Frank Langella is making the rounds promoting his latest movie, Starting Out in the Evening, and as will happen when you place anyone in a room with a bunch of internet writers, he’s spilling on his next projects*, including The Box and Frost/Nixon, but what I’m interested in is what he had to say about The Man of Steel (for more info on The Box and Frost/Nixon, click here).
‘We’re going to do another one next year,’ he told Latino Review. ‘Not this year, but the next and with the writer’s strike it could be into 2009. There’s no script.’
I’d say that 2009 is an understatement. Even if the strike ends in the next few days, and I don’t think it will, Warner Bros’ production slate is full, full, full – plus they’re still staring down a director and actor strike in the summer. Assuming that this strike doesn’t happen (and I’m just assuming in order to be positive), the studio will likely have a glut of product to deal with for the second half of 2008. Add on to that the rumors I keep hearing from within the studio lot that nobody is all that keen on going back to that particular well (remember that rumor a few weeks back that the studio was interested in Man of Steel as a reboot? Not a rumor), the labor difficulties seem to be a fine way to just keep this film out of sight and out of mind.
There’s a big X factor in all of this, of course – what if Valkyrie is a smash? An Oscar contender, even? If that happens, and Bryan Singer wins back the respect he’s been pissing away on superhero films, Warner Bros could suddenly get hot for him and his movie again quite quickly. Of course, if that happens maybe Bryan Singer would wake up and realize that he could have a career that didn’t involve people in silly costumes.
I have a feeling that we’ll all be talking about the possibility of Superman Returns Returns for another 12 months – unless Justice League is a major hit and whoever gets cast in that film as Superman resonates with the public. There are a lot of possibilities in play at this time, which makes pronouncements too dangerous to dare.
*Not to be confused with spilling on Whoopi Goldberg, which he used to do in the privacy of his own home.