February 18, 2003 - According to our inside sources, filmmaker Kimberley Peirce has passed on directing Truth, Justice & the American Way, the Focus Features/Miramax biopic of late Superman star George Reeves. The Boys Don't Cry director had been mulling the project ever since its original directors, the Polish brothers, parted ways with it. Peirce is developing the true crime pic Mob Over Miami and will apparently make that her next film instead. The search continues for someone to helm the Paul Bernbaum-scripted project.
Furthermore, IGN FilmForce has learned that, although he looks nothing like the subject of the film, the oft-rumored Hugh Jackman now appears set to portray George Reeves. The 34-year-old Aussie thesp is best known as "Wolverine" in the X-Men films. His other credits include Swordfish, Kate & Leopold and the forthcoming Van Helsing. We're told that the filmmakers are sold on Jackman because "he's red hot, he's available, and he wants to do it."
Truth, Justice & the American Way is a hybrid murder mystery/showbiz biopic that explores the curious death of actor George Reeves. Hired by Reeves' estranged mother to investigate her son's death, detective Lamar Moglio initially believes the official finding that Reeves, despondent over his failed post-Superman career, committed suicide. Circumstantial evidence and Reeves' womanizing makes Moglio suspect that he was murdered.