WB Superman Reboot 3.0: Christopher Nolan Edition

[Rust]

Edit goddamn!

 

[Showtime]

Minor spoilers.

http://collider.com/superman-man-of-steel-production-schedule/68680/

I wonder if the innovative idea was, "We shouldn't have done a loose sequel to do the Donner Films for a new generation, we should do a remake of the original with some important elements but a new storyline intertwined!"

Add a little twist of Birthright and we are ready to film...

Homecoming from his overseas Journey (Birthright), Discussion Of Future(Donner Flicks, Birthright), Ship Discovery (Donner Flicks & Birthright), and Funeral (Pa Kent in Donner Flicks?)

 

[Zorex]

This is how Smallville augments Vancouver to look like Metropolis:

Actually, I'm pretty sure the basis for, or even the majority of, the top picture is Chicago. You can see in the bottom left where Lake Shore Drive curves past Oak Street Beach.

Mmmm... Chicago.

 

[FilmNerdJamie]

I wonder if the innovative idea was, "We shouldn't have done a loose sequel to do the Donner Films for a new generation, we should do a remake of the original with some important elements but a new storyline intertwined!"

Add a little twist of Birthright and we are ready to film...

Homecoming from his overseas Journey (Birthright), Discussion Of Future(Donner Flicks, Birthright), Ship Discovery (Donner Flicks & Birthright), and Funeral (Pa Kent in Donner Flicks?)

"Oh. My. GOOOOOOOOOOOOD! It's such an innovative take on the character!"
"What is it?"
"Oh. Just the origin story again. But this time we take from one or two of the comics!"

 

[JAK®]

If it's good, I don't care. In fact seeing Birthright on film would be great.

 

[Showtime]

Minor spoilers.

http://collider.com/superman-man-of-steel-production-schedule/68680/

If it's good, I don't care. In fact seeing Birthright on film would be great.

Sure. It's fine if it is good.

It's just funny that reports were calling it original from Nolan's camp. Maybe i am missing something.

 

[JAK®]

Sure. It's fine if it is good.

It's just funny that reports were calling it original from Nolan's camp. Maybe i am missing something.

I think it will be more to do with the tone of the character and how he is presented rather than the plot itself.

Batman Begins was the standard superhero origin template but the realistic tone was what made it different.

 

[Showtime]

I hope that isn't the difference, realism, they already did that with Returns.

 

[JAK®]

I hope that isn't the difference, realism, they already did that with Returns.

Well I hope not as well, I was just using Begins as an example, the tone could be anything.

 

[BH/HHH]

If it's good, I don't care. In fact seeing Birthright on film would be great.

Definitely I personally feel you could just adapt Birthright from page to screen and it'd be awesome.

Also on the timeline I wouldnt know if it were true or not if it is Im just excited to know something. Also if it is true it doesnt mean because the Smallville scenes somewhat reflect STM that they are making the film in the same way whats to say these aren't flashbacks.

 

[Rust]

Yeah, Birthright was fine. So what if they redid some of the Smallville-stuff. Still an ok update IMO.

 

[KyleDW2]

"Oh. My. GOOOOOOOOOOOOD! It's such an innovative take on the character!"
"What is it?"
"Oh. Just the origin story again. But this time we take from one or two of the comics!"

Considering the past of the character on film...that is innovation.

 

[Superark]

Also sounds like a quasi-retread of the Donner film.

Oh, wait. "It's fresh! Innovative! Radical!"

Not slighting that, but it's amusing.

Is it really all that surprising? Nolan has gone on record saying how he thinks Donner's Superman film is the best comic movie ever done, even to this day. He has expressed great admiration for it and praised it more than once.

 

[JAK®]

He also had no interest in another Superman movie until this apparently fresh idea was suggested to him.

 

[BH/HHH]

Yeah, Birthright was fine. So what if they redid some of the Smallville-stuff. Still an ok update IMO.

Yeah I agree

 

[Micromind]

It is a good thing that they are including some smallville scenes, and there are not many different ways to tell the origin story, but still it needs to be there, as this movie is the starting point for the new continuity.

I am happy with this.

 

[green]

Yeah, Birthright was fine. So what if they redid some of the Smallville-stuff. Still an ok update IMO.

Its not just the Smallville stuff though. Superman saves Lois for the first time...a helicopter. Luthor is a threat with...Kryptonian technology. Birthright is like a hodge podge of things that were done before. I wont even go into the giant robot spider. I really dont get how people want to see an adaptation of it and want something new at the same time. It might look new.

 

[JAK®]

Its not just the Smallville stuff though. Superman saves Lois for the first time...a helicopter. Luthor is a threat with...Kryptonian technology. Birthright is like a hodge podge of things that were done before. I wont even go into the giant robot spider. I really dont get how people want to see an adaptation of it and want something new at the same time. It might look new.

Birthright has deliberate homages to what has come before, however as a story and how it treats the character it couldn't be any more different from the Donner movies. Clark in Africa alone makes it different from 99% of the other Superman origins. Luthor faking a Kryptonian invasion is way different to creating an island for the purpose of real estate.

 

[Gianakin_]

It says that it's a long shoot.

If they don't have lots of CGI then it should be fine. But I don't think that will be the case.

 

[green]

Birthright has deliberate homages to what has come before, however as a story and how it treats the character it couldn't be any more different from the Donner movies. Clark in Africa alone makes it different from 99% of the other Superman origins. Luthor faking a Kryptonian invasion is way different to creating an island for the purpose of real estate.

Im not faulting Birthright, I love it as comic. Other than Clark in Africa there really isnt much new to it IMO. My issue is wanting it adapted as a movie, just seems like you'd be repeating alot of things.

 

[SuperHeroHype]

Minor spoilers.

http://collider.com/superman-man-of-steel-production-schedule/68680/

A lot of sites, including us, received that probably bogus e-mail today.

 

[Rust]

Its not just the Smallville stuff though. Superman saves Lois for the first time...a helicopter. Luthor is a threat with...Kryptonian technology. Birthright is like a hodge podge of things that were done before. I wont even go into the giant robot spider. I really dont get how people want to see an adaptation of it and want something new at the same time. It might look new.

I dont believe they'd adapt the whole story. Just the first 1/3 of it. Up until he arrives in Metropolis. That's all I'd wanna see personally. I dont mind the kryptonian Luthor-research, but I dont care for yet another uninspiring Luthor-scheme if that's all there is. A super-villain, thank you.

 

[Superman2007]

I hope that isn't the difference, realism, they already did that with Returns.

Returns didn't have the sort of realism that Iron Man, or Batman had.

And when I'm talking about realism, I'm talking about the world the superheroes are put in. Not the actual superhero.

Gotham City felt more like a city in the U.S than Metropolis did.

The people in Metropolis didn't act in a realistic way to Superman returning. Everyone was stoked, on cue.

Metropolis played more like an idealized city that didn't have any problems besides Lex and the arbitrary bank robber.

The world we were introduced to in SR seemed too simple, clean, and unrelatable.

If you make the city and people of Metropolis more reflective of our own world, like it has been done in Birthright and The Dark Knight, people will be more engaged and more curious to see how a being like Superman would affect it.

 

[RalphD]

Returns didn't have the sort of realism that Iron Man, or Batman had.

And when I'm talking about realism, I'm talking about the world the superheroes are put in. Not the actual superhero.

Gotham City felt more like a city in the U.S than Metropolis did.

The people in Metropolis didn't act in a realistic way to Superman returning. Everyone was stoked, on cue.

Metropolis played more like an idealized city that didn't have any problems besides Lex and the arbitrary bank robber.

The world we were introduced to in SR seemed too simple, clean, and unrelatable.

If you make the city and people of Metropolis more reflective of our own world, like it has been done in Birthright and The Dark Knight, people will be more engaged and more curious to see how a being like Superman would affect it.

Indeed. Everything was highly idealized, not just Metropolis.

Singer's Superman is an infallible god looking over humanity. The hero's journey is streamlined to whether Superman is happy being who he is or not. And even then, it fails to raise enough interest. In Nolan's approach, we'd probably witness how destructive his godlike powers can be to the very same people he is trying to protect.

For instance, what happens if innocent bystanders get killed by all the debris from an ongoing fight in the skies of Metropolis? What if Superman isn't fast enough to save all the passengers from that falling plane? What if he makes the wrong choice and needs to figure out a way to live with it? Does he begin to question if he is more of a menace than a necessity? Singer attempts that for a brief moment, yet for the wrong reasons, and drops it all too quickly, moving on to yawn inducing real state nonsense.

Singer's approach to breath humanity into Superman was just an excuse for a tedious romance with an unrelatable Lois Lane, while Nolan would probably have focused on a psychological journey from a character carrying the burden and responsability to be perfect and make all the right decisions. And then how does everyone deal with his flaws and limitations, when they finally happen?

Therefore, while Gotham's city is an integral part of the story, perhaps even a character itself (it gives birth to Batman), Singer's Metropolis is just a backdrop. It could've been anywhere...New York, Paris, Tokyo, a parking lot. The story would've been the same: Guy breaks up with his girlfriend and leaves town, returns to see girlfriend has moved on and tries to figure out what he did wrong. At the end accepts it was probably better off for everyone.

It's sterile, like everything else in that script besides the overplayed love "conflict" and that movie didn't even need to have a Superman in it. Richard can certainly take care of the situation when Bosworth's Lois isn't doing terribly dumb things.

All in all, Singer was really the wrong director for this. He used the X-Men to tell a story about tolerance and acceptance, but Superman just isn't the right type of character to tell a sad love story. Let's hope Nolan's Metropolis is a more approachable (but yet modern looking) place for the whole audiance.

 

[Superman2007]

Indeed. Everything was highly idealized, not just Metropolis.

Singer's Superman is an infallible god looking over humanity. The hero's journey is streamlined to whether Superman is happy being who he is or not. And even then, it fails to raise enough interest. In Nolan's approach, we'd probably witness how destructive his godlike powers can be to the very same people he is trying to protect.

For instance, what happens if innocent bystanders get killed by all the debris from an ongoing fight in the skies of Metropolis? What if Superman isn't fast enough to save all the passengers from that falling plane? What if he makes the wrong choice and needs to figure out a way to live with it? Does he begin to question if he is more of a menace than a necessity? Singer attempts that for a brief moment, yet for the wrong reasons, and drops it all too quickly, moving on to yawn inducing real state nonsense.

Singer's approach to breath humanity into Superman was just an excuse for a tedious romance with an unrelatable Lois Lane, while Nolan would probably have focused on a psychological journey from a character carrying the burden and responsability to be perfect and make all the right decisions. And then how does everyone deal with his flaws and limitations, when they finally happen?

Therefore, while Gotham's city is an integral part of the story, perhaps even a character itself (it gives birth to Batman), Singer's Metropolis is just a backdrop. It could've been anywhere...New York, Paris, Tokyo, a parking lot. The story would've been the same: Guy breaks up with his girlfriend and leaves town, returns to see girlfriend has moved on and tries to figure out what he did wrong. At the end accepts it was probably better off for everyone.

It's sterile, like everything else in that script besides the overplayed love "conflict" and that movie didn't even need to have a Superman in it. Richard can certainly take care of the situation when Bosworth's Lois isn't doing terribly dumb things.

All in all, Singer was really the wrong director for this. He used the X-Men to tell a story about tolerance and acceptance, but Superman just isn't the right type of character to tell a sad love story. Let's hope Nolan's Metropolis is a more approachable (but yet modern looking) place for the whole audiance.

Exactly!

Another huge example of everything being idealized and hunky dory was how The Daily Planet seemed completely unscathed by digital media(something Goyer's screenplay will apparently address). I mean they didn't even touch on the idea that The Daily Planet was probably having some trouble staying profitable in the internet age. Nope, everyone at Daily Planet headquarters in CGI city, U.S.A were doing just fine.

Snyder has said in the past that he has a tough time seeing how Superman can be taken seriously with the world being what it is. SR didn't even try to answer this question because they presented a world that doesn't require that question to be answered. Superman remains simple as does his simple world, where all he has to do to solve issues is lift things.

Snyder, Nolan, and Co. I think will try to explain and answer that question. They'll try to explain how a "Superman" would be able to function in our real world, which is filled with real problems and complicated issues.