§ Yes there WILL be a Superman Returns sequel, director Bryan Singer tells Empire and he WILL be directing it:
“That movie made $400 million!” Singer says incredulously. “I don’t know what constitutes under-performing these days…Look, I can understand, I suppose, what some people mean. Perhaps some people went in with the expectation of it being like an X-Men film, and Superman is a tougher character than that. Especially bringing him back. It really goes back to the fact that you can only please some of the people some of the time. But, yes, I’m just getting back with writers after the strike. We’re just in the development phase. I’m starting to develop a sequel…with the intention of directing it.”
§ Doug TenNapel’s Image graphic novel MONSTER ZOO has been nabbed by Paramount before it even came out, the trades report. Sam Raimi and Josh Donen are attached as producers. The story involves a zoo taken over by an evil idol and the doughty teens who must go up against this world-threatening menace.
According to THR, the deal was for low-six against seven figures, which means TenNapel, once best known for creating the video game EARTHWORM JIM, must be pocketing a lot of simoleons, with that sweet Image deal. Although his previous graphic novels have not yet been brought to the screen, they all generated a lot of Hollywood interest:
TenNapel’s graphic novels have a strong track record of generating heat. In 2004, Universal shelled out $1 million for his “Tommysaurus Rex,” while his “Creature Tech” prompted a bidding war the same year before ending up at Regency. Dennis McNicholas (“Land of the Lost”) recently came on board to adapt “Creature Tech.”
Glad to hear CREATURE TECH is finally happening. (It’s only been SIX years!) And MONSTER ZOO sounds promising. TenNapel’s work is rooted in fantasy and sci-fi but is still appealing to the casual reader. Every comic shop should be able to interest customers in this man’s work.
[quote]§ Yes there WILL be a Superman Returns sequel, director Bryan Singer tells Empire and he WILL be directing it:
“That movie made $400 million!” Singer says incredulously. “I don’t know what constitutes under-performing these days…Look, I can understand, I suppose, what some people mean. Perhaps some people went in with the expectation of it being like an X-Men film, and Superman is a tougher character than that. Especially bringing him back. It really goes back to the fact that you can only please some of the people some of the time. But, yes, I’m just getting back with writers after the strike. We’re just in the development phase. I’m starting to develop a sequel…with the intention of directing it.”[/quote]
I dunno…. just ’cause you have the intention of doing it doesn’t mean Warner will still let you do it. With their money and all.
I watched Superman Returns the other day and I was struck by how much lip-service is done in comparing Lois Lane to Katherine Hepburn. I was watching the scenes on Luthor’s yacht and thinking: “Dang! Hepburn would’ve eaten that bald-headed guy for lunch!” She certainly put the lie to her story about the world not needing a Superman…
Plus with all the smacking around she endured, it’s a wonder Lois wasn’t in an adjoining hospital bed! Maybe she’s part-Kryptonian? A weird side-effect of giving birth to a Super-Son? Holy Mort Weisinger, Batman! It’s Super-Lois!
So… will Lex Luthor expose Superman for killing the last Kryptonians at the end of Superman II? (who watches the watchmen?) Will Lois realize that Superman slipped her a ruffi after that hot night in the arctic? And will NORAD trace Clark’s spaceship crash from SR and investigate?
It wasn’t a bomb, but by most people’s measures the domestic box office didn’t match the production budget, so you’d have to be spinning pretty hard to express incredulity that anyone could think it underperformed.
I don’t think it quite made $400 million, either. Came close, but there’s a difference between a movie that falls short of a threshold and one that surpasses it.
It was a bargain ticket, though. I paid $7 to get in and part of me still feels like I’m watching it.
I honestly thought Tommysaurus Rex would be made first. I was wrong.
And don’t forget that Nickelodeon did a season of Catscratch, which was also one of Doug’s comic creations.