Early Man of Steel treatment significantly different from final cut

[Rock Sexton]

How did he acquire the necessary qualifications to land a job at the DP? That's why it's cornball in how it's depicted. They'll probably shoe-horn in something real quick in the sequel though.

Perhaps they missed an opportunity in the movie to show Clark investigating via the internet as he searches for answers and keeping some kind of writer's journal, which eventually lead him to set out on his journey. Then he could himself in the right place at the right time when that guy mentions what ends up being the scout ship .....

 

[batman44]

Seeing that Superman was saving lives in danger during the battles such a big part of the early treatment, it has to be intentional that they didn't got for it more in MOS. Possibly something Snyder/ Goyer wanted addressed in a sequel.

 

[TheFlamingCoco]

^ They can mention that in the sequel. Perhaps Lois gave in a good word for Clark. Perhaps Superman got a degree in college in something related to journalism. Perhaps he was able to find "exclusive" information on Superman and conduct a realistic mock-interview that the press was DYING to see. I don't mind not having every detail explained to me

 

[Techn9ne77]

It's easy to take something that's already been done & reconfigure it. For example, it would be easy for me to come up with an idea for TDKR now that I've seen the general direction of that film. It would easy for me to say "Here's what I would do & the dialogue I would do..." Now let's see a fan's idea for MOS 2 since that's coming from nothing. I would be more impressed then. Let's just say, thank god for some of these writers b/c I've seen some fan's ideas for films & they were generally pretty terrible. It's easy to do fanfic stuff, it's a lot harder to present a completely new script/plot/dialogue for a film. If it was easy, then there would be fan boy screenwriters all over the place.

 

[The Roach]

It's really good for a fanfiction, actually, though I still prefer what we got. The theme of choice was both a perfect evolution of the classic "nature vs. nurture" Superman theme and resonated really well with me.

 

[Vadakin]

For the record, I wrote this back in 2011. Strangely enough, it's changed a little bit since then. For instance, the article suggests that Zod is lured to Metropolis but what I wrote was that Zod investigated Superman and discovered that he had been most active in Metropolis.

 

[kedrell]

I think MOS was trying to subvert the drawn-out-origin and Metropolis reporter storyline in order to be really unique. I think that's a part of its overall flaws. It could have used a more conventional Begins-style narrative.

MOS2 should be amazing, because in order to be different from the first film, they would have to create a more character-driven narrative. Most sequels tend to be more about creating interesting plots for the character to be a part of, or remaking the first installment. But a truly character driven sequel can expand on the ideas and people involved while allowing for interweaving storylines to take place.

MOS2 should be the Spider-Man 2 of the 2010s.

I really hope they aim higher. SM2 is barely a tad better than MoS1 as it is, IMO.

 

[Vadakin]

In fact I even registered here back in 2011 to talk about this very treatment back when it was first spread across the internet. For anyone who wants proof, here is the very first posting of that plot outline:

http://www.eyesskyward.com/forum/showthread.php?379-Vadakin-Rants&p=131323&viewfull=1#post131323

 

[Steyin]

Meh.

 

[batman44]

In fact I even registered here back in 2011 to talk about this very treatment back when it was first spread across the internet. For anyone who wants proof, here is the very first posting of that plot outline:

http://www.eyesskyward.com/forum/showthread.php?379-Vadakin-Rants&p=131323&viewfull=1#post131323

I remember.

 

[TheFlamingCoco]

I really hope they aim higher. SM2 is barely a tad better than MoS1 as it is, IMO.

Spider-Man 2 is a strong NARRATIVE, but marred with campiness and bad writing at places. But it's impressive in its ambition, interweaving the storylines of MJ, Peter, Doc Oc, Harry, and even Jonah (to an extent).

I want MOS2 to attempt the level of ambition of Spider-Man 2.
I already know that MOS captured the personality of its character more than the Raimi films.

 

[Vadakin]

Keep in mind, while some of my own ideas were in there, it was mostly based on what I thought Man Of Steel would be about at the time. The reason I killed Faora, frankly, is because I didn't really want her in the movie. I didn't really have a part for her beyond freeing Zod.

As for it having elements of previous versions of Superman...well...yeah. It's Superman. I ended up not liking Man Of Steel. I felt it moved too far away from what Superman has always been. Suddenly, Batman is the good cop. And that's just weird.

 

[Anno_Domini]

• The treatment still opens on Krypton, but under very different circumstances. Zod’s army is seen on a battlefield trying to break defensive lines held by Jor-El. Zod is trying to destroy Krypton because he believes his people would be better served terraforming a new planet that has been discovered (Earth) and moving all Kryptonians there.
  
• Kent is working as a freelance journalist in the treatment, and goes home to see his parents, who are both alive at this point.
  
• While going through mail at his parents’ home, Clark receives a job offer for the Daily Planet.
  
• The film’s Lois Lane is annoyed by the freelancer Clark Kent, because he scoops her on a big story. She is assigned to cover the grand opening of the Metropolis/Gotham rail link (Batman reference!), which leads to a major action sequence in which Clark and Lois are both on the train (branded with a LEXCORP logo) when it suddenly goes out of control. Clark rips his clothes off to reveal the Superman suit and proceeds to save everyone from the train before seeking out the people who sabotaged it in the first place.
  
• People take photos and video of Clark saving everyone on the train, which is how the alien storyline comes into play. Lois’ father, military official General Sam Lane, is instantly worried about this “super-powered threat.”
  
• Lois coins the term “Superman” in the Daily Planet when writing about the train crash.
  
• Lois’ father General Lane continues to believe that Superman is a threat and thinks he is part of the invasion force. He’s essentially a more fully-formed version of Christopher Meloni’s character.

And these are the only things I like than what we got in Man of Steel.

Using Sam Lane instead of Hardy would've been great and so would giving us a reason on why Zod would even try to terraform Earth once he arrives there. Also, Clark being a journalist from the beginning, getting a job at the Daily Planet early on and making his introduction to the world early on sound great as well.

All the other stuff about Zod being in the PZ, Faora escaping and rescuing him(them him killing her later on), Jonathan dying because of burns...just awful.

 

[HighFivingMF]

For the record, I wrote this back in 2011. Strangely enough, it's changed a little bit since then. For instance, the article suggests that Zod is lured to Metropolis but what I wrote was that Zod investigated Superman and discovered that he had been most active in Metropolis.

Soon as I saw headlines mentioning an early treatment, I assumed it was this. But I remembered your name as "VaderKid"

 

[Human Torch]

Much better than what we got.

 

[Anno_Domini]

^

 

[Human Torch]

^ Typical Nolanite response.

 

[Anno_Domini]

Hahahaha, typical response towards someone who likes films directed by Nolan. "Nolanite".

But, hey, PS: Man of Steel isn't directed by Nolan, bud

 

[Asgard]

Wow. I really liked some of that.

The general outline of John Kent's death sounds better than what we got in MOS.

I really liked the depiction of the Faora fight with Superman saving innocents. Although some may call it a ripoff of SM2 it still sounds like it could be good.

I liked the final Zod and Supes fight. Makes sense for Supes to take the fight out of a populated city.

 

[Human Torch]

The difference between the above treatment and the movie we got is the treatment looks like it was written by someone who actually knows something about the source material.

 

[TheFlamingCoco]

He's a gift..and a curse:

"But in the comic books, I never thought they did Zod justice very often."

Why didn't Goyer just come out and say that he isn't fond of most comic portrayals of the character? Why just suggest that the source material isn't doing its own character justice?

 

[N7 Joseph Shepard]

not bad at all, definitely things I would change and or mix with what happened in Man Of Steel, but definitely a good read

 

[HighFivingMF]

Why didn't Goyer just come out and say that he isn't fond of most comic portrayals of the character? Why just suggest that the source material isn't doing its own character justice?

Both of those mean the same thing.

 

[FilmNerdJamie]

An explanation regarding the 'early treatment' for 'Man Of Steel'
We've updated this story to acknowledge a mistake
By Drew McWeeny
Saturday, Jun 22, 2013 1:05 AM

UPDATED - Last week, I called out another website for running a rumor that didn't pass what I considered the basic sniff test of whether something is true or false. They stood by their source at the time, and they were upset because of what I wrote.

I would imagine they're going to be very happy to read this update.

The treatment I referred to in this piece is absolutely, completely false. Fan-fiction, and nothing more. The source for this was trusted to me, but I can't blame the source for my mistake. I made a giant rookie error because I was intrigued to see what I thought were the origins of the ideas behind one of my favorite films this summer. I did exactly what I have snarled at others about in the past: I bought it because I wanted to buy it.

I accept full responsibility for running the story and for doing so without putting the treatment through the same sort of screening process that I would expect others to use before writing about something. You, the HitFix readership, deserve and should expect better of me, and after seventeen years of doing this, I should know better as well.

I apologize, and instead of trying to make the mistake disappear, I will leave this here as a reminder that I can't operate on blind faith, even when something comes from someone I trust.

I'll say this for the author of the treatment: he made an astute educated guess about the content of the film based on what wasn't much in the way of officially released materials when he wrote this in December of 2011. Seeing how close he came to the basic shape of things is surprising.

But again... this was my mistake completely. If I am going to ask you to trust my reporting, I can't make this sort of error again. I treated this different than I would treat "breaking news" simply because the film was in theaters already, but that's no excuse. Either you do the legwork so you can publish with confidence, or you don't publish. That simple rule should apply every single time, and I am sorry I let this happen.

http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captur...of-man-of-steel-to-see-what-might-have-been/1

Karma.

 

[TheFlamingCoco]

What I meant to say that it's a weird circular argument to say that a character rooted in comics isn't doing the incarnation justice. I think it would be better to say that in a lot of comics, Zod doesn't reach his potential, rather than say the comics don't do the character justice. But this conversation is getting rather confusing