September 13, 2002
I wanna be his Kryptonite

Yay! C.C. comes through with some Keanu news~

From Foxnews.com:

Keanu for Superman's New 'Excellent Adventure'?

It's on, it's off, and on again. Superman is back in the planning stages at Warner Bros.

My sources tell me that Keanu Reeves, star of Warner Bros.'s very successful The Matrix has been tapped by director Brett Ratner, to play the Man of Steel in Superman: Last Son of Krypton. Jeffrey Abrams, who wrote the feature Regarding Henry and invented TV's "Felicity" series, wrote the final, accepted script.

Ratner, director of the forthcoming Red Dragon, the Rush Hour movies, and the very interesting Family Man, is just about to sign to direct Last Son, finally ending Warner's tango with director McG, who is busy readying Charlie's Angels 2. Ratner had been rumored in Variety last month as a possible Superman director among many. But I'm told the deal is done and he is in.

Weirdly enough, Keanu's name is similar to that of the original beloved TV Superman, George Reeves.

Keanu's first big hit of course was Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Imagine if those characters had had X-ray vision!

Superman of late has had a hard time getting back to the screen. At one point Nicolas Cage was set to play him. Kevin Smith, of Chasing Amy and Dogma fame, wrote a script but that was abandoned. Then a Superman vs. Batman movie seemed like it was taking shape, with Jude Law and Colin Farrell rumored to be set for the respective parts. Law dropped out, and the new rumor was that Josh Hartnett was replacing him. But a wildly high budget made that project prohibitively expensive and it was scrapped. Interestingly, Superman vs. Batman was supposed to be directed by another Warner's favorite, Wolfgang Petersen.

But Petersen (are you still with me?)-director of The Perfect Storm, Das Boot and Air Force One, abandoned Superman vs. Batman for the historical epic Troy. This is the film that Brad Pitt also recently jumped to, leaving Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain feature high and dry in Australia just as they were ready to go into principal production.

Before the S v.B-Troy shuffle, Petersen had a staunch fan and supporter in then-Warner's chief of production, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who proudly announced the Petersen project and touted it to the trades. But last week, di Bonaventura was ousted from his position at the studio. Is there a connection? Was Petersen Kryptonite to Lorenzo? Indeed, he-and the Superman vs. Batman epic were what did him in. Alan Horn, now running Warner's on his own, championed the Abrams/Ratner simpler Superman idea.

Ironically, news of this new Superman film is coming to light just as the original movie Superman, Christopher Reeve (yeah, I know, this name is really weird) has announced that he's making progress in his effort to walk again. Wouldn't it be great if Ratner's new screenplay includes some kind of part for Reeve? That would give this project, which has been jinxed so far, the imprimatur it needs.

This could just be hype.
I wonder if Mr. Reeves is eager to play another superhero, especially such a pre-defined one.

And considering today's date, I'm not even going to think about the "curse".

cinema | from inside the mind of krix at September 13, 2002 02:28 PM .
Comments

Hollywood has gone superhero mad lately.

Posted by: zel on September 13, 2002 04:43 PM

Gawd, I hope he doesn't do this movie. I'd rather he did Constantine, if he had to play another superhero. I'm really hoping he does neither (although I'm hooked on the Hellblazer stories and would like to see the movie made with someone else in the role).
I'm pretty sure with all the money from the Matrix Trilogy, he can take some time and be much more selective.

Posted by: krix on September 13, 2002 05:34 PM

I read this, Krix.... Bizarre. I'd hate to see Keanu playing the hero I hate the most......

Posted by: Bea on September 13, 2002 06:07 PM

Frankly, I would rather see him be the BAT, rather than Superman. The Dark Knight is more in his character....

Posted by: Rhonda on September 13, 2002 06:26 PM

Dammit, I was hoping I'd scoop you on this, but ya beat me to it, Krix!

There's a discussion about Keanu as Superman on slashdot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/09/14/232239

There was one fellow who made, I thought, a very good point about casting choices for these kinds of roles: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=02/09/14/232239&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=nested&cid=4260073

(these URLs are pretty heinous, I realize) -- here's the beginning of the article:

"I remember when Tim Burton first announced that Michael Keaton was going to play Batman -- "there's something in his eyes," he said -- and the fanboy crowd went ballistic. They shouted that Batman wasn't Mr. Mom, and that Burton had ruined the one comic book movie that fans had been waiting their whole lives for.

"Now, a decade later, nearly every post says Keaton was the definitive Batman, and all the other actors (who at first blush seemed to be perfect Batman types) were the ones who ruined the franchise."

With all due respect, Krix, I have to disagree: I can see Keanu doing Superman -- and I can see him doing it _really well_.

Just MHO, of course! :)

Posted by: Craig on September 15, 2002 05:31 AM

I agree, RHonda... I'd rather see him as Batman.... *sigh*

Posted by: Bea on September 15, 2002 06:45 AM

This is over at /.???
Whoa, thanks Craig!

Posted by: krix on September 15, 2002 09:12 AM

Oh, it's not about him doing it well. I think he probably could. I just don't think we need another superhero movie. At least Keanu doesn't need to do one. I imagine he's pretty damn tired of wires and bluescreens.
I'd be all up for him to play the villan in a new blockbuster spectacle, but not Superman.
I guess it just boils down to I know the man has more than the hero dimension to him, and I'd like to see those others.

Posted by: krix on September 15, 2002 09:21 AM

Don't do it Ke. I know he 'can' do it, but he doesn' need it. He's got Neo man....

Posted by: Keanuette on September 15, 2002 01:13 PM

Yes, he *could* do it! It just wouldn't be the *right* thing to do. IMHO, of course...

Posted by: Lori on September 15, 2002 04:16 PM
What's on your mind?.....
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