Posted by Kirk in Comic Books, Studios | 3 comments
‘Superman’ Going Back to Square One/Warner Bros. Wants Darker Comic Book Movies
First off, let’s start with a quote from Warner Bros. Picture Group President, Jeff Robinov as he spoke with The Wall Street Journal today.
“‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to. It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned. Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009. But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.”
That last statement was directed to the fact that WB had planned on a ‘Batman vs. Superman’ movie had ‘Superman Returns’ been as big a hit as ‘Batman Begins’.
This can only mean Singer is out, Brandon Routh is out, everything we saw in ‘Superman Returns’ is being written off, and the franchise is starting fresh. This strategy didn’t have the impact on ‘The Incredible Hulk’ that Universal wanted it to have, since the film cost more than Ang Lee’s ‘Hulk’ and made about the same at the box office. However, completely rebooting ‘Superman’ could mean more for that franchise in the long run.
This is particularly noticeable when you take into account all of the Superman plotlines that have never made it to the big screen. In five ‘Superman’ movies, we have had four Lex Luther stories, and the one that didn’t have him had Richard Pryor and a giant computer. We have yet to see Brainiac, Bizarro, or Doomsday on the big screen.
Robinov also explained in the Wall Street Journal article that he would like all of WB/DC projects to follow the same dark, brooding atmosphere that made ‘The Dark Knight’ such as smach success.
“We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” Robinov said.
The guy may know what he’s talking about, since such directors as Christopher Nolan credit Robinov for the success of their films. Nolan said Robinov “really encouraged the logic of the villain” from ‘Batman Begins’. This allowed Nolan to focus heavily on the Joker character for ‘The Dark Knight’.
“At the scrip stage, Jeff really wanted us to be very clear on the Joker’s lack of purpose,” Nolan said.
Certain DC characters might benefit from this darker tone. Batman is surely one of them. However, characters like Green Lantern and Wonder Woman might not warrent a darker tone. It will be interesting to see the development of the next ‘Superman’ movie and the direction its creators take.
For the record, “Superman Returns” actually made more at the box office than “Batman Begins”, but it was still considered a disappointment by the studio, who had “Spider-man” sized expectations for it. Expectations were much lower for “Begins”, with the Batman series still carrying the relatively recent memory of the “Batman and Robin” fiasco. SR also had the additional handicap of having its budget saddled with the additional development costs (over 100 million, according to some figures) of the ten years’ worth of prior Superman projects that never got off the ground, which basically made it nearly impossible for it to turn a profit unless it turned out to be the biggest hit since “Titanic”.
Nolan and WB did wonders for Batman, but the darkness is part and parcel of the character. What works for Batman doesn’t work for Superman. If anything, one of SR’s shortcomings was that it was too “dark” a take on the character already. The best thing WB/DC could do, rather than try to fit every character into the Batman mold would be to emulate what the successful Marvel films have done; understand the essence of the individual characters and what makes them work, and stick to it. What works for Spider-man doesn’t work for X-Men, or Iron Man, etc., and the same goes for DC’s pantheon.
‘Superman Returns’ made $200 million domestic, another $191 million worldwide, which Warner Brothers doesn’t necessarily see most of. The film cost $270 million (additional development costs or not), so, even including foreign box office, the film profited about $120 million. ‘Batman Begins’ cost $150 million. It made $205 million domestic and $166 million worldwide. It profited $220 million.
I don’t understand how you can say ‘Superman Returns’ was too dark. I thought it was too light. The film focused more on the Superman/Lois relationship and even included Superman Jr. There’s nothing dark and brooding about introducing “the kid”. Look at ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’. Look at ‘The Mummy Returns’.
Perhaps “too dark” is the wrong terminology, and I should have said “too dour/dreary.” I’m also talking about the impressions I’ve gotten from reading published reviews, talking to non-comics fan friends (ie “average” moviegoers), and reading reactions on general message boards. The general consensus seemed to be that SR lacked the fun, levity, action, and humor that many people expect from a Superman film, qualities that, for example, the Indiana Jones films, and even the Mummy pictures, have.
I also mention the overall box office take just because many people (and I’m not including you here, just potential readers) seem to have the impression that “Superman Returns” was a total bomb compared to “Batman Begins”, which is only partly true. In terms of pure ticket sales, SR came out on top, while BB was still the more profitable film. Still, SR was a disappointment, but it wasn’t quite the total failure, like say “Speed Racer”, that some paint it to be.