Persistent, and hopefully true, rumors abound throughout the Internet about the possible firing of the unholy troika of Jon Peters, J.J. Abrams and Joseph "McG" McGinty from the production of Superman: Last Son of Krypton. "McG" would be to Superman what Joel Schumacher was to Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. And Jon Peters is shaping up to be to Superman: Last Son of Krypton what Alexander and Ilya Salkind were to Superman III and SuperGirl.
IGN's FILMFORCE has done a superb job of rounding up all the sources, the rumors and putting together a comprehensive report on where the production currently stands.
- The fansite Superman-V.com has followed up on persistent Internet rumors that Warner Brothers might be dumping director McG, producer Jon Peters and screenwriter J.J. Abrams from their stalled Man of Steel movie. The claims began at Ain't It Cool News and The Superman Homepage, the latter of which points out a posting at comic book writer Mark Millar's official site that he knows who the new writer-director is for Superman.
Millar, who recently wrote Superman: Red Son, claims to know "who's doing the movie too. Even DC don't know this yet, but I'm friendly with the writer/director and he's been angling for this for a while. You. Will. Be. Happy."
Superman-V.com says that after "investigating it seems that not only do these rumours seem credible; they may be more dramatic than first thought. So far, indications are that WB may be about to pull the plug entirely on the McG/Abrams/Peters version of Superman and start completely afresh."
The site claims to know who the person is but won't name them. They add that the "writer/director's people have been contacted but the story was denied – which is to be expected. WB claimed to 'know nothing about this.'"
Denials are nothing new when it comes to Warner Brothers' comic book movies. For example, director Brett Ratner's departure from Superman was denied by the filmmaker himself until he made his official announcement.
Interestingly enough, Coming Attractions at Cinescape claimed last year that producer Jon Peters was being dumped in favor of Harry Potter producer David Heyman and Barrie M. Osbourne (Lord of the Rings, The Matrix). Could they now be the new producers of Superman?
And does that make the writer-director in question ... Chris Columbus?! Think about it: Columbus is a family friendly filmmaker who has already raked in a bundle for Warner Brothers on another franchise (Harry Potter). He's also a comic book fan (he was attached to Daredevil and Fantastic Four ages ago). Of course, maybe it's the Wachowski brothers but it sounds like an individual and not a team.
Finally, Superman-V.com has also posted "pictures of an official scouting trip in Washington" for locations that would serve as Smallville, Kansas in the film."
--