Comic book writer Mark Millar is looking to re-revitalize the Superman franchise with an eight-hour, three picture saga, to be released in consecutive years ala Lord of the Rings. Speaking with Empire, Millar said that he wants to take Superman from the Kryptonian cradle 1,000 years ago to being the last man on a red-sunned Earth. Millar’s planned story would completely restart everything, eschewing Richard Donner’s storyline, which was continued after nearly 20 years by Bryan Singer in 2006’s underperforming Superman Returns. He remarks, “It’s gonna be like Michael Corleone in the Godfather
films, the entire story from beginning to end, you see where he starts,
how he becomes who he becomes, and where that takes him. The Dark
Knight showed you can take a comic book property and make a serious
film, and I think the studios are ready to listen to bigger ideas now.”
Millar, who’s been busy of late with Wanted and now the upcoming Kick-Ass, has reportedly been working with a well-known director, but he’s not saying whom. He also adds that “The problem with Superman Returns was like releasing Star Wars in ’77, The Empire Strikes Back in ’80 and then waiting 28 years to release Return of the Jedi,
it wasn’t relevant. I understand what Bryan Singer was trying to do, to
pay homage to Richard Donner’s original vision, but I think you should
pay homage by doing something completely different.”
I can get behind this idea and I can’t. For one thing, if there’s any epic figure in literature that can sustain this kind of treatment, it’s The Big Guy. But if Warner were to subscribe to this plan, then that would probably mean that we’d be looking at a five to ten year wait to get it to the screen and afterwards, if Millar takes it all the way to Superman being the Last Son of Planet Earth, then the franchise would invariably need re-re-rebooting when the next version would come to the screen afterwards. However the next incarnation of the Man of Steel comes to theatres, as long as Supermoppet isn’t part of the equation, I’m open-minded.
Thanks to Joey for the tip.