It’s official! Superman is getting the reboot! Jeff Robinov, Warner Bros. Pictures Group President did an interview with the Wall Street Journal in which he had this to say:
Warner Bros. also put on hold plans for another movie starring multiple superheroes — known as “Batman vs. Superman” — after the $215 million “Superman Returns,” which had disappointing box-office returns, didn’t please executives. “‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to,” says Mr. Robinov. “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,” he adds. “But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.”
With “Batman vs. Superman” and “Justice League” stalled, Warner Bros. has quietly adopted Marvel’s model of releasing a single film for each character, and then using those movies and their sequels to build up to a multicharacter film. “Along those lines, we have been developing every DC character that we own,” Mr. Robinov says.
Like the recent Batman sequel — which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far — Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.
The studio is set to announce its plans for future DC movies in the next month. For now, though, it is focused on releasing four comic-book films in the next three years, including a third Batman film, a new film reintroducing Superman, and two movies focusing on other DC Comics characters. Movies featuring Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman are all in active development.
It’s looking like DC is attempting to make a turn around. I have always been apt to read and relate to more Marvel characters, but there are a lot of DC Universe characters I think are just fantastic. I really hope we see some success come from other movies now that they seem to have hit their stride with the Batman reboot. One quote did kind of bother me though, I actually kind of liked Superman Returns, or maybe just hated it less than most, but Robinov stated, “But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.” Really? I didn’t see ANY regard to a Superman and Batman movie at all in Superman Returns. As with most things, we will just have to wait and see what DC decides to do with their expansive library of characters!