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James McTeigue’s ‘Superman’ Idea
By Landfill | October 1, 2009
Some of you may know who James McTeigue is. He’s an accomplished director who’s lead films like V for Vendetta and the upcoming Ninja Assassin, you can watch the trailer HERE. He’s also been the assistant director to the Wachowski Brothers’ films like the Matrix trilogy.
Lately the director’s name has been attached to the next Superman film, a project that isn’t DC Entertainment’s top priority right now. Continue on with the article to find out exactly what McTeigue wants to do with the Man of Steel.
So the rumor earlier this year was Andy and Larry Wachowski were to direct the next installment of the Superman film series. IESB reported back in July James Mcteigue might be up for director while the Wachowski’s would produce.
After the news from IESB, McTeigue was paired with the movie for awhile. /Film got an interview with the director and asked him straight up about the Superman rumors. “You know… I… I would say… I’ll keep you guessing, actually. It’s good not to dispel every rumor, right?”
While still dodging the rumors and not confirming or denying anything, the director stopped by MTV back in August to drop a few ideas on the next Superman project if he were directing.
“I think if I was ever going to go near Superman, I would do a complete reboot—take it in a direction that you would absolutely not expect, actually,” stated the director. “So, that would be my thinking on it, if I was ever going to go near Superman.”
“I think it’s good that they just had a court case where, basically, if you make another Superman movie, you can’t touch Superman growing up—that’s part of the story that you can’t touch any more,” he said. “That wouldn’t be a bad thing. I think everybody’s a bit sick of seeing the origin story.”
McTeigue went on to tell MTV that it’s a different time now so if he were directing the next Man of Steel movie, he’d go darker with it, something along the lines of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. “You need to take it and retool it,” he said. “Make it something that appeals to audiences now a little more.
More recently Alex Billington from First Showing had the chance to sit down with James McTeigue and asked him a few more questions about Superman. His responses were the same old stuff but he did mention there’s been some discussion about the upcoming CBM, more with him than the Wachowski’s. He went on to add if he did have the chance to direct Superman he said:
“I think I would be interested in doing it if they let me do it the way I wanted to do it. I would say that, if you take the Richard Donner Supermans and the last Superman [from Bryan Singer], I think that Superman is probably ripe for a bit of a change up. I think society has changed around the core idea of what Superman was.”
“And I’m not saying you do the ubiquitous dark Superman, I’m not saying that… I’m just saying that I think there are some things that you could excise from the Superman mythology that people would get into it, if you took the world that he was in and changed that a bit, and maybe even project that into the future a bit. I think you don’t really have to play into the origin story anymore. I think there’s a whole bunch of things you could do to make that film more alive and exciting again.”
McTeigue would like to do the film a bit differently and possibly has a good idea that he’s not sharing with anyone but he goes on to say that WB wants a more traditional take on Superman. Something not too different than what we already know. Billington brought up Mark Millar’s Red Son as a possible take on the superhero and the director replied, “I think you always incur the wrath of the people – they love Superman, why not make it a little different, change it up a bit?”
I think it would be very interesting to see the Red Son storyline but I have to agree with the director because we’ve had one movie that featured Superman in the last few decades, WB/DC won’t risk confusion of their character as a Russian in one movie, and an American in another. It’s just not going to happen soon enough. Well, I guess it could happen if Superman made the jump to Marvel, but that’s another discussion for another time.
What do you think of James McTeigue’s involvement with Superman? Should he be the next director to take on Superman? tell us what you think about the recent Superman developments in the comments.
Topics: Superman (reboot) | 2 Comments »
2 Responses to “James McTeigue’s ‘Superman’ Idea”
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October 1st, 2009 at 12:12 pm
As long as the put in another villain to either work for or with Luthor, I’m for it. I get so tired of Superman being bested by Kryptonite. That’s the part of the story that gets weak. Why not put in some villains that can take him on physically and then have Luthor in the background manipulating everything. Or what about a story line where Lois is threatened by someone and Superman loses his composure and kills someone accidentally. Then, the world would be afraid of him and need to address his presence and then Superman could uncover that it was a plot by Luthor to destroy Superman’s public image. Something of that nature. Previous Superman films have always been too one-dimensional. They need to expand his horizons. I also would love to see a future Superman like in Kingdom Come. That would be ridiculously awesome.
October 1st, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I’m a big fan of Superman and I hate a lot of him too or better said, a lot of what many have done with him and the story.
I want to see a more personal aspect of the Man of Steel, something like the story arc of Loeb/Lee in the comics, where some moral aspect and humanity are questioned. Also I would like to see more focus on the Clark Kent persona.
Lex Luthor should be there, I liked the performance of Kevin Spacey so if no one else show up I would re cast him, and see a more manipulative Luthor, I agree with badlamFLASH there, and maybe the story of him becoming the U.S Preseident developing in the background.
Also, I’m sick of the kryptonite too but for some reason I would like to see Metallo in there, so least see what they do with him in Smallville.