The Superman Film That Never Was

 

In an interview with MTV, director Brett Ratner discussed the Superman movie he was planning on making with J.J Abrams before Warner Brothers decided to go with Bryan Singer instead for what became Superman Returns. Here's what he had to say about how he would have handled a Superman movie:

 

“The original movie I was going to be a part of,” Ratner said, “took place on Krypton for about half of the movie. So it was much more otherworldly, and much darker, because there was a civil war on Krypton. You’d get more of the history.”

 

“The Death of Superman” and the art of Alex Ross.

 

“That wasn’t just darker, but cooler, in my mind,” Ratner said. “That was what we were going to model the visuals after. When you have to translate it to a cinematic world, it’s a whole different animal, and he’s one of the best Superman artists I’ve ever seen.”

 

I dunno about you, but from the sound of that I'm glad they went with Superman Returns.  Sure, you can argue that Superman Returns is nothing more than a glorified ass kissing of Richard Donner (and you'd be right), but I would much rather watch that then a movie in which half of it takes place on Krypton.  Krypton is cool and all, but that's not what a Superman film should be about.  Sure, it's important to know where Supes came from, but what matters is what he's doing on Earth.  I don't want to see a film about Kryptonian cival war.  I want to see Superman saving people and beating the shit out of giant robots or something like that.

 

And why does everyone want to make a "Dark" superman film.  Superman is NOT FUCKING DARK!!!  He's a giant boy scout for god's sake.  Trying to make a dark Superman movie is like trying to make a G rated Spawn film.  It makes no fucking sense.  It's a good thing Rattner didn't get the nod to make this film.  Just remember, this is the guy who made X-Men 3 when he got passed over for Superman.  And we all know what a crapfest that film turned out to be.

 

I liked hearing the Death of Superman idea.  Why doesn't someone make that story into films?  You could even make it into multiple films.  In the first film, Doomsday shows up and beats the living hell out of Superman until he dies.  The second film would be about the world dealing with the loss of Supes and the rise of heroes in his name to take his place.  People like Steel and Superboy.  And then the third film would be about the return of Superman, where he comes back from the dead and beats up Doomsday so badly that even the Punisher would get uncomfortable watching it.

 

Again, I have to think of everything apparently.  I swear, someone in hollywood needs to start reading Geek-tastic so that finally some good movies will get made.

 

Of course, that would require me to double my readership from one person to two, but hey, it could happen.