listen to, very funny and honest. Harris and Dougherty, who look like they're about 12, were great also, and this was a confidence booster to me big time that they're up to it.
Oh, one more thing. He was asked how solid he was on his vision for the now-reassigned X-Men 3 and mentioned only that he would probably have to add in Gambit because "he's so easy." He said that Angel was cut from X2, Beast from X-Men, and that neither, he thought, would ever "come back." That's all.
So, if you use this, call me...
SR Hadden
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