Grinding on the rumor mill… Harry over at Ain’t It Cool News is always popping up with some interesting rumors that, more often than not, prove to be true. Last time it was setting the story straight on the next Rambo movie and this time he’s going one better and calling the name of the person Green Lantern director Martin Campbell may be choosing to put on the yellow suit and purple make-up as Sinestro – none other than Jackie Earle Haley!

A few weeks back, Screen Rant’s Kofi Outlaw ran an article fantasy casting Sinestro and based on the feedback from our readers, Hugo Weaving was the favorite. Well, if you ever needed proof that Hollywood rarely pays attention to fans then this would be it. I trolled back through the comments and nowhere did anyone mention Jackie Earle Haley as a possible choice, oddly enough Dakota Fanning and Eric McCormack both made the list though.

At the end of July, Robert Sanchez at IESB broke the news that Warner Brothers were looking at James McTeigue to possibly direct a new Superman feature film that would act as a franchise reboot.

A few weeks later, McTeigue sat with MTV and while not confirming or denying any involvement, he did relay his idea of a reboot for Superman should he land the gig. His plan would take the Man of Steel in a different direction and skip through the overdone origins of Clark growing up into the hero we know him as.

Things were looking good for our favorite Kryptonian, up until Diane Nelson, the head of the newly formed DC Entertainment, explained that they do not have another Superman film as part of their current plans.

MTV recently spoke to Diane Nelson, the newly-anointed head of Warner Bros.’ DC Entertainment Inc., and picked her brain about how the new venture will affect the DC films already in the pipeline and which heroes we can expect to see onscreen in the near future. In the midst of all this talk, Nelson let a quiet bomb (no, not that kind) drop: DC Entertainment has no current plans in the works for another Superman movie.

Why is this news such a big deal? It’s a bit of a convoluted story but luckily your friend Outlaw has been keeping his eye on Superman for a minute now. Keep reading to see what Nelson’s words may mean for the cinematic future of the Man of Steel and WB/DCE.

Matthew Vaughn, director and producer of the upcoming rated-R comic book adaptation, Kick-Ass, really wants to helm Marvel Studio’s The Avengers movie.

Vaughn, if you remember, was director of X-Men: The Last Stand… for a short while anyway. After he took over for Bryan Singer, he quickly left which opened to door for Brett Ratner to direct the project which in my mind, is the absolute worst of the four X-Men movies.

Looking forward instead of back though, Vaughn now has directed three feature films: Layer Cake, Stardust and now Kick-Ass (which quickly earned itself an American distributor after premiering footage at San Diego Comic-Con.) Now, he wants to do another superhero flick…

Last week, Screen Rant Editor Kofi reported on the major Superman news where Warner Brothers lost possession of the rights to the Man of Steel’s origins.

The Judge had made another ruling on this decade-long court battle which stated that heirs of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joel Schuster now own most of Superman’s early history. This obviously was another major blow to WB who found out earlier (in another ruling) that they’d be completely losing Superman come 2013.

For the film franchise, the court rulings meant that the studio needed to fast-track production of their Superman reboot plans and we reported on the rumor that James McTeigue and the Wachowski brothers would be put in charge of that task.

In case you haven’t noticed, a legal battle between DC/WB and the heirs of Superman creators Jerry Siegel  and Joel Schuster over the copyright to Superman has been raging for going on a decade now.  In recent months, a judge ruled that in 2013, the Siegel/Schuster heirs will own the full copyright to Superman – however, many of auxillary elements of character developed by DC Comics after Siegel and Schuster’s initial introduction of the character have remained on the legal battlefield. Until now:

Warner Bros. no longer has access to Superman’s origins.

Variety reports that on Wednesday, Judge Stephen Larson ruled that the Siegels now control a lot of Superman’s early history, including his brief infancy on Krypton, his parents, baby Kal-El and the whole “sent to Earth from a dying planet” storyline. The Siegels also captured ownership of early Superman comic-strips and early Superman/Action Comics issues.

Our friend Robert Sanchez at IESB has the scoop on the latest details leaking out of the Warner Brothers camp for the Superman franchise.

According to Robert and his search for information on the Man of Steel, WB is treating Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns as a sort of conclusion to the film franchise as it was before, and are heading in new direction with new people.

We knew this already with Brandon Routh’s and Bryan Singer’s contracts expiring, but Robert now has some clues as to who may be involved with the franchise’s future: James McTeigue and the Wachowski brothers!

This week, a U.S. District Court Judge made yet another ruling in the decade-long legal battle between DC/Warner Bros. and the estate of late Superman co-creator, Jerry Siegel. The latest ruling (in this convoluted case) stated that all was fair (legally at least) regarding the licensing fees WB paid to DC comics in 1999, in order to develop properties like Superman Returns and Smallville.

Here’s the part you’ll care about: while the judge found that the deals between WB and partner DC weren’t illegal, he did state that WB should’ve paid 3-4 times what they did, and that if WB doesn’t produce another Superman film by 2011, the heirs of creators Siegel and Joe Shuster (who will jointly own 100% of the rights to Superman come 2013) will be able to sue the studio to “recover their damages.”

So, will Warner Bros. try to get another Superman film into production by next year?

It was just last week when we heard the crazy rumor of the Wachowski brothers possibly directing a new trilogy of Superman films that was later debunked – and now we have more Superman rumors!

Peter over at /Film apparently got into a password protected page on the Legendary Pictures website with the help of one of their readers and this particular page listed some interesting information for the next Superman project.

[UPDATE: Just as we suspected (and noted below) this was nothing more than rumor and has been debunked by /Film]

A “reliable” source for Ain’t It Cool News has provided them with some interesting information regarding the future of the Superman franchise as well as an update on the current status of Ninja Assassin.

This source, while in Berlin, caught an interview James McTeigue (who’s directing Ninja Assassin) and in the interview McTeigue revealed that the Wachowski Brothers have been approached about rebooting the Superman franchise as a trilogy.

Here’s the juicy parts of the message he sent:

It’s February and Sunday and that means it’s Wrap Up time.

This week:

We look at the box office and Mickey Rourke sees Broken Horses; a Watchmen star watches women; Puss in Boots shuffles forward and Bryan Singer says Logan’s Run is slow.

Now that Bryan Singer is (finally) finished with his WWII thriller Valkyrie and off promoting said film, the question of his involvement on Superman: The Man of Steel was bound to be asked.

Speaking to UGO Movie Blog, Singer was rather cryptic towards the prospects of his participation.

That is to say although he is not “officially involved in the talks,” Singer is “not divorced” from it either – aka Bryan won’t be directly involved but will be paid regardless thanks to the expensive “Pay or Play” deal he inked with the studio back in October ‘06.

So, don’t be surprised if Bryan is given a “Producer” title despite his non-involvement (i.e. like Jon Peters was on Superman Returns!)

Last week, IESB had a chance to talk with Brandon Routh, and much of the conversation focused on the next Superman flick.

After discussing what projects he’s been working on, IESB asked Routh about his thoughts on The Dark Knight. Predictably, his response had nothing but high praise. Since the “Will Superman be dark since it worked so well for The Dark Knight” question has been raised before, IESB asked Routh whether he thought if Superman could be done in the same dark fashion.

“I don’t know, I don’t think the character necessarily has to be darker, I think he is kind of dark in a sense, emotional dark, in Superman Returns, and the movie as a whole was slightly dark, they could have had more prowess in it I suppose, and I think that’s one thing that can be done in the sequel, so I don’t know how much darker you want to make it necessarily.”

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Mark Millar is the comic-book writer who cried wolf.

He’s had quite a reputation for fabricating info for the sole purpose of getting himself (and his comics) press. There were his claims of “knowing” that Jim Caviezel had been cast as Superman/Clark Kent in Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns and rapper Eminem “begging” him to star in Wanted. In both cases, he later admitted to making it all up.

Over the last 48 hours, we’ve heard the news that Ryan Gosling is in the running for Green Lantern and that Brandon Routh will continue to play Superman/Clark Kent in the Superman reboot.

Considering that Warner Brothers is aiming to have the next Superman film out by summer 2012 (a solid 4 years away), there are those wondering if keeping Routh is a bit premature. Normally, I would agree with that logic.

However if you will all remember, boys and girls. According to a script review from two months back, the character of Clark Kent makes an appearance in Green Lantern(!)

Sometimes, you hear something so crazy that it absolutely can’t be true. Until it turns out to be just that.

Case in point: About two weeks or so back, I wrote up an article detailing exactly what was going on with the Superman film franchise based on information given to us by very reliable sources.

I was told point-blank that the next Superman film would in fact be a total reboot (in the vein of Batman Begins and Casino Royale) with a new set of filmmakers and actors. Sure, that made perfect sense.

With the news last month that Warner Brothers planned on rebooting the Superman film franchise, I thought it would be a good time to give an overall status report on everyone’s favorite big blue boy-scout. And let you folks know what’s going on…as of now, at least.

First things first, no director or screenwriter(s) have been hired nor are any in negotiations at this time. Warner Brothers is simply looking at a few candidates as potential “feelers.” Nothing more, nothing less.

After a solid year’s worth of news, rumors and flat-out Internet BS regarding the future of the Superman franchise, Warner Brothers has decided: The Man of Steel is headed for a reboot.

As WB big-cheese Jeff Robinov explained to the Wall-Street Journal:

“‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to. It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned. Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009. But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman.”

…Only to tell us more of the same.

In a recent interview, Superman Returns star Brandon Routh said that the next chapter in the Superman-reboot will indeed start filming in 2009, and that a script is still being worked on as we speak (thank you WGA strike.) Let’s pray that if the filmmakers choose to dive back into the continuity established by Superman Returns, they spend the very first scene of Man Of Steel killing off that stupid ‘Son of Superman’ character. I’m seeing a Kryptonite canister placed in a child’s inhaler… (cue the sinister laughter.)

Later this week, legendary film-composer John Williams and the Boston Pops will play select music from Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at the Boston Symphony Hall. You might have heard of that film…

While discussing the event, the Boston Globe made mention of Williams’ upcoming slate of projects including Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince and Jurassic Park IV – didn’t know there was any movement on that one!

Interestingly, according to their sources, he’s also lined up to do the music for the Superman Returns sequel Superman: Man of Steel.

You good folks might have heard a mention here or there about “some Superman lawsuit.” But after the news just now coming out, I’m pretty sure you’ll know more about it.

According to The New York Times:

“A federal judge here on Wednesday ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel — who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created with Joseph Shuster to Detective Comics for $130 — were entitled to reclaim their share of the U.S. copyright to the character.”

Apparently, the international rights to Superman remain the property of Time Warner.

There’s also the chance that if this decision sticks it will open a can of worms with the heirs of ‘Supes’ co-creator Joseph “Joe” Shuster in 2013.

Yes, I know that 2010 is still two years off, but that summer already has a few blockbuster tentpoles lined up (i.e. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Shrek Goes Fourth and Toy Story 3). And things could get pretty heated between the two comic-book tentpoles currently aiming for that summer as well: Sony’s Spider-Man 4 and Warner Brothers’ Superman: The Man of Steel.

In the case of Webhead, it’s still a mystery as to whether or not Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi return. But my shrinking gut (thanks to my diet) says they’re done. To be fair, I could see Raimi having some involvement (i.e. an “executive producer” title isn’t out of the question). However, Maguire showing back up sounds unlikely at this point. I don’t see Sony forking over the kind of paycheck he’ll demand unless he agrees to another multi-film deal and that’s what makes it even more unlikely.

So… an unknown actor could be the way to go. But I’m betting that supporting players like J.K. Simmons, Rosemary Harris and Dylan Baker will definitely return (i.e. cheap and for the sake of the movie franchise’s continuty!)

This is a guest post by Screen Rant reader FilmNerdJamie.

[UPDATE: According to CHUD.com, Orci & Kurtzman are NOT writing the script for this. At this point, it's hard to say who's right. - Vic]

As per our buddies at IESB, word is that Warner Brothers’ search for writers to replace the departing Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris looks to be over. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Transformers and Star Trek) have had “several meetings” to pen the Superman Returns sequel Superman: Man of Steel.

Lots of movie news bites for you all! Let’s start out with what’s happening with Justice League, which seems to be a dream film for fans, but with Warner Brothers’ decision to not use Christian Bale or Brandon Routh as Batman and Superman, respectively, fans aren’t happy. The script isn’t up to snuff, so according to Superhero Hype!, and a final decision on whether they’ll strike ahead vs. waiting for the Writers Strike to end will be made for a major re-write. We may know as early as tomorrow, January 15th.

In related news, it looks like Bryan Singer and Routh are still onboard to bring us the action packed sequel to Superman Returns, Superman: Man of Steel. (Why not just Man of Steel, like The Dark Knight?) The release date was pushed back to 2010, and there isn’t an iron-clad guarantee Singer will be back. It looks like producers learned some lessons, and the movie will feature more action, a super-powered villain and less romantic stuff. Hey Spider-Man producers, are you reading this?? Original screenwriters Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty won’t be returning, plus the Writers Strike is delaying the start of scriptwriting on the sequel. Source: Superhero Hype!

More news after the jump.

A couple of days ago there was news of the possibility of writer Mark Millar coming on board the now writer-less Superman: The Man of Steel movie. /Film picked up on a post he had made on a message board stating that there was the hint of talks between his representative and Warner Bros., but that’s all the meat there was to that story. He expressed how he would love to write the screenplay since he’s a huge Superman fan.

But today via SHH! come word that at least right now, the prospect of him writing the script or pretty much nil due to his association with Marvel Comics:

It looks like Superman Returns screenwriters Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris will not be writing the screenplay for the next Superman movie, tentatively titled Superman: The Man of Steel.

Cry me a river.

That’s fine with me. Any writers that would make Lex Luthor’s motivation real estate… AGAIN, make Superman an out of the picture father of a bastard child and remove “American Way” from a line that’s been connected to Superman for decades are welcome to stay away from the next movie.

It’s being reported that one of the co-writers of the Superman Returns sequel Superman: Man of Steel, Michael Dougherty has stated that there will be not one, but two villains in the yet to be made film.

Yay.

What is it about superhero movies that seems to call out for TWO antagonists? Why isn’t just one bad guy enough? Hello, Spider-Man 3?

Oh sure, multi-villains can work, but as far as I’m concerned just having one gives more opportunity to develop the character in depth, rather than splitting the attention and having one inevitably get the short end of the stick (Hello? Spider-Man 3?)

Is there some law of the universe I’m unaware of that requires Lex Luthor to be present in Every Single Superman Movie?

According to Variety, Kevin Spacey will be reprising his role in the next Superman movie, tentatively titled Superman: The Man of Steel (how did I miss that bit of news?).

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Spacey as an actor, but I didn’t really like his Lex Luthor in Superman Returns. I realize Bryan Singer was trying to pay tribute to the original film, but the thing I disliked in particular in the first Donner film was the stupid humor. So, I didn’t really like the borderline campy performance coaxed from Spacey in the recent film.