Sounds like Superman is going better all the time! - Page 2

Much like the rumor back in December that Michael Gambon would take over for Richard Harris as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies. Immediately DENIED officially by Warners. Some two months later, the official announcement of his casting.

Firehose!!

Pearl Harbor was very good as an action movie/ big spectacle.

What doomed the movie was the marketing, the cynical attempt to sell it as an important, oscar calibre movie and the attempt to convince you that it's your patriotic duty to watch it. Plus the stupid, overblown carrier premiere.

Without all that baggage, it's a surprisingly solid and well made film.

However, Bay is guilty of the crime against humanity that is Armageddon. But in any case, he is far more competent than Ratner.

Pearl Harbor is shit. One of of the worst movies of the decade. Even the attack wasn´t very exciting because you couldn´t care less about the characters. And the dialogue is soo terrible I feel the pain every time I think about Pearl Harbor. It is not a well made film.

Ratner's a fuckin' pussy.

Ahem, let me re-phrase that...a mama's boy and a fuckin' pussy.

Follow through with a project, man. Things aren't working out so you back out? Boo-hoo.

John Schwartzman, Bay's friend and DP, has mentioned that Bay does not use filters. He actually lights the sets to give them their appearance.

btw, from <a href="http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=story&articleid=VR1117882844&cate goryid=13&cs=1" target="_blank">Variety.com</a>:

Ratner rushes out of 'Superman'

Difficulty of casting lead role contributes to decision

By DANA HARRIS, CATHY DUNKLEY


Brett Ratner will no longer direct "Superman" for Warner Bros. Pictures and sister company New Line Cinema couldn't be happier.
That's because Ratner had previously agreed to make "Rush Hour 3" as his next picture -- and New Line has just hired "Bad Company" scribe Jason Richman to write the script.

In order to make his "Superman" deal last September, Ratner asked New Line if he could be released from their prior agreement that "Rush Hour 3" would be his next project. New Line gave its blessing, but with the understanding that the Chris Tucker-Jackie Chan action-comedy would follow thereafter.

New Line hopes to have a first draft from Richman in eight weeks.

As of Wednesday afternoon, according to his CAA reps, Ratner was still attached to "Superman." Later that day, Ratner's camp changed its tune, scrambling to release a statement late that evening.

Stated Ratner, "I have chosen to withdraw as director of 'Superman.' The difficulty of casting the role of Superman has contributed to my decision. I appreciate the efforts of Warner Bros. and the entire production team during this process."

Warners production president Jeff Robinov responded with his own statement: "We have tremendous regard for Brett's creativity and passion for this project and we understand that this was a very tough choice for him. We are disappointed but wish him the best in his future pursuits."

So while New Line celebrated the prodigal son's return, Warners is left with neither director nor superhero. However, a Warners spokeswoman said the studio had every intention of moving forward with "Superman." The final straw for Ratner seems to have been the unwillingness of Warners execs to approve Ratner's choice as the Man of Steel, soap star Matthew Bomer. Among the actors who tested for the role were Brendan Fraser, Paul Walker and Josh Hartnett.

Hartnett passed, Walker took himself out of the mix and the race was between Bomer and Fraser as of late last week.

Studio also became uncomfortable with Ratner's collaborative decision- making style that sought to please everyone but ultimately didn't please Warners. Nor were relations aided by the very public tension between Ratner and "Superman" producer Jon Peters.

The "Superman" budget also had escalated to $225 million, even with the hiring of a second line producer to bring the budget down to $200 million.

Ratner's transition to "Rush Hour 3" isn't entirely seamless. While the director has already made his deal for the second sequel, the same can't be said for Tucker and Chan. New Line wants the stars to return, but it's conceivable the franchise could move forward without them, if the studio couldn't meet their pay demands.

The first two "Rush Hour" installments earned a combined $576 million at the global B.O.

Tucker hasn't been on the bigscreen since the release of "Rush Hour 2" in August 2001, but he's been shooting footage for "Mr. President," a mockumentary about an African-American president.

Chan is shooting "Around the World in 80 Days" for Walden Media and Summit Entertainment and was most recently seen in "Shanghai Knights." His next release is "The Medallion" (aka "Highbinders") for Columbia Pictures Oct. 17.

Repped by ICM and managed by the Bauer Co., Richman recently wrote a draft of Paramount Pictures' "Beverly Hills Cop 4."

(Michael Fleming and Dave McNary contributed to this report.)

good riddance to ratner

Well, see yah in 5 or 6 years, the next time WB tries and once again fails to make a Superman movie. Or maybe it's third times a charm.

NOTE TO STAR CHAMBER: Not a personal attack against a Chewer, unless bigdog represnts the WB.

I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks that Superman represents patriotism is a fucking retard.

No Director. No Stars. And WB lied. It's still basically that same piece of shit script that J.J. Abrams wrote with Krypton not exploding and Luthor being an alien (or controlled by an alien in the revision). Ty-Zor has to be the crappiest name ever. If they are restarting everything, they should atleast have it be Zod. Like General Zod could be the big military guy on Krypton, and he sends his son to find Kal-el. Son of Zod. Much better than fucking Ty-Zor. Doesn't matter though because this movie looks like it will never be made, just like the Burton/Smith/Cage failure of the 90s. There is a failure for every decade apparently since the first movie. III and IV in the 80s. Now this one in the 21st century. Sad that they can't get it together, since even if the movie was a piece of shit it would still make lots of bank for those idiots at WB. Of course I would rather have no Superman movie than a Batman And Robin-like Superman movie.

And the week after that.

You're calling Shuster and Seigel "fucking retards"? You've never heard the phrase "Truth, Justice, and the American Way"? You've never read any WWII-era Superman comics? You've never seen the promotional photos of Christopher Reeve as Superman, standing in front of an American flag? What on earth are you talking about?

You know, if you would have told me Ratner was off of Superman 3 months ago, I would have breathed a sigh of relief, but now, with all the Michael Bay-ing going on in the rumor mill, the dark cloud of realization has finally hit. It makes no difference, WB is still going to put out their Ritalin Generation, Hyper Budget, corporate version of the Man of Steel, come hell or whatever. They'll go with Bay, or someone equally "competent", make the movie stylistically slicker than a hockey rink, crank in a "hip" soundtrack, focus group the shit out of it, and still miss the entire point of the character. My hat's off the you Jon Peters and the WB, it takes a lot of balls to pretty much do the equivilant of driving off of a cliff after the signs have been warning you for the last 50 miles, just to show that you know more than the people who put up the signs in the first place. So thank you in advance for giving us a Superman man film that will sell to the masses like a soda commerical and then rot in DVD bargin bins a few years later alongside other forgetable summer movies, because this thing is going to be forgetable with a capital "F" and that the biggest crime you can commit against an American Icon.

...sorry, I had to get that out of my system.

I'm so sick of hearing all of this Superman shit. I don't even care anymore. Just get a monkey,paint an "S' on it's chest, and have it running around town biting people;hence infecting them with ebola virus.

Now that's something I'd pay to see.

The problem is that they've already done it.

They've said before that the reason they wrote THE MATRIX was to set up a second film, their superhero movie where they got to make up the rules themselves instead of having to work on a character with forty years (or more) of fan baggage attached.

It's like the problem with M. Night Shyamalan... no matter what, he'll want more creative control than Warner Bros. would be willing to give.

The reason you're not going to get an interesting filmmaker to sign on is because (A) the script eats ass, and (B) there's almost no way to win at this point.

This whole project stinks, and the fact is that you're just starting to get a picture of what's been going on behind the scenes for months.

One of these days, someone's going to tell the whole story in a book and make a bazillion dollars.