Dream Superman Movie

[Rodrigo90]

If you could create a Superman movie. Which actors,villains and storylines whould you choose. How would your ideal Superman movie be done?

 

[KalMart]

All-time cast....

 

[Jochimus]

I'm usually no good at casting.

In terms of stories I'd tell, they'd probably be fusions of related stories from across the various mediums, as opposed to direct adaptations or even what I'd call fairly close adaptions:
* 1st film: The Origin, Luthor & Metallo = The origin parts would be a mix of Byrne, Waid, and S:TAS (I haven't read SO yet, but I generally tend to like bits and pieces of the various retellings rather than any one complete origin yet told), with Superman #1 (Vol. 2) and "The Way Of All Flesh" (S:TAS) combined to round out Metallo's introduction.
* 2nd film: Bizarro & Parasite = some mix of Man Of Steel #5, "Feeding Time" and "Identity Crisis" (S:TAS), and a few elements of "Superman Lives" and "Bizarro Superman" in there, too.
* 3rd film: Zod & Brainiac = Adventures Of Superman #444 and S:TAS' "Stolen Memories" combined with Johns' "Brainiac" arc, with Kara held off on until...
* 4th film: Doomsday & Henshaw (The Death and Return Of Superman) = Basically "Superman: Doomsday" at its core with "Little Girl Lost" Part I (S:TAS), Adventures Of Superman #466, Superman #79 (Vol. 2) and MOS #22 wrapped around it.

For this version I'd retcon Superman back into the SOLE survivor of his birth planet. Zod would be the sole survivor of Krypton from a 'mirror' universe a la Star Trek (he's even got the goatee already), which is actually not too far removed from the first Post-COIE version of Zod. As for Kara, I'd follow the DCAU's lead and make her the last survivor of a sister planet to Krypton.

For that matter, there's the Supergirl/Power Girl thing - they're ostensibly supposed to be the same person from different realities IIRC (this kind of multiverse crap confuses me). I'd stick with ONE Kara, thanks. Though lately I've begun to prefer her as Power Girl rather than Supergirl, to reduce comparisons to the 1984 dud and give the character a little more identity of her own.

I'd also turn Kandor - assuming I would ever actually be compelled to use it - back into the Post-COIE extra-dimensional city of various alien races that were captured and put there. If you had to, you could say that they were all put there by Brainiac instead of by an "alien wizard" - actually, yeah, I'd prefer Brainiac over the alien wizard (sheesh!) - which could probably be easier to tie into my take on Zod.

 

[solidsnake86]

I would do an origin movie begins style with brainiac being the villain and luthor being a public figure whose in good graces. At the end of the film brainiac is defeated and luthor takes his body.

Second film would be luthor creating metallo and parasite from what he learned about brainiacs technology and his hatred for superman grows while you see what makes him tick. This film would really bring in the reporting aspect between Clark and Lois and we would see the downfall of luthor in the public domain.

Third film would be zod done properly along with the rest of the phantom zone criminals. The government would turn to luthor and so would superman for help like in last son. I could go into more details but that's a rough idea. Those three villains provide the best story arc for superman and Clark.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

^Sounds good to me.

I love Metallo so i'm going to always be for an idea with him involved.

 

[Webhead2006]

Some great ideas guys.

For me totally first film origin. Like i said before i would mix stories/character elements-traits from various eras golden age-modern. So we get a nice well rounded character.

First film i would have lex corp guy. It a public savior to the people of metropolis but he secretly runs all the crime and evil stuff going on in the city. He doesnt like when superman shows up and starts messing with what he has going on. Liike others have said i would make him be a threat but he would just be the puppet master guy. I would probably go with brainic so we can got kryptonian route for him and play more into his origin.

Then second film it will be metallo as a weapon luthor is using to take out superman once and for all. Then i would also play into lex getting into the political game.

Third film i would def go with zod and maybe lead into some other things like darkseid.

 

[The Guard]

I've got my own ideas for characterization and motivations and revealing and resolving various elements, some of which are very much in line with the classic mythology, some of which definitely aren't. I think that's where my version of the mythology will differ the most from others. Won't get into that right now.

But the basic elements of the Superman myth are kind of set in stone, and it writes itself if you let it. Think about what Superman has always been and should be, combine elements of Byrne's run, THE LAST SON OF KRYPTON, BIRTHRIGHT, SECRET ORIGINS and the classic origin and adventure stuff, and do everything you can to honor all relevant and important Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis concepts, because let's face it, while Superman matured Post-Crisis, he was born and forged in the tone of the Pre-Crisis stuff. Couple elements of SUPERBOY, LOIS AND CLARK and SMALLVILLE in there, nothing that wasn't already successfully in the mythology before the shows. STAS was good as well, but as far as I'm concerned, other than a few minor elements, it's just stuff that's been drawn from the comics anyway. I don't feel like a twice removed inspiration on any major level, if that makes any sense.

SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL (working title)
Intergang, Morgan Edge, the Metropolis mob

SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF TOMORROW (working title)
Braniac, Metallo, Parasite, Bizzaro

SUPERMAN: THE LAST SON OF KRYPTON (working title)
Zod, Jax-Ur and various other Kryptonian villains, The Eradicator, Mxyplyzyk

If there was a fourth, given what happens in TLSOK, I'd say Doomsday/Reign of the Supermen with Mongul involved is the obvious way to go, but it's been done (albeit not real well), and I don't know that there'd be a fourth.

 

[sdc10]

I've got my own ideas for characterization and motivations and revealing and resolving various elements, some of which are very much in line with the classic mythology, some of which definitely aren't. I think that's where my version of the mythology will differ the most from others. Won't get into that right now.

But the basic elements of the Superman myth are kind of set in stone, and it writes itself if you let it. Think about what Superman has always been and should be, combine elements of Byrne's run, THE LAST SON OF KRYPTON, BIRTHRIGHT, SECRET ORIGINS and the classic origin and adventure stuff, and do everything you can to honor all relevant and important Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis concepts, because let's face it, while Superman matured Post-Crisis, he was born and forged in the tone of the Pre-Crisis stuff. Couple elements of SUPERBOY, LOIS AND CLARK and SMALLVILLE in there, nothing that wasn't already successfully in the mythology before the shows. STAS was good as well, but as far as I'm concerned, other than a few minor elements, it's just stuff that's been drawn from the comics anyway. I don't feel like a twice removed inspiration on any major level, if that makes any sense.

SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL (working title)
Intergang, Morgan Edge, the Metropolis mob

SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF TOMORROW (working title)
Braniac, Metallo, Parasite, Bizzaro

SUPERMAN: THE LAST SON OF KRYPTON (working title)
Zod, Jax-Ur and various other Kryptonian villains, The Eradicator, Mxyplyzyk

If there was a fourth, given what happens in TLSOK, I'd say Doomsday/Reign of the Supermen with Mongul involved is the obvious way to go, but it's been done (albeit not real well), and I don't know that there'd be a fourth.

I think you're packing too many villains into one movie. Especially the second one. Those villains are way too different from one another it would be all over the place. Just look at what happened in Spider-Man 3, and that was just with 3 villains.

 

[SuperMike335!!]

If you could create a Superman movie. Which actors,villains and storylines whould you choose. How would your ideal Superman movie be done?

How would I make a Superman movie story?

This is just a rough treatment, not a full drawn out script. More details, smaller scenes etc… could be filled in later. I like to make things in more of the bigger overall picture, and add details as needed to move the story forward.

For starts it would be roughly based on the feel of the Comics combined with the Animated Series (STAS). The movie’s mood would NOT be dark and gritty. The desire to make it so for most movie producers is based on the myth that "dark heroes" are the only successful kind at the box office. This is not true, take Iron man for example. Much of the movie is bright and shiny, and still did well in theatres. The idea is better to take the subject seriously as you can with a hero that can fly, and at the same time make the mood fitting for the character. In the case of superman, bright and optimistic is the way to go. I would still take the subject matter seriously, as in trying to avoid camp and I would stay away from too many "in-jokes". The villains would seem as dark and scary as possible, but superman would remain a generally friendly classic good guy.

Basic story: (keep in mind this is merely an overview, a lot of other details, side stories and scenes could be added, parts scrapped and such as need be)
I would suggest making a reboot entirely, starting with the destruction of Krypton, Kal-El being sent to earth.

In these scenes on Krypton are sort of a mixture of Courosant and Naboo from Star Wars. It looks technologically advanced but somehow in harmony with nature. We have an event that looks more like the events of STAS, but condensed to about 15-20 minutes.

Lara and Jor-El are portrayed in their 20s, or early 30s. They are a younger couple, not old like the Donner films. It should look like a real tragedy that this young family with all their life ahead of them is cut short.

In the scene where Kal is being sent to earth, we have some explosions and earthquakes already happening, Kryton is in its final minutes. Jor-El prepares the ship. The ship looks advances but not crystal, I am avoiding the whole crystal look for Krypton. As he prepares the ship with his computer (which looks like holograms, very advanced etc…) the young Kal, only a year old is hysterical, crying because of the loud noises, and Lara seems in Despair trying to sooth during the Apocalypse of their world.

"Earth is the only place to send him. We have found an artifact from their world, and it showed us that although primitive, they are much like we are. They look like, and speak similar to us. Although Kal will look like them, he will not be one of them. Their young Yellow Sun will make him the most powerful being their world has ever known. Their rules of physics will not apply to him. Should he make it there, the last son of our world may live forever for us all. This has only been attempted twice in the past, both times failed, contact lost with both ships. Now, it may be our last chance to save Kal. His chances are one in a thousand to make his Journey, but that is better than none"-Jor El

We see the opening of the ceiling to the stars. Lara kisses Kal one last time, as she set him into the ship. As she harnesses the breathing mask over the terrified Kal, he reaches for her one last time to be held by his mother. But there is no time.

Everything is now on autopilot, the ships shell closes over Kal who still seems terrified. Lara can hardly stand and as she is falling to her knees Jor-El pulls her to him and holds her up. Both are in tears giving up their only son to his chances in the universe, uncertrain if he will even live to be the last survivor of their world.

We see the space around the ship bend into circles that make the sky look warped, it is a wormhole in space, and the ship is Launched through it jump starting his Journey by bending the physics of the Universe itself as Kal is jettisoned into space.

Jor-El kisses Lara, one last time before their world goes Nova. We see the ship traveling at an impossible pace with some green fragments of Krypton’s core as it hurtles toward the earth.


Kents finding Kal. They look around mid 30’s Couple, on their way home from Martha’s Aunt’s funeral, while Martha is crying to her husband that her Aunt had so many children there for her, and that at hers will be none because they have not been able to have a child. Jonathan ties to console her with "Well Martha, maybe its just not in our plan, we have friends, nephews Nieces, maybe we just are not meant to have kids. If the Lord wants us to, he would make sure we have them, but we won’t be lonely".

At that moment the Meteor lands and the car swerves off the road to avoid getting rolled over when the object lands in the field, carving a path of charred destruction in its wake. As Martha asks Jonathan if he is ok, she hears the sound of an terribly upset baby screaming from the direction of the wreckage.

Then a few scenes of him growing up, and perhaps some traveling of the world as a young man, and finding out the truth about why he could help humanity, but also about why he cannot change human nature. We see him in collage getting his degree in journalism.

Soon Clark’s first day in Metropolis, meeting Lois, getting hired at the planet. We see a Lois that finds find Clark a bit comical, as she comments "how a big farm kid from smaaallville seems kind of out of place in the big city. But you are kind of cute. Here let me show you around, but don’t slow me down. you have to learn to keep up....Smallville".

Then we have his first day as Superman, he fouls some terrorist activity, when a building blown up partially and no one can get out, and it is about to fall to one side. Superman holds up the ousted support beam, while flying, and stabilizes the building long enough for the people to get out. Then he flies off with the empty building half to safe place to set it down.

Later we find out that Luthor was behind this, just to capitalize on some opportunity that lends itself for him to look like a hero, and at the same time label is meager competition as unreliable.
Even though superman fouled the plan by saving the day instead.

This easily leads to a feud between Superman and Lex later on when Superman confronts Luthor about what he knows, and that "Lex you're not going to get away with this sort of thing anymore."

Lex is NOT the main villain of the movie however. We just want to introduce him and show that he is a constant thorn in superman’s side, but not a villain that can be taken care of in one movie. You get the felling superman is always going to have to deal with this guy.

We fast-forward into this world by about 6 months after superman gets to Metropolis for Brainiac's arrival.

Brainiac would be our main villain here. He would come to earth, seeming friendly not much different than STAS. Brainiac would try to look like a benevolent force, that only has the best interests in humanity at heart.

Luthor gets involved and promotes Brainiac as a cosmic savior of humanities ills. He is the perfect mouthpiece for Brainiac. Luthor would refer to Brainiac in a public display as a being who is "more benevolent than the Alien boy-scout could ever be. After all Superman will only save you if you fall off a rooftop, or maybe lift something heavy before it falls on you".

Luthor continues with "Brainiac here will bring humanity into the next age. He will bestow us with Technology that can rid the human race of disease, starvation, poverty and war. All we need to do is trust him, for he is giving us real hope, and real change. Unlike that other one, who saves a few people now and then, but never wants to get involved in humanities real destiny. Dare I say, compared to Brainiac, Superman is Selfish-man!"

Once Brainiac is established on earth, he starts to download all known information and data from earth. Again we are going with similar the STAS version of him here. It only takes moments for him to accomplish this. Then he gives Luthor plans for building a new type of zero waste energy plant. In fact the plant is actually a bomb that would annihilate the earth, and thus delete any chances of new information coming about that would force Brainiac to have to continue to update his saved version of our world.

When the plant is almost finished being built, Lois, while investigating finds out what the plant really is and puts it in print.

Superman visits Lex at his tower, to confront him about why he is helping Brainiac. Luthor responds with the basic "you are just jellous that another Alien is showing up to do more good for us than you ever did. It is also I who was able to recognize the Alien, you, that would only stand in my way of helping humanity, and that Brainiac was truly here to give us a better tomorrow. You on the other hand will not be allowed to interfere in our plans anymore!"

Lex opens what looks like an engagement ring box, made of Lead, exposing a Kryptonite ring. Superman stagers back recoiling from the poisonous rock. Lex then pushes a button on his desk and immediately the windows of his office close with mechanical shades that turn the Sunlight beaming in to red. "What is the matter Superman"? Lex boasts. "Is it the Kryptonite? Or the fact that with red Solar energy your powers just don’t work?" Lex punches Superman several times, and looks like he is going to keep on beating him.

Superman then throws Lex off of himself, by several feet. "Lex you never know when you are ahead do you?" Superman punches Lex in face knocking him down to the ground and we see Lex looks dizzy, his eyes glazed and see he is missing a few teeth.

"You did not consider the way Red Solar energy not only temporarily removes my Powers, but is also removes my weakness to Kryptonite". Superman pulls the Kryptonite ring off of Lex’ hand, puts it back in the lead case, and with his other hand pushes the button that opens the windows again, pouring in yellow sunlight. Superman turns to Lex "In your arrogance you forgot Lex, even without my Powers, I’m still 6’6", still 255 pounds of muscle, and still strong enough to handle you!"

Superman flies away with Lex’ ring still in the box. We purposefully do not show the audience what he does with it, that is left for other writers.

When the public reads about what Brainiac has been up to, the US Air force leads and air strike on the power-plant/bomb. The air strike is futile as Brainiac’s defenses shoot down the Jets.
Brainiac responds by immediately starting to create havoc to distract earth’s authorities and superman by taking over every automated piece of machinery in the city that is in close proximity to him. He quickly builds mechanical death squads, terminator (similar to the T-800 as you can go without getting sued) like machines, which hunt down all and any human life in the area as they are now trying to interfere with his plan. Along with these are giant "devastation walkers" which look like the 3 legged machines from War of the Worlds, or as close as we can go without getting sued.

Now superman goes to the almost fully constructed power-plant/bomb, to confront Brainiac, who’s physical form is also just as powerful as Superman is, and they begin to fight it out.
During the fight, Superman is being portrayed as the slight underdog. Brainiac tells superman that the most annoying part of his mere existence, is constantly having to update the information regarding the fate of Krypton, as it and all of its data are part of Brainiac now, but because one Kryptonian still lives, the data will always be incomplete.

The truth that his home world was destroyed by Brainiac puts Superman over the edge. Superman fights harder and more violently, so Brainiac changes tactics at this time to "now absorb all of the energy you expend in this futile effort to stop the inevitable".

Brainiac seems to have the upper hand again, as he is starting to absorb Superman’s stored up solar energy, and even the ambient energy around himself as well.

As a last effort superman responds with "then absorb THIS" as he hits Brainiac with planet shaking force, and sends Brainiac flying into the almost finished energy-bomb-plant reactor. Brainiac not only causes the core to go critical mass, but absorbs most of the explosion, destroying himself, and the resulting EMP wave scrambles all known traces of his program from any technology in the area he may have downloaded himself onto.

The Day Saved.

Superman lands in a desert, under a full blaring sun, and sprawls out on the sand like an exhausted boxer falling down and taking in air after winning a hard match. – This is the moment where the audience gets that "let the air out, and relief feeling".

Then later we wind things up with Clark and Lois at the Planet, and after finishing their story, Clark asks Lois if she wants to go out for coffee, to which Lois responds smiling, "a big farm kid like you doesn’t drink beer?" Or just something slightly comical and light that sort of shows the seeds of a relationship with Lois and Clark being sown.

More can be put into an Epilogue, such as Luthor speaking with a scientist in a massive lab owned by Lex-corp; "Could we salvage anything from the EMP blast?"

Scientist: "all known traces of the alien intelligence are fried, nothing left".

Luthor: "can we salvage anything at all, or is this entire situation going to be a loss for us?"

Scientist: "all I have left are some hard copy notes, incomplete at that, on how to clone the complex kryptonian DNA, but with how incomplete the information is we could just end up with some Bizarre result if we even tried"

Luthor: "I have complete confidence in you". – coldly in a way that implies he has to try anyway and has no choice.

The end…

 

[solidsnake86]

^Sounds good to me.

I love Metallo so i'm going to always be for an idea with him involved.

I think metallo is a great villain too, but they really need to crack a great design for his character that is far removed from the terminator look cause I think visually that holds him back. I wonder if there planning to redesign his character, the last time he was in the comics he looked human, hopefully gary frank can do something in secret origins.

 

[The Guard]

I think you're packing too many villains into one movie. Especially the second one. Those villains are way too different from one another it would be all over the place. Just look at what happened in Spider-Man 3, and that was just with 3 villains.

Noted. The characters being all over the place is sort of the point. There is a method to my madness.

SPIDER-MAN 3's issues are with execution, not neccessarily the amount of villains. The script wasn't great, period, and neither were the characterizations and interactions.

 

[Jochimus]

I think metallo is a great villain too, but they really need to crack a great design for his character that is far removed from the terminator look cause I think visually that holds him back. I wonder if there planning to redesign his character, the last time he was in the comics he looked human, hopefully gary frank can do something in secret origins.

They've redesigned him since, into this...

And if these inks for the fifth issue of SO are any indicator, it's not going to get much better...

...is it really that hard to come up with a bad@$$ design for Metallo that DOESN'T invoke either the T-101 or Iron Man? I love Frank's art as much as anyone else, but this I have a harder time with than the 'Chris Reeve, Age 8' thing.

This is a good example of what I meant when I said that I usually like bits and pieces of the various origin re-tellings, but never the whole thing.

 

[solidsnake86]

Thanks for the pics Jochimus, the first one I'm not a fan of. The second one I would like to see when its inked (probably when the solicitations come out this month it will be done) before I pass judgement. I like the face and chest area but I'm not crazy about the bottom half. At least there moving away from the terminator look.

 

[SuperMike335!!]

They've redesigned him since, into this...

And if these inks for the fifth issue of SO are any indicator, it's not going to get much better...

...is it really that hard to come up with a bad@$$ design for Metallo that DOESN'T invoke either the T-101 or Iron Man? I love Frank's art as much as anyone else, but this I have a harder time with than the 'Chris Reeve, Age 8' thing.

This is a good example of what I meant when I said that I usually like bits and pieces of the various origin re-tellings, but never the whole thing.

Looks a bit like a metal version of this thing:

 

[Jochimus]

Looks a bit like a metal version of this thing:

Wow, I haven't seen that thing in ages.

Actually, if I were to bring Cadmus into a Superman film, that'd be a nice inspiration for Dubbilex.

 

[The Guard]

What. The. Hell?

 

[NotFadeAway]

Another one of these threads. Sounds fun, I'm going for a run and then I'll post something later.

 

[Webhead2006]

supermike some very good and solid ideas you posted above.

 

[Nightwing1977]

They've redesigned him since, into this...

And if these inks for the fifth issue of SO are any indicator, it's not going to get much better...

...is it really that hard to come up with a bad@$$ design for Metallo that DOESN'T invoke either the T-101 or Iron Man? I love Frank's art as much as anyone else, but this I have a harder time with than the 'Chris Reeve, Age 8' thing.

This is a good example of what I meant when I said that I usually like bits and pieces of the various origin re-tellings, but never the whole thing.

For some reason, I thought that was Brainiac until I read your comments that it's actually Metallo. Weird. The "M" on his belt line is crap too. Is he trying too hard to be like Marvel's Apocalypse with copying that first name letter on his belt like him? Frank should know better.

 

[SuperMike335!!]

supermike some very good and solid ideas you posted above.

thanks.

 

[solidsnake86]

For some reason, I thought that was Brainiac until I read your comments that it's actually Metallo. Weird. The "M" on his belt line is crap too. Is he trying too hard to be like Marvel's Apocalypse with copying that first name letter on his belt like him? Frank should know better.

At least there trying to move away from the terminator look which if I had to choose the lesser of the evils it would be this one with the "M" on the belt line.

 

[Webhead2006]

hey in that drawing next to luthor is that parasite?

 

[solidsnake86]

^Yes

 

[Webhead2006]

ok thanks i was just wondering who it was and i was thinking it was him cause i was like ummm who else could it be lol.

 

[Jochimus]

Seeing a paunchy Parasite seems a bit odd to me, though in its own weird way I think it's kind of appropriate.