Sometimes even the hardened news hounds here at CHUD.com miss a story or two. Usually it’s not a big deal, but this past week we almost let an opportunity to shit on the idea of a sequel to Superman Returns get by us! Thanks to Garth at Dark Horizons, we managed to see the story before it was too late.
Quint at Aint It Cool has heard from a source on the set of Valkyrie that Bryan Singer has been putting some pressure on Terence Stamp to return as Zod in his evitable Man of Steel. Even Quint admits that it sounds like Singer is just joshing with the actor, who would be waaaay too old to come back and play the same character, but there’s a feeling of desperation I get from the whole thing. Buzz has Valkyrie getting very expensive, and the loss of all the film shot at Bender Block – the historical site where the Valkyrie conspirators were executed and where the German government didn’t want Singer filming – is a pretty major set back and cost addition. All this after the unbelievable cost of the not-very-spectacular Superman Returns.
Singer has promised to up the action in Man of Steel, even while Warner Bros wants him to cut the price. But the coming writer’s strike is probably the death knell that many have been anticipating for this project; Coming Soon’s recent list of pre-strike priorities don’t include Man of Steel, and much of Singer’s planning must have been contingent on a strike in June, not one in two weeks. At this point the Justice League movie is moving ahead quickly and looks to be Warner’s easy answer to a Superman film.