After spending the last couple of years dragging their feet, it seem Warner is now serious again about making another Superman movie. A few weeks ago it was announced that Batman director, Christopher Nolan, would oversee (but not direct) a fresh take on the Man of Steel and now Latino Review reports that Batman Begins and The Dark Knight co-writer, David S. Goyer has been hired to handle the script.
It seems pretty clear that Warner/DC wants some of the Batman magic to rub off on their most famous superhero, lining up the same team that overhauled the Caped Crusader to such great effect for a new Superman movie. Goyer himself recently stepped down as the showrunner for Flashforward, citing his increasing movie commitments as the reason. It’s already known he’s currently working with Jonathan Nolan on a third Batman film, and now he’ll have to fit in Superman too.
The new movie, which will be called The Man Of Steel, is said to be far more action packed than Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, and involves the Man of Steel battling both Lex Luthor and Brainiac. It’s not another origin story either, assuming the audience already knows the Superman/Lois Lane dynamic. That said, it’s definitely not a sequel to Superman Returns and won’t star Brandon Routh.
Goyer is slightly under the gun though, as the studio needs to get a new Superman movie in production next year, or they’ll risk losing some of the Superman screen rights to the heirs of the character’s co-creators, Joe Schuster and Jerome Seigel (the estates also get considerable copyright in the character overall in 2013, at which point they could go off and make their own Superman movies if Warner hasn’t secured the rights). As a result Warner is keen to make as much money out of Superman and keep as much control over the character as it can.