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Warner Bros. plans 'Superman vs. Batman' Movie 531

Posted by CmdrTaco from the man-of-steal-vs-the-dark-knight dept.
ReadParse writes "The Sacramento Bee is running an AP story about Warner Bros' plans to produce a Batman vs. Superman movie. It's kind of hard to imagine anybody but Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel -- somebody check Michael Keaton's schedule."
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Warner Bros. plans 'Superman vs. Batman' Movie More

Warner Bros. plans 'Superman vs. Batman' Movie

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  • Lacking something important..... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lord_Slepnir ( 585350 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @02:42PM (#3859269) Journal
    I think they'd get more money with a Catwoman vs. Wonder Woman movie. Unless this new one has a lot of Kristen Dunst in the rain.....

  • I think they should use Reeve anyway and just let batman wail on him for 2 hours.

  • Just one question: (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Smelly Jeffrey ( 583520 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @02:47PM (#3859313) Homepage
    Is this going to wind up being as silly as the old The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books they tried once upon a time?

  • Yeah, right. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dirtside ( 91468 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @02:47PM (#3859322) Journal
    Batman, Batman.
    Parents were killed by the Joker-man.
    What's he like? It's not important.
    Batman.

    Is he a hero? Or a vigilante?
    When he fights crime, is he allowed?
    Or does he become a criminal too?
    Nobody knows. Batman.

    Superman, Superman.
    Superman hates Batman.
    They have a fight. Superman tears Batman into tiny little billionare chunks, because he's FUCKING INVULNERABLE.
    Superman wins.

    (etc.)
    • I think They Might Be Giants just turned over in thier graves. What's that? They're still alive? Well, maybe just in their beds but they turned over in something....

      j/k, great lyrics

      • On an unrelated note, not only are "They Might Be Giants" alive, they played a concert at my school last year. And they are coming out with a new album titles "No!" as we speak. The website for the new album, if I could find the URL, is high quality flash stuff and they're giving out some mp3s too. They totally rock.

    • World's Greatest (Score:2, Interesting)

      by bitrott ( 232312 )
      Hold on there. Clark Kent may be able to hold down a job as a Daily Planet reporter, but his everyman intellect doesn't hold a candle to Bruce Wayne's genius. Probably best illustrated in the animated brilliance of "Worlds Greatest" a mini-movie that launched the Superman series in the 90's. It's a great story that plays Supes and Bats off each other wonderfully. Less messy than the new Justice League show, and as entertaining as any number of the comics out there that deal with the same issue.

      I think it's a decent premise but not as a VS movie... it'd be far more entertaining if it reflected the early team up issues and did a decent origin story. Maybe pave the way for a JLA movie. Doesn't matter though, this is just another 'attaching a director to a script to get a days worth of publicity' stunt. Happens almost daily. WB is a big fuckup when it comes to the DC properties. Which is a bloody shame, because the characters are so much more entertaining and rich than any of Marvel's.
    • Except that I seem to recall a series in which they did in fact fight, and Batman did a pretty neat job of putting Superman down? Granted he was in some sort of exo-skeletal suit...

      Now the Death of Superman, that'd make a movie.
      • Kevin Smith wanted to do the "Death of Superman" and its aftermath (even wrote a screenplay), but Tim Burton killed it when he became director on the Nicholas Cage as Superman project.

        As much as I like Cage and Burton, I'm damn happy that movie never got made...

    • Superman tears Batman into tiny little billionare chunks, because he's FUCKING INVULNERABLE.

      Oh yeah? What about the kryptonite?

      -jfedor

    • Re:Yeah, right. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dswensen ( 252552 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @06:12PM (#3860907) Homepage
      They have a fight. Superman tears Batman into tiny little billionare chunks, because he's FUCKING INVULNERABLE.

      Three words: Dark Knight Returns.

      If they modeled a Superman vs. Batman movie on that, I'd actually consider seeing it.

  • I can just imagine someone thats falling off a builiding yelling 'SUPERMAN HELP!' and Batman comes flying along saying something like 'I...am Batman!'. With the victim replying 'but I called for Superman....' and then they fall to their death.
  • Why Superman VS Batman? Wesley Willis whooped both their asses. Here is a great movie idea. A Godzilla with Bill Gates' face fights a giant Tux the Penguin. Call it Gateszilla VS. Torvalds! Rock over London! Rock on, Chicago! Diet Pepsi, Uh-huh!
    • o/~ suck my rottweilers ass o/~
      o/~ suck a camels booty hole o/~

    • You ever seen Wesley in concert? Man, is that fun. He has a big notebook with all the lyrics in it that he actually reads while 'singing'. Needing documentation in order to remember the lyrics 'Jell-oooooo Biafra, Jell-ooooo Biafra...' is classic. That and the casiotone accompaniment.

      You ain't lived until you've had a Wesley Willis head butt...

  • Who's the baddie? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by atcurtis ( 191512 )
    Who is going to be the baddie? The defender of the meek (Batman) or the defender of Humanity (Superman)?

    Or are they thinking of making some supervillan which the both team uo to fight?

    "Arrghhh, Kryptonite! Take over and save the world, Batman!"

    Well - it's been a few years since they had used the tech (was it used in Gladiator and earlier in the last Bruce Lee film?), but it isn't so far fetched that they use a body/stunt double for Mr Reeves and put his face over the double's body.

    Still - rumors are rumors.... I'm still waiting for the film adaptation of Red Dwarf with Patrick Stewart as the baddie.

    • Well - it's been a few years since they had used the tech (was it used in Gladiator and earlier in the last Bruce Lee film?),
      "The Game of Death" [imdb.com] is the movie Bruce Lee was working on when he died (actually he started working on it, took a break to make "Enter the Dragon" [imdb.com]).

      Bruce Lee was writing and directing, as well as starring in the movie, which was to deliver his philosophy and vision.Unfortunately his notes and storyboards were lost, and the movie that got released had very little resemblance to his original intent.Only about 30 minutes out of hundreds of hours of film were deemed suitable for release.

      Amongst the tricks used to complete the film were, indeed, body doubles, as well as having Bruce's character off camera, having his fact blown off and even scenes shot with Bruce Lee Cardboard Cutouts.

      A couple of years ago, the documentary "Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey" [imdb.com] was released. It contains the actual final scenes Bruce shot for "The Game of Death".They're somewhat incomplete, but they're well worth watching. The entire documentary is actually one of the best Bruce Lee documentaries out there - has a lot of archive footage and old interviews with him. My TiVo picked it up on TCM or AMC or something a few days ago, so it's probably floating around right now. Anyone interested in Bruce Lee or Martial Arts in general should definately attempt to catch it.

  • Wolfgang Petersen also directing 'Ender's Game' (Score:5, Informative)

    by Bonker ( 243350 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @02:49PM (#3859347)
    Which, in my humble opinion, going to be a lot more interesting than a fanpiece like 'Superman Vs. Batman'. Well, if you get to make both, why not?

    The problem with the Ender's Game movie is that the studio is apparently trying to submarine Petersen's efforts into getting a cast that he feels is realistic for the story. You can read the AICN rumour here: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=12681 [aintitcool.com]

    Essentially, it boils down to the fact that Petersen wants to include a racially mixed cast to reflect the in-book and real-world race ratios at the time Ender's Game is supposed to be set. The studio has vetoed his plans claiming that white audiences won't want to go unless the adults in the movie are all white.

    From the rumour:

    He was flat out told "Not a chance in hell. There will be a handful of token characters from other races but every other child will be white." As the studio execs pointed out, if there are too many background characters that aren't white, white people will be afraid to go see it.
  • Anyone else here watch Smallville? Imagine WB turning this into a whiny ('angsty') teen drama?

  • I'm going straight to hell (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mike Schiraldi ( 18296 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @02:51PM (#3859370) Homepage Journal
    It's kind of hard to imagine anybody but Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel

    Well, I guess they could just put kryptonite in every scene.

  • Those of you who haven't activated the Sci-Fi news slashbox might have missed this article [bureau42.com] about the same thing on Bureau 42.
    </shameless plug>

  • Eh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @02:51PM (#3859374) Homepage
    from the man-of-steal-vs-the-dark-knight dept.

    ...Hamburgler vs. Batman?

  • Forget the movies. The best, funniest treatment of a superhero face-off ever was the Internet Oracle's response a few years ago [wmin.ac.uk] to a query about who would win in a fight between Superman and the Hulk.

    "Hulk will impale Superman on sentence fragment!"

    They don't make Net humor like that any more.

  • How to Do It Right (Score:4, Insightful)

    by arfy ( 236686 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @02:56PM (#3859424)
    This could be good.

    Pray that the screenwriter (who worked on Se7en) is adapting, or at least heavily influenced by "The Dark Knight Falls" by Frank Miller.

    Now that would be something worth seeing! And if you look at the director's comments in the article it's not out of the question that this is the story they may be telling...
  • Batman vs. the Predator (awsome series)
    OR
    Batman Vs. Judge Dredd (first two of the three were awsome)

    Batman vs Superman always seemed a bit hokey to me
    • Batman Vs. Judge Dredd (first two of the three were awsome)

      How about, batman vs. Judge Judy ? I can see it now, "Young man! young man!!! Dont get guano on my shoes and tell me im not in the batcave!"

      (one of her famous sayings is, "dont pee on my shoes and tell me its raining)

  • Crappy plot, I think. (Score:3, Funny)

    by MattRog ( 527508 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @03:00PM (#3859462)
    Batman: I finally found the people that killed my parents! Prepare to die! :holds up BatGun:
    Superman, swooping in: I'm sorry Bruc-- I mean 'Bat-Man'. I can't let you kill them, that would be wrong.
    Batman: Oh shut up you tight-wearing pansy! :looks at own tights: Ok, well at least I make this look good!
    Superman: After all we've been through together! :wipes tear away: Prepare to die! :turns on heat vision:
    Batman: Ah-hah! 'BatAntiSupermanHeatShield' activate! :heat vision deflects and blows up a nearby building:
    Superman: You bastard! I'll crush you with my pinky! :lunges at the Caped Crusader:
    Batman: Not so fast, Superdork! :whips out glowing green kryptonite rock:
    Superman: Noo, my one weakness! My Achilles rock, as it were! :grabs Bruce's parents killers: Now I have YOUR weakness, the vengeance for your parent's killers! :laughs heartily:

    ...Lather, rinse, repeat...

    2 hours later

    Superman: :breathless and weary from a long fight: How did... how did Lex Luthor and The Joker team up to defeat us both?
    Batman: :also beat-up: I don't know, but I suspect it is the scene for Batman V Superman II: "Two super-heads are better than one!"

    fin.
  • And that's to get Frank Miller to write (or re-write) the script. The Batman/Superman encounter in Return of the Dark Night was excellent. Also, if they paired him with M. Night Shay*an. Unbreakable was just about the best superhero movie ever. I doubt the producers will have the insight to do either though.

  • I'm still waiting for (Score:4, Funny)

    by unformed ( 225214 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @03:05PM (#3859503)
    The Superhuman Royal Rumble.

    Granted, it'll probably get sued by the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) who was recently sued by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund).

    Even still, the Royal Rumble between Superman, Scooby Doo, Batman, the Penguin, Wonderwoman, Catwoman, and Tonya Harding, would be a truly kickass event.

  • New man of steel (Score:5, Insightful)

    by st0rmshad0w ( 412661 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @03:07PM (#3859513)
    " It's kind of hard to imagine anybody but Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel"

    True enough, but I vote Bruce Campbell. Its all in the chin, baby.

    • Re:New man of steel (Score:4, Funny)

      by Skyshadow ( 508 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @03:46PM (#3859795) Homepage
      Then Batman really wouldn't stand a chance. He'd kick Supes around the film in amusing ways for a half hour only to get his head blown off by a not-much-worse-for-wear, shotgun-weilding Superman.

      Hail to the King, baby.

      • I'd go see any Superman film with the hero line:

        Good... bad... I'm the guy with the heat vision.

        Although I'd have a problem with Batman dancing around, singing "Little goody-two-shoes! Little goody-two-shoes!"

    • I'm feeling that...
      I'm with you on this one...

      I can't think of a better post-modern super hero than Bruce Campbell. Heck, even the satiric edge we've all come to associate him with (army of darkness, et al) works perfectly! Come on, now that we're adults we shouldn't be eating chicken and stars soup and we shouldn't be expected to have a total suspension of disbelief...

      P.S.- I do not work for progresso.
  • I'd rather see Batman v. Buffy

    Or Superman v. Evil Willow...

  • History Lesson (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @03:27PM (#3859666)
    "It's kind of hard to imagine anybody but Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel"

    Once upon a time nobody could see anybody but George Reeves playing Superman. A change in actors can be done successfully. Whether it will be done successfully is a whole other matter.

    On the other hand, Batman has been played by a revolving door of actors since Keaton.

  • Matt Damon, not Michael Keaton (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tbmaddux ( 145207 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @03:29PM (#3859685) Homepage Journal
    It's kind of hard to imagine anybody but Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel -- somebody check Michael Keaton's schedule.
    According tp the IMDB's "Celebrity News" [imdb.com] the director wants Matt Damon. Here's the relevant text:
    Matt Damon may get his choice of playing either Batman or Superman in a new movie that brings the comic book superheroes together - as enemies. Moviemaker Wolfgang Petersen has signed up to direct Batman vs. Superman for a 2004 release, and he wants Damon among his stars. The director says, "Matt's an interesting action man and a hell of an actor." The Perfect Storm director jumped at the chance to make the new movie because he likes the idea of pitting two heroes against each other. He says, "It's a clash of the titans. They play off each other so perfectly - Superman is clear, bright, all that is noble and good, and Batman represents the dark, obsessive and vengeful side. It'll make for great drama."
  • Yeah, I've been waiting years for a real lame movie to watch.

    While they're at it with "Superman v. Batman", why don't they throw in a few more lame scenarios, like:

    Batman v. Spiderman

    Spiderman v. Superman

    Jaws v. Jurassic Park

    Jason v. Freddy

    Lara Croft v. Indianna Jones

    Come one, does it get any lamer than this? Imagine what went through their minds when they came up with this one:

    hmm...we could have another lame sequel that would make us a lot of money because people are stupid enough to keep coming back for more....or we could combine this movie with that movie to make a really lame movie that won't make sense and'll suck, but it'll bring in the fans from both series and make us gobs and gobs and gobs of money. Then we'll do a sequel.
  • What AOL/TW really needs to do is to get off their asses and do some more things with their animated super hero serei. I'm sorry but just about every live-action Batman movie I've seen can't hold a candle to a single half-hour episode of Batman: The Animated Series. Give us a JL movie or another Batman Beyond or something!

    Just looking at the way the live-action Batman movies WB has put out portrays the villans (the Joker, the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Bane, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, etc.) and then looking at how those same characters have been done in the animated series... can anybody honestly tell me that they're really looking forward to another live-action movie? What they did to Mr. Freeze and Bane alone should be reason to shudder with fear...

  • The Great Carnak holds the envelope to his head... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Cirrocco ( 466158 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @03:48PM (#3859812) Homepage
    ...and says, "Christopher Walken."(carefully opens the envelope and removes the card)

    "Name something that members of the Reeves family will never see again!"

  • This will not be like 'Batman and Robin' This will not be like 'Batman and Robin'

    I can't see the movie being half as good as an episode of Batman the Animated Series. The characters of Batman and Superman have such great depth, regretably some hollywierd casting director will pull a demographic move, rather than using real actors. Here's to holding out hope.

  • Just imagine it on celebrity boxing! [fox.com] Whoo hoo!
    If not FOX, then a deathmatch [mtv.com] of course!
  • This movie is just a ploy to get all of us geeks into theatres so they can gas us, and stop our anti-DMCA, pro-open-source, anti-Jar-Jar rhetoric.

    Excelsior!
  • Sadly, Hollywood's taste is so bad that I think this flick will simply be a 'Who would win?' type of movie. Unfortunately, that's not an interesting subject for reasons that people have already posted here.

    Instead, they should develop the movie that gives you deeper insights into each character, taking the plot away from the 'whos gonna win?' direction. To put it another way: If you find out that Batman wins, it shouldn't ruin the movie for you.

    With that said, why not explore what could possibly make these two guys fight? What kind of ethical questions would that provide for Superman? What could possibly happen to make the Man of Steel defeat somebody who, like himself, has made his life's work to protect people?

    How would Batman feel about having the opportunity to deal the death blow to Superman? In light of how his parents were killed, how could he bring himself to destroy somebody that undoubtedly would have prevented it if he could?

    They both had their parents killed tragically, they have that pain in common. Could they come to a resolution?

    In any case, with questions like these (or hopefully more interesting ones, I am not a writer heh) the movie could actually be rather meaningful. If the movie tries to be like Spiderman and is written to show of using the latest effects to have two 'super humans' battle it out, then there's no way it's going to but much more than a jock flick.

    I hope somebody puts some interesting thought into this. Both characters are deep enough that they could tell a fascinating story. This really is the type of movie that should be animated. It's hard to take a guy seriously when he's wearing bright blue underwear.
  • It's kind of hard to imagine anybody but Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel.

    It's kind of hard to imagine that people think Christopher Reeve is the only Superman. Christopher Reeve is not the first person to play Superman and he will not be the last.

    However, I do think he's played Superman the best out of all of them.

  • Working title: "Superman Vs. Batman: The Last Thing You'd Ever Want To Sit Through."
  • I see this running like every crossover comic ever written:

    Reel 1: Batman and Superman cross paths, get in each other's way and fight, messing each other up but neither taking home a definitive win. Kiss another Batplane goodbye.

    Reel 2: Villians gang up on Batman and Superman.

    Reel 3: Batman and Superman team up and defeat villians.

    For a good idea of what I mean, see the 3-part World's Finest comic that Steve Rude illustrated for DC a few years back. It rocked.

    Of course, for Joe Sixpack, "Batman vs. Superman" is a better title than "World's Finest," since Joe Sixpack doesn't get the reference to the old teamup title from the fifties.

    Lastly, while I wish Christopher Reeve all the best, he wasn't the first actor to play Superman, and he won't be the last. It might be nice to get Gene Hackman back as Lex Luthor, though.

    Jon Acheson

  • World's Finest (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MikeyNg ( 88437 ) <mikeyng@NOspam.gmail.com> on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @05:09PM (#3860477) Homepage

    Wouldn't a World's Finest be better than a Superman vs. Batman? Imagine the scenario where Lex Luthor goes to Gotham and The Joker goes to Metropolis. Both would create a huge ruckus as the cities' respective guardians don't know how to handle the villain. A Batman-Luthor dialogue would be great. Superman failing to understand The Joker's psychotic behavior would be interesting as well. Then finally the two heroes get together and beat the two villains. You would also exploit some great Bruce Wayne-Clark Kent scenes.

    Superman is a fairly boring hero. He either is going to kick everyone's butt because he is just plain so Uber (pun intended), or someone is going to bust green kryptonite on his butt. Batman is just a normal guy who's completely obsessed with getting the bad guy in any way he can. A Batman-Superman battle would all revolve around the kryptonite.

    Trying hard NOT to sound like the Simpsons Comic Book Guy, but I have the feeling that I'll be disappointed with the movie. It'll be easy for Hollywood to screw it up.

  • Choosing the Wrong Batman (Score:3, Funny)

    by DarkHelmet ( 120004 ) <.mark. .at. .seventhcycle.net.> on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @05:18PM (#3860541) Homepage
    It's kind of hard to imagine anybody but Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel -- somebody check Michael Keaton's schedule.

    Christopher Reeve vs. Michal Keaton is a nobrainer fight...

    Now... Christopher Reeve vs Adam West... Now that I might wager money on...

    Just as long as West never kept any of his "Bat-Shark Repellant" or "Bat-Gas" or "Bat-Enemas".

  • Good vs. Good??? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Fascist Christ ( 586624 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @06:26PM (#3860998)
    How much do you want to bet that in the end they set aside their differences and work together against some super-villain?

  • Old News (Score:3, Insightful)

    by crashnbur ( 127738 ) on Wednesday July 10, 2002 @08:36PM (#3861681)
    Not to take away from ReadParse, but news about this movie has been available at Coming Soon [comingsoon.net] for several weeks. Maybe the boys over there have more news worth duplicating...

    Now for an on topic comment: haven't we had enough comic book hero movies for one life time? The answer seems to be no, as it was first Superman, then Batman, and now Spider-Man who have repeatedly broken box office records every time a new one is released.

    Now the bad news: we all have to wait two years for the movie to develop. So why is it such big news now?

  • You know who'd be perfect for the Superman role? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Thursday July 11, 2002 @06:10AM (#3863274) Homepage

    Our own dear Wil Wheaton [wilwheaton.net].

    Think about it. He's handsome in a boy-next-door Young Republican poster kind of way, he has the correct wholesome, too good to be true, "I'll save-the-day" associations in the public consciousness, he can actually act, he has geek appeal, and he looks good in a skin tight unitard.

    Petition here [freepetitions.com].

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