So, we've heard that the next Superman film will be a reboot instead of a sequel to Bryan Singer's lukewarm effort Superman Returns. There's been nothing official beyond that, but comic writer Mark Millar apparently has a grand vision for the project that he may actually get to put into action. Along with revealing the budget for the film adaptation of his book Kick-Ass will be nearly $70 million - huge for an indie - Millar also talked up his Superman dreams.
“A director approached me about three months ago and he said ‘look, [Bryan Singer's] The Man Of Steel might not be happening. If that doesn’t happen, it has been spoken about the possibility of me coming in, would you like to write it?’ And I was like 'Yeah.' I’ve had this plan for like 10 years for a big three-picture Superman thing, like a big Lord of the Rings epic, starting over from scratch again with a seven-hour Superman story. And hopefully release them one year after another,” continued Millar. “If it works out, we’ll have to start shooting next summer.”
As far as differentiating his vision from Singer's too-faithful homage to Richard Donner's original Superman films, Millar says he'll be a “Superman for the 21st Century, keeping everything we adore, but starting from scratch and making the kids love it as much as the 30-somethings.” Judging from Millar's previous work with major flagship characters, where he's made Captain America an oblivious jerk and the Punisher into a complete moron in the somehow-mega-selling crossover event Civil War in Marvel Comics, we can probably expect a lot more "extreme action." Millar can do great work, though, such as Superman: Red Son, which poses the question of what would happen if the baby Kal-El had crash-landed in Communist Russia rather than wholesome Kansas. So it remains to be seen how he'd approach something on this massive scale. No word on who this director is, but the chance that Millar will get this opportunity is "a longshot," in his own words. We'll have to wait and see how much WB liked Wanted.
