Superman Rebooted (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

I'm skeptical that the Wachowski Brothers can make an excellent Superman movie, but we'll see...

 

[Norm]

I think if they are going to break from Superman 1-4. With Superman Returns being in a sense a continuation of the other films. Maybe they need a complete fresh start with reboot origin.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Considering I loved the Wachowski brothers' last film, and quite a bit more than Superman Returns, I'll be the excited guy for this news. That is fine by me. The W Brothers also maintained their credibility with the Matrix sequels in my eyes, and 80 pages of box office threads for Reloaded show I am not alone in that assessment.

That said, this property is not their own, nor is it even Speed Racer. So on that single point, I'll admit a little concern. but they got most of "V for Vendetta" right, and that is a hard property to adapt.

Anyways, thumbs up for the Wachowskis. At least the film will look out of this world. So I'll disagree with most of the posts since the (edit: announcement) rumor.

How long until I will be proved right is the question

 

[oscar_merkx]

The more I think about it, the more I think the W would actually be the jumping point to get this moving again.

Loved Speed Racer.

There is no need for a re boot. Just follow on from Smallville

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Ah, but the Matrix series observed the law of diminishing returns in inverse proportion to escalating budgets:

• The Matrix - $171.5 million gross, $63 million budget = 63 percent profit
• The Matrix Reloaded - $281.5 million gross, $150 million budget = 47 percent profit
• The Matrix Revolutions - $139.3 million gross, $150 million budge = net domestic loss

Speed Racer proved that the Wachowski Brothers brand alone doesn't put many asses in seats. And the asses it does put in seats were probably a lock for any future Superman picture anyway.

So I'm not sure it would be the box office magic many people think. Especially if the Wachowskis push the look too far, either by going too dark for the character (The Matrix) or just plain too digital (Speed Racer). If everyone who approached the character wasn't obsessed with taking a fresh bite at the apple, the iterations wouldn't have to waste so much time on explaining the departures from the established myth. Man in red, yellow and blue suit with cape leads a double life as newspaper reporter and costumed superhero, fighting for truth, justice and the American way. He works with Lois Lane who has a relationship with both alter egos. Get that right, and you don't have to worry about anything except the story you want to tell.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

That's domestic haul only, and ignores international and DVD sales, Adam. Yes, they made less each time, but they all made money, and lots of it.

You made a tone comment (dark = Matrix) and contrasted that with a filmmaking technique (too digital = Speed Racer). That doesn't make any sense to me. One (tone) doesn't preclude or assume the other (technique). Tonally, Speed Racer followed the source material almost flawlessly, while still being "up to date". It was a brilliant balancing act. It was warm, wholesome, with enough of an edge to be fun, but not to undermine the source material. So they've shown they can probably do Superman (and I'm willing to bet it'll be less depressing than Singer's take). And technically, they have very few peers (in my eyes).

 

[Brian Dobbs]

I'm game for some wachowski superman action.

 

[RobertR]

The problem is, they're on a downward trend. How much money did Speed Racer make?

If a big budget Superman film does "only" $200 million (or less) domestically, it'll be considered something of a failure. Have the Wachowskis consistently demonstrated they can make the big bucks? It doesn't seem like it.

 

[TerryRL]

Worldwide hauls for the Wachowski's last five flicks...

"The Matrix" $288.9 million
"The Matrix Reloaded" $738.6 million
"The Matrix Revolutions" $425.0 million
"V for Vendetta" (writers/producers) $132.5 million ($70.5 mil domestically)
"Speed Racer" $93.9 million ($43.9 mil domestically)

WB expected "Superman Returns" to earn at least $250 million domestically when it was released in '06. Superman is among the most well known characters in history and the fact that the movie wasn't as successful as they hoped for really stung. To add insult to injury was seeing "Iron Man" become a major blockbuster while not being nearly as known as the guy with the big S on his chest, earning $318.4 million domestically and $582 million total worldwide.

If the studio gives the franchise over to the Wachowski duo, trust me when I say that they'll be expecting the movies to be major league blockbusters. Before, they thought that it was Superman and they had a well known director (Bryan Singer) and that the movie would be huge as a result. Problem was, it wasn't that great a flick (as far as a lot of people were concerned) and played too much like an updated rehash of Richard Donner's 'Superman' movie.

The studio is likely to sink about $500-$700 million in production costs on a trilogy of Superman movies. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the studio gave the brothers a lot of leeway in terms of the plot, but the suits will likely want a dash of "Smallville" here and there. Whatever the case may be, the saga of the making of these Superman flicks has sure made for some very interesting theater.

 

[Kevin Grey]

With "V for Vendetta" and "Speed Racer" the Wachowskis showed me that they were very respectful to the source material (in the case of Speed Racer some might consider it too faithful for the mainstream) so I can't imagine they would treat "Superman" any differently. People may differ on the direction they took the "The Matrix" in the sequels but that was their own property to begin with.

I think The Wachowskis tackling Superman would be a great idea.

Plus, I don't know if it's due to Joel Silver running interference but all of their movies show a distinct lack of studio meddling and that would be what would concern me most with a Superman movie. I can just see excessive notes from Warners to make it "dark like TDK" but "light and funny like Iron Man".

 

[TerryRL]

You're right, having Joel Silver as your producer cuts down greatly on how many notes you receive from the suits. The difference here is that the brothers have had a relationship with WB for the past 10 years and that gives them quite a long leash to work with. The studio will have certain demands, but they will give the brothers a lot of "wiggle room".

Plus, if WB does intend to hire them for Superman, they'll have to first sign off on the script they come up with. If the studio loves what they read, that will cut down greatly on any sort of "meddling" during the (first) film's production. Most of the notes will likely come during the script phase.

 

[Patrick H.]

I wasn't the biggest fan of the 'Matrix' sequels, but 'Speed Racer' really impressed me. The Wachowskis managed to bring a goofy anime world to life, while tying it into a surprisingly-sophisticated, classical heroic story arc with some genuinely affecting character moments. It wasn't always a seemless blend, but I thought the film had more creativity and heart than any of the better-performing films immediately surrounding it.

What I felt was fatally missing from 'Superman Returns' was (among other things) that same sense of heart...the drive that really makes your really get behind and root for the character. If these guys can bring that touch to Superman, along with their usual visual bag of tricks, some real fun could be had here. Also, I find they have generally good casting sensibilites, I also think they're big enough comic geeks to not do anything stupid like mess with the costume. Their scoring taste is pretty good, too, so who knows...they might even retain some John Williams material.

I could get pretty excited about this. At least moreso than any of the other names being tossed around.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

When you think of all the problems with the Salkinds and the original movies, and then the mess through the nineties, and now the problems surrounding Superman Returns this character in the feature format has never been anything but interesting theater. That $500-700 million production budget sounds like a recipe for repeated disaster.

If studios concentrated on a successful first movie instead of three or four films down the line, I'm convinced we'd see much better blockbusters.

 

[Kirk Tsai]

I too believe the Wachowski brothers would not be a namebrand to bring in big audiences. But, I would be very excited for their Superman picture. They would be the perfect filmmakers to bring a picture where Superman's role with the world and the government(s) is more complex and interesting. The Matrix series and Speed Racer had extraordinary heroes bound by forces greater than, and unbeknownst to them, facing difficult choices that are unavoidable (therefore reoccurring), and ultimately transcending such impossible circumstances. Even if they don't have a story about Superman and the government in mind, their thematic interests would be there nonetheless, and that's certainly more interesting to me than Singer promising more action and threat without ever even having a script.


Adam, I'm not sure what you mean by "technical prowess." Maybe you mean for the movie to look bigger or glossier, but if I were to use such a phrase, I would see this film as a fine product of the Ws' filmmaking skill. Shot by shot, cut by cut, Bound is a clinical demonstration of their technical prowess.

I would hope for a more reigned-in budget (at most, in line with other summer pics). Let their imagination and filmmaking skills shine.

 

[Pete-D]

Well, today getting out of the shower I just picked a random shirt out of the closet. It happened to be my Superman shirt.

Then later on "The Matrix" happens to be on TV, and I realize it's been 10 years almost since it came out so I watched it for a bit reminiscing. It's still quite a terrific action-sci-fi film IMO (the sequels not so much).

Then I logged on to the computer and saw this rumor.

Based on this, I think this is happening, it's fated to be

Either that or it's a glitch in the Matrix ...

 

[Tim Glover]

Good write-up Adam. As usual.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I enjoyed SPEED RACER much more than I thought I would, and the MATRIX trilogy certainly has its merits. But I don't know if the Wachowski's are the best fit for a new Superman franchise. We shall see.

 

[Ray_R]

I just look at the Reeve films as taking place in the Silver/Bronze Age era of Superman. I'm hoping for more of a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths take. More the business conglomorate Lex Luthor and dammit have Clark go toe-to-toe with another baddie while he uses alot of his powers. Jonathan Kent is still alive in the comics, last I checked, and such.

 

[Greg_S_H]

He just died a couple of months ago.

 

[Norm]

The next question is, should Routh be brought back? I kind of hope so. But maybe they need a complete reboot because that superkid just doesn't work.