Corona | Coming Attractions

The IMAX Corporation have reaffirmed its commitment to release up to 20 new Warner Bros. films over the next three years. One of the films announced is the still untitled Superman film in development at the studio. [Full story]

In a press announcement released today The Imax Corporation announced that it has extended its partnership with Warner Bros. and will release up to 20 movies in their specialty theaters over the next three years. One of the films acknowledged was a new Superman movie. This is the first official acknowledgement by Warner Bros. (via one of its partners) that the next Superman movie will come out by 2013. [Full story]

Following up on the IMAX news, IESB spoke with a source that informed them Warner Bros. is targeting a Christmas 2012 release for the new Superman movie. Furthermore, the site's source reveals that the way that the studio has a plan to fit in the Man of Steel to its reimagined superhero universe that makes sense for its Batman film franchise and the new Green Lantern movie that is currently filming right now. It's an interesting read.

The judge overseeing the case of the estate of Jerry Siegel versus DC Comics and the ownership of the Superman rights ruled this week that certain story elements following the publication of the character were now owned by the plantiffs. These story elements include the first two weeks of the daily Superman comic strip as well as segments of Superman's adventures in Action Comics and other Superman books. As Variety explains, such elements now owned by the Siegel estate include the depiction of baby Kal-El, the infant Superman, the planet Krypton, his Kryptonian birth parents Jor-El and Lara and the concept of the baby Superman being sent off into space as Krypton explodes and being sent to Earth.

In the 70 years since the creation of the character there have been many additions to the Superman mythology. DC Comics still owns sizeable chunks of that rich tapestry, such as Superman's most well-known villain Lex Luthor, the concept of Kryptonite, the Daily Planet, Superman's secret identity as a mild mannered reporter and Lois Lane. But even if DC still remains these ideas, how relevant is Lois Lane to the world of DC Comics without Superman?

Putting their best spin on the judge's ruling, DC and Warners issued the following joint statement: "Warner and DC Comics are pleased that the court has affirmed that the vast majority of key elements associated with the Superman character that were developed after Action Comics No. 1 are not part of the copyrights that the plaintiffs have recaptured and therefore remain solely owned by DC Comics."

It has also been determined that the estate of Joe Schuster, the other co-creator of Superman, is entitled to its equal share of Superman royalties come 2013. The representatives for Schuster did not go to court at the same time as Siegel's estate which is why Schuster's portion of the Superman royalties doesn't take effect until four years from now.

If you recall Mark Millar's comments about an A-list director that was part of the proposal the writer took to Warner Bros. for a new Superman movie, at the time Millar didn't choose to reveal the name of his creative collaborator. However, Millar just told The Times who his partner was and it's none other than Layer Cake and Stardust director Matthew Vaughn, the same man who's currently making the movie adaptation of Millar and John Romita Jr.'s Kick-Ass comic book.

"They spoke to me and Matthew last year and we were obviously very interested as the love is there and the potential is enormous," he told the paper yesterday. "But we're not involved in Superman at this stage."

He further described his and Vaughn's ideas was "to do a Superman movie unlike anything you've ever seen before. Matthew wanted to cast someone who looked nothing like Christopher Reeve and create a new Superman for this generation. But Superman is still in stasis at the moment because the last one lost so much money and [Warners] are scared to do anything with the character right now. I'm not holding my breath."

On Wednesday July 8 the judge overseeing the lawsuit brought by the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerome Siegel against Warner Bros. and DC Comics ruled that the two companies did not owe any additional monies to the Siegel estate. However, the clock may be ticking down to when Warner Bros and DC Comics can continue to make any new Superman movies or comic books without having to negotiate a new deal with the families of Siegel and his creative partner Joe Shuster.

In his examination of the case United States District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson decided that the deal between DC Comics to license the rights to Superman to Warner Bros., and then used in the Smallville TV series and the Superman Returns feature film, was not a so-called "sweetheart" deal and that DC was paid fair value for the rights by its sibling company. According to information presented in the lawsuit, to use the character in the 2006 film Superman Returns DC Comics was paid $1.5 million upfront, $18.5 million in option extensions over 31 years and 5% of first-dollar worldwide distributor gross or 7.5% of domestic gross of the film's gross, whatever was larger. DC also got an additional $45,000 for every episode of Smallville that got made plus a percentage of the gross revenue generated by the show.

Judge Larson looked at similar deals between Marvel Comics and movie studios to see if the Superman deal between WB and DC was fair value for such rights and decided it was. "DC Comics and Warner Bros. Entertainment are very gratified by the court's thorough and well-reasoned decision in this matter," both companies said in a joint statement. "The decision validates what DC and Warner Bros. have maintained from the beginning, which is that when they do business with each other, they always strive for -- and achieve -- fair market value in their transactions. We are very pleased that the court found there was no merit to plaintiffs' position that the Superman deals were unfair to DC Comics and, by extension, the plaintiffs."

This means that DC and Warner Bros. will not have to pay the Siegel estate more money for Superman -- for now. After the verdict was read the attorney that represents the daughters of Joe Siegel, Marc Toberoff, said that Warner Bros. only has up to 2011 to get a new Superman movie in production because two years later both the Siegel and Shuster estates will own the Superman copyright -- in full. "This trial was only an interim step in the multifaceted accounting case which remains, in that it only concerned the secondary issue of whether DC Comics, or DC Comics and Warner Bros., would have to account to the Siegels," Toberoff explained to Variety. "To put this in further perspective, the entire accounting action pales in comparison to the fact that in 2013, the Siegels, along with the estate of Joe Shuster, will own the entire original copyright to Superman, and neither DC Comics nor Warner Bros. will be able to exploit any new Superman works without a license from the Siegels and Shusters."

In short, that means that there may be no new Superman adventures, either in comic book form, television shows or movies, at DC Comics or Warner Bros. if the Shusters and Siegels say so in four short years. During deposition hearings for the trial Warner Bros. president Alan Horn stated that while there was no new Superman movie being developed at present the studio does want to make one. However, the soonest any Superman film could be moving ahead toward filming would be sometime in 2011, and if the studio doesn't pull the trigger on a sequel, the Siegels will be able to sue Warner Bros. for monies that they could have earned had a different studio been developing the new movie.

Superman Returns star Brandon Routh revealed that his option to reprise the character in a sequel has officially expired. Routh revealed this information while being interviewed on the set of Scott Pilgrim. "The term of the contract expired. But if they call me again, I’ll go back to the character without thinking twice," he told the website Omelete.

When asked if he had heard of anything new happening on the gestating project, Routh remarked, "I do not know anything. I'm sure that Warner Bros. is moving there, but everything is still uncertain. Actually, I do not know anything."

Comic book writer Mark Millar has spoken about his idea for a three-part Superman story spread across a trilogy of new movies. While Millar still doesn't want to share the name of the A-list director that he says is part of his proposal to entice Warner Bros., the Scottish-born scribe did spill some details about what he envisions his Superman movies could be like.

"It's gonna be like Michael Corleone in the Godfather films, the entire story from beginning to end, you see where he starts, how he becomes who he becomes, and where that takes him," Millar told Empire magazine. "The Dark Knight showed you can take a comic book property and make a serious film, and I think the studios are ready to listen to bigger ideas now."

"The problem with Superman Returns was like releasing Star Wars in '77, The Empire Strikes Back in '80 and then waiting 28 years to release Return of the Jedi, it wasn't relevant. I understand what Bryan Singer was trying to do, to pay homage to Richard Donner's original vision, but I think you should pay homage by doing something completely different."

And then Millar shared a tease about where he wanted to take the last Kryptonian in his film: "I want to start on Krypton, a thousand years ago, and end with Superman alone on Planet Earth, the last being left on the planet, as the yellow sun turns red and starts to supernova, and he loses his powers."