14 DAY TRIAL // After the “Superman” franchise was rebooted in 2006 with the publicly panned “Superman Returns,” Warner Bros. kept insisting that a sequel would soon come, one that would make sense of the mess that the first film allegedly caused. Three years later, the studio has still not said anything about it – even more, it has already turned down a pitch for an 8-hour trilogy with the caped Superman coming from comic book writer Mark Miller.
According to a recent post on his official webpage, Miller was working on some sort of reboot of the Superman story. At one point, he even told the media that he and an unnamed “big director” were actively working to see the project finished so as to allow them to pitch them for the movie studio. Apparently, Miller did, and Warner was none too happy with it, choosing to play the caution card and wait some more before relaunching the Superman story.
“Warner’s talked to us and a few other writer/ director teams, but things seem to be in stasis right now. As far as I understand, nothing is happening with Superman at the moment and so the director and I are just working on another project. If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, no biggie. [My latest comic] taught me that creating your own stuff can be at least as much fun and you don’t have to answer to anyone. It’s the future, baby.” Miller says in the post.
Because of the refusal that Miller has made public, it seems plain that Warner is approaching the Superman story with great caution, several movie-oriented publications point out. In a time where superhero movies don’t seem to fare as well as they once did, and given the fact that “Superman Returns” was, more or less, a disappointment at the box-office, it’s no wonder Warner wants to wait and see what happens next before plunging into what will certainly be a very costly project.
As fans might remember, “Superman Returns” was welcomed most warmly by critics and a small fraction of the fanbase, which in itself would have prompted any other movie studio to go on with a sequel. However, the film failed miserably at the box-office, barely being able to sell enough tickets to cover the excessively large amounts invested in it, so, from this perspective, Warner Bros. is probably doing the smart thing by putting the entire franchise on hold, it has been noted.