Strike Coming to an End, Singerman Sequel still Dead

Just checking in for the first time in a little while. Finally there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel with this whole Writer's Guild strike business. According to The Hollywood Reporter and various other sources, the WGA leadership in an impromptu press conference today revealed that they are encouraged by a proposed agreement from the AMPTP and that if all goes as planned, the picket signs could be put away as early as sometime on Monday. In our opinion, its about damn time, as the thought of endless months of reality television were starting to make my skin crawl. I have a feeling the AMPTP will really be the one to have "won out" this time around.

But that's not all the good news we have for you today. Well it's not really "news" since we've been saying it for a good long while, but its always nice to see it in print nonetheless. According to yesterday's Hollywood Reporter, the strike's impending resolution has heartened studios, specialty divisions and mini-majors that a host of development projects could suddenly be jump-started. They then go on to give a few blurbs about some of the upcoming WB projects:

The consensus from industryites seemed to be that Warner Bros. had the most immediate need on both the development and spec script sides. The studio's offerings for 2009 are light, with "Watchmen," based on the graphic novel; the children's fantasy "Where the Wild Things Are"; and "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins."

There are at least nine more projects that are not dated but could be slated for 2009, according to one source. But one studio tentpole, the sequel to "Superman Returns," is not so lucky. There apparently are no current plans to add the project to the slate, according to a studio source.

Yup, still as dead as ever. Sorry, Restart there will be no Singerman 2 in 2009, and god willing, never, ever again. Oh yeah and they do also mention the JLA film:

Meanwhile, productions with known script issues such as Warner Bros. tentpole "Justice League" are expected to get fast-tracked once writers return to the scene.

Let's all pray to whatever deity you choose that by "get fast-tracked" they mean "gets tweaked, rethought, and recast. " As bad as that last update got we sounded, WB is still more confident in it than going forward with another Singerman film. This should hopefully put to bed those silly rumors that another Singer film was only being delayed due to the strike.

Say Goodbye to Routh Too

When it rains, it pours I guess. These past few days feel like that scene in the movie Goodfellas when all of the mobsters who were in on the Lufthansa heist start turning up dead. Only their crimes weren't as egregious.

Just days after we got news of what potentially could be Bryan Singer's demise as director of Singerman, comes word via the fine folks over at Latino Review that Brandon Routh is OUT as the "Man of Squeal" as well in any solo Superman films, and that the Superman from the Justice League film, when or if he's ever cast, will take over the role in any stand alone flicks that will thankfully have absolutely no relation to Singerman. The article reads:

Kelvin knew about Brandon not being the new Superman for weeksand weeks now, but made a promise to the DC people that he wouldn't break the story. Variety has now confirmed what we've secretly known for a while and Brandon Routh will be replaced in the stand alone sequel by whomever is cast as Superman in the upcoming Justice League of America movie.

If Singer is gone as is expected, then Routh getting the boot is basically just a formality. We pretty much thought that would be the case. Routh is, in effect, the ugly baby getting thrown out with the dirty bathwater. As I've said before, personally I have no issues with Routh. While his acting is a bit stiff, he wasn't the big issue here and might've been serviceable under better direction. He seems like a likeable enough person, but he's just too much a part of what Singer did and that's something that will never come off in the public's eyes. Any future incarnation of Superman with him in it would automatically be linked to Singerman and that's NOT a good thing in WB's eyes at this point. Best of luck in your future endeavors maybe now you can devote more time to campaigning for Barack Obama. Ugh.

Now as for this JLA Superman. The heat has been pumped up a notch. As we suspected, this role will be bigger than just one film or even the JLA series. This person will have to be able to star in the role in solo films as well. God help us all if WB thinks some schmeg like D.J. Cotrona is going to be able to hold up that burden. Your move, WB.

UPDATE 1/5/08: Here we go again, Now AICN is allegedly "debunking" this claiming that they've talked to one of their infamous "moles." I had a feeling something like this was going to pop up from someone else with a source. Honestly, I'm deferring to Latino Review and their previous track record until I hear otherwise. We all know AICN's track record for things Superman has been a bit sketchy at best. Remember Rupert Evans and Scott Porter? Stay tuned.

JLA Movie Confirmed? Routh is One and Done?

Wow! Talk about a film coming together fast. I'm not sure if I should be excited or scared about this? Apparently while we were all busy arguing about just how BAD Singerman was, it appears WB was busy with their big Plan B. Just into us tonight, Moviehole reports that the proposed Justice League film is in fact confirmed to be just as "full speed ahead" as we've been hearing recently and it should be up and running by next year. And that's not all, they've got a few other goodies regarding casting. They go on to say:

A casting director for the movie will be onboard next week and it's then that they'll be going after their tighted strongmen.

Director George Miller ("Mad Max") has some ideas who he'd like to cast as Batman and Superman but naturally, they mightn't be the same faces the WB want. Either way, doesn't sound like Christian Bale or Brandon Routh will be involved in the film. I assume that's a financial thing.

(Update : We have been informed by another source at Warner Bros that it will be an all-new cast and that Bale and Routh will NOT be back.)

So within the next month we should start seeing a few announcements about the movie.

I'm not surprised really, I told you in the earlier post that Bale's Batman just didn't fit into the world of the JLA, and that most likely they wouldn't want Routh anywhere near it since he could only hurt the film by dragging over Singerman's problems with him.

Not surprisingly, IESB does a follow up to this report (completely ignoring their prior "Singerman II is coming come hell to high water!" stance BTW) and add this bit (take it for what it's worth):

"Let me clear some confusion, Batman and Superman are the central characters of the Justice League film that will now be played by different actors.

WB is looking for a complete new cast for the multi-hero team up and that casting will begin as early as next week.

The IESB has been told that early meetings have already taken place for certain key roles and to expect announcements very soon. Just in case there was any doubt, George Miller is 100% locked in as the director.

Once again, the confirmed heroes are Superman, Batman, the Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern.

We are working on a couple of leads that are indicating what actors may be up for a couple key roles.

They also have a really brief interview with Bale from today's 3:10 to Yuma press junket where they surprisingly didn't swear at him. Then again , he probably would've kicked their asses if they did.

Is this the death knell for Singerman? Or is it just delaying it? In our opinion here, the whole reason this film is being fast-tracked for Summer 2009 is to fill Singerman's slot because WB doesn't have the confidence in it. We'll stick around until we hear the official announcement and see Singerman's bloated corpse. Stay tuned.