Superman Could Get Dark Knight Treatment

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
14,499
0
0
Superman Could Get Dark Knight Treatment



The upcoming Superman movie is going to be overseen by the reboot specialist that handled The Dark Knight [http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Begins-Blu-ray-Christian-Bale/dp/B000PC6A3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1279748759&sr=1-1].

Deadline Hollywood has learned that Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan is now a part of Warner Bros' next Superman movie project. It's well known that Warner was unhappy with 2006's Superman Returns [http://www.amazon.com/Superman-Returns-Blu-ray-Brandon-Routh/dp/B001F3FUK6/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1279748789&sr=1-1], so the company hopes to breathe life into the red-speedo wearing hero with his next movie by putting it under the watchful eye of Nolan.

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were both reboots, both huge successes, and both directed by Nolan, so it's almost elementary to bring him onto Superman to see what can be done. It appears unlikely that Nolan would direct the next Superman movie, but is instead taking on the role of "godfather" as more of an overseer. The project is very early, so nothing is set in stone just yet, but according to a DH insider: "It would definitely not be a followup to Superman Returns."

Another insider revealed: "We know what we don't want to do. But we don't know what we want to do. We learned a lot from the last movie, and we want to get it right this time." Seemingly, the property is too valuable to leave sitting for 3.5 years like it has, and a copyright claim [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/93906-DC-Comics-Lose-Another-Piece-of-Superman] could be complicating matters even further, so the clock is ticking. This may be why Warner decided to bring in their golden boy, Christopher Nolan, who is currently finishing up work on sci-fi film Inception.

It's too bad that Superman can't actually be Dark Knight-ed. Batman has been a campy mess in the past, but his current status is that of a noir-style hero, so he's easy to take in a darker direction. Superman is the shining star in DC's pantheon, an all-American hero of comics, so I would think any revamp would have to be done very carefully. The Death of Superman [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Superman], where a character named Doomsday came along and nearly killed Superman, was a huge comics event and might be a good place to start for the new movie. Doomsday is properly evil, and could be a good contrasting dark to Superman's light. Just give me a nod in the credits if you do it, okay Warner?

Source: Deadline Hollywood [http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-chris-nolan-hell-mentor-superman-3-0-while-preparing-3rd-batman/]

Permalink
 

Nurb

Cynical bastard
Dec 9, 2008
3,078
0
0
But... Superman's style has never been "dark and angsty". I hope that's not the direction they're taking him.
 

Gigaguy64

Special Zero Unit
Apr 22, 2009
5,481
0
0
If the movie is a re-make of "The Death of Superman" im going to flip out.
(in a good way)
Superman is tricky because, like you said, he is DC'S shining star.
sure he has his truly dark moments but, overall he the "True Hero".

The movie should be good either way but, i wouldn't mind a darker view of Superman, just not to dark.
 

lee1287

New member
Apr 7, 2009
1,495
0
0
hmmm...

i have no idea where they could take this. just, for the love of god, NO KEVIN SPACEY!
 

Space Spoons

New member
Aug 21, 2008
3,335
0
0
For goodness sake, just adapt Superman for All Seasons (or Superman: Birthright if you want to go modern) and be done with it. It's the only way to properly reboot the series.
 

Archemetis

Is Probably Awesome.
Aug 13, 2008
2,089
0
0
Y'know what happens when they try and make Superman dark and edgy?
He grows a super saiyan santa beard, fights off legions of robotic batman clones, kills two clones of Hitler with a gun the size of a house and then cremates himself to death with the remains of the real Batman...

No, sir.

[And I WISH I was making that up...]
 

The Rockerfly

New member
Dec 31, 2008
4,649
0
0
Okay well: How are you going to do that?
Batman is meant to be dark and moody, while superman is a shining beacon of hope and justice

Batman is a symbol of justice and incorruptibility in a dark gritty city

Superman is a overly powerful alien, how the fuck is it going to be batmanised?
 

Elexia

New member
Dec 24, 2008
308
0
0
Uhhh.... Superman: Doomsday WAS made into a movie. Well, a movie-length cartoon but still... Wouldn't the makers of the cartoon movie now have the rights to that story?
 

Stein Inge

New member
Jun 9, 2009
316
0
0
Could not care less who they will get to direct, act in or otherwise contribute.
He´s simply to overpowered to be interesting.
And he got his ass handed to him by a geriatric Batman so there...
 

Geamo

New member
Aug 27, 2008
801
0
0
Tom Goldman said:
It's too bad that Superman can't actually be Dark Knight-ed. Batman has been a campy mess in the past, but his current status is that of a noir-style hero, so he's easy to take in a darker direction. Superman is the shining star in DC's pantheon, an all-American hero of comics, so I would think any revamp would have to be done very carefully. The Death of Superman [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Superman], where a character named Doomsday came along and nearly killed Superman, was a huge comics event and might be a good place to start for the new movie. Doomsday is properly evil, and could be a good contrasting dark to Superman's light. Just give me a nod in the credits if you do it, okay Warner?
As I was reading the article, I was thinking "What they're outlining would fit well with the Death of Superman storyline. Good show, you read my mind!

Another interesting take they could do is Superman: Red Son. It's a fantastic Elseworlds one-off that outlines What If? Superman's capsule landed in Soviet Russia rather than the USA. It's a fasicinating take on Superman, and is probably one of my favourites.
 

G1eet

New member
Mar 25, 2009
2,090
0
0
Why, oh, why? I think the last we need is another dark, brooding superhero movie -_-

Besides, he's from the "Golden Age", where altruistic superheroes acted that way because they were American, damn it! You can't translate that into a comic noir movie. It's like telling the Care Bears to team up with Sauron.
 

Rynozeros

I'm on a boat
May 13, 2009
72
0
0
It's too bad that Superman can't actually be Dark Knight-ed. Batman has been a campy mess in the past, but his current status is that of a noir-style hero, so he's easy to take in a darker direction. Superman is the shining star in DC's pantheon, an all-American hero of comics, so I would think any revamp would have to be done very carefully. The Death of Superman [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Superman], where a character named Doomsday came along and nearly killed Superman, was a huge comics event and might be a good place to start for the new movie. Doomsday is properly evil, and could be a good contrasting dark to Superman's light. Just give me a nod in the credits if you do it, okay Warner?
There have been people ever since the event of the Death of Superman calling for a live action movie of it. And some in the tone you're suggesting it to be in. So I don't think that Warner, or whoever else might make it, could justify giving you credit for the idea. Sorry.
 

spamhibiki

New member
Feb 9, 2010
6
0
0
Superman has always been a touchy super hero to adapt. The campy movies form the so long ago entertained audiences back then but not now. Nolan is a good choice but only as director not some "overseer". He has to be Balls deep in it
 

CaptainCrunch

Imp-imation Department
Jul 21, 2008
711
0
0
I cringe at every usage of "reboot", "retelling", and "reimagining." It's just a smoke screen used to make the masses buy into some bullshit story, without claiming it as part of the "collected tales of ." If DC had actually said "Yup, Batman Begins and Dark Knight are totally part of the Batman chronology now" I think a lot of comic nerds would have been a lot less pissed off about it.

The only way I'm going to consider this a re-anything for Superman is if Nolan makes him Latino, actually kills him off, or includes a live-action Justice League movie as part of the deal. Until then, Nolan is just making the next Superman movie, and it is absolutely nothing special.
 

Beastialman

New member
Sep 9, 2009
574
0
0
I can't take Superman seriously. If I had laser eyes I'd practically never have them off. Seriously there have been countless times where Superman can just cut something in half and fix the whole problem.
 

Keshihead

New member
Jun 15, 2009
39
0
0
Archemetis said:
Y'know what happens when they try and make Superman dark and edgy?
He grows a super saiyan santa beard, fights off legions of robotic batman clones, kills two clones of Hitler with a gun the size of a house and then cremates himself to death with the remains of the real Batman...

No, sir.

[And I WISH I was making that up...]
That's not Superman, that's just Bearded Idiot :D [Insert obligatory "I AM A MAYUUUN!!!" joke here]
 

MetaKnight19

New member
Jul 8, 2009
2,007
0
0
General Zod needs to make a comeback, of course I don't think that will happen since he was thrown into a chasm at the end of Superman 2.