Warner Brothers has finally made a big decision regarding the whole Man of Steel issue. They’re going to reboot the whole Superman franchise. Group President Jeff Robinov confirmed to The Wall Street Journal the whole deal.

Warner Bros. also put on hold plans for another movie starring multiple superheroes — known as “Batman vs. Superman” — after the $215 million “Superman Returns,” which had disappointing box-office returns, didn’t please executives. “‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to,” says Mr. Robinov. “It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned.” “Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009,” he adds. “But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.”

Looks like the plan is to take Superman the same direction as Batman and do something very similar to what Marvel is doing with all of their characters. Once they each have very strong solo films, then make a group film with them.

Like the recent Batman sequel — which has become the highest-grossing film of the year thus far — Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.

The studio is set to announce its plans for future DC movies in the next month. For now, though, it is focused on releasing four comic-book films in the next three years, including a third Batman film, a new film reintroducing Superman, and two movies focusing on other DC Comics characters. Movies featuring Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman are all in active development.

Source

This is pretty exciting new, but it’s really too bad that Superman Returns wasn’t a bigger hit. I thought it was a great movie that paid tribute to Christopher Reeve in so many ways.

Warner Brothers President Alan Horn has made an official statement to fans who are upset about the moving of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from November to July.

Many of you have written to me to express your disappointment in our moving “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” to Summer 2009.

Please be assured that we share your love for Harry Potter and would certainly never do anything to hurt any of the films. Over the past 10 years, we have nurtured and protected each film, and the integrity of the books upon which they are based, to the best of our ability.

The decision to move “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was not taken lightly, and was never intended to upset our Harry Potter fans. We know you have built this series into what it is, and we thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and support.

If I may offer a silver lining: there would have been a two-year gap between “Half-Blood Prince” and the much-anticipated first part of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which opens in November 2010.

So although we have to wait a little longer for “Half-Blood Prince,” the wait from that film until “Deathly Hallows” will be less than 18 months. I am sorry to have disappointed you now, but if you hold on a little longer, I believe it will be worth the wait.

Alan Horn
President, Chief Operating Officer
Warner Bros.

Source

Look at the silver lining he says. Clearly this is a man that’s never been mobbed by 200 kids/adults all dressed as Harry Potter.

The new movie coming out March 2009 called Watchmen is in a whole mess of legal trouble right now. A  federal judge has denied Warner Brothers’ motion to dismiss Fox’s lawsuit regarding the rights to distribute Watchmen. That could mean a delayed release for the movie.

A federal judge has denied a Warner Bros motion to dismiss 20th Century Fox’s legal battle over the rights to develop, produce and distribute a film based on the graphic novel Watchmen. This is huge Hollywood news because Warner Bros plans to release on March 2009 its highly anticipated big-screen version of the popular comic book written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons.

Source

Let’s hope that the movie still comes out and I hope a deal is made or something. There was one other superhero movie that was sent to limbo and was never seen again and that was The Fantastic Four movie from 1994. Course it did look horrible, but in 1994 it would have been pretty cool. Have a look at the trailer after the jump.

(more…

Speaking of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (see the recent DVD Releases), here is a few cast photos that I ran across recently. This is good news because it means the new season is pretty close to starting. Enjoy.

Ricky Gervais (The Office, Night At the Museum) stars in this one about a jerk(go figure!) who begins seeing dead people after flat lining on the operating table.  It looks pretty good!  Check out the trailer above.  The link to the official site is here, but there really isn’t much to see.  

Holy Lightning Scars! Warner Bros. has announced that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is now going to come out July 2009 instead of Nov 2008. It’s like that moment in Star wars when a planet exploded. You can just feel all the Potter People (Potterites? Pottarians?) cry out in anguish.

Commenting on the release date change for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” David Heyman, the producer of all the Harry Potter films, offered, “When Jeff Robinov explained the rationale behind moving the release date of ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ to July 2009, it was immediately apparent that this offered us the potential to reach the widest possible audience. I am extremely proud of this latest film and of the work of David Yates and our incomparable cast; I believe we have developed and pushed the series further still. We are all looking forward to sharing it with Harry Potter fans around the world, even if we have to wait just a bit longer.”

Source

So it’s not a problem with the film, but rather just a plan to get more exposure for Harry. That’s a good thing, but waiting over half a year extra sucks.

Here’s the second four of J.J Abrams’ Star Trek character posters from Comic Con. Sulu (John Cho), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and McCoy (Karl Urban).

Here’s the first four of J.J Abrams’ Star Trek character posters from Comic Con. Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Uhura (Zoë Saldana), and Nero (Eric Bana).

/Film is saying that Mike O’Hearn, American Gladiator Titan, mentioned on an Omaha radio show that he supposedly doing a “sit down” with some people over the role of Conan and possibly Captain America.

He claims that he has a meeting at 11:00am this morning to be the lead in Lionsgate’s upcoming reboot of Conan. Not only that, I heard the audio from the program and “Titan” insists that he has already passed the audition stage.

“Today’s not even an audition. They’re bringing me in today just to sit me down and talk. How about that? It’s even better than an audition

And if he doesn’t take that deal, O’Hearn has a casting session scheduled for Marvel Studios’ big screen adaptation of Captain America.

Source

So what do you think? Yay or nay?

IESB has some great quotes from Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark) about filming Iron Man 2.

“Our goals are more of the same. The idea that he said he’s Iron Man in part 1…it’s one thing to say it, and it’s another thing to actually evolve to the point where you can live in a heroic fashion. You know, they say, ‘The superhero movie always needs to follow…’ and I said who is that guy? Get him out of here! We want to do what worked for us last time, in a way that evolves.”

That kind of thinking is what made Iron Man such a hit in the first place, so I’m glad to find out that they will be following that same course for the sequel.

“We’re talking about a guy who is put in an extraordinary circumstance, and the people that are around him, and how that creates a sense of family, and how that disrupts whatever forces that we have to say that are working [in his life]. I like the idea of an Iron Man 2 that you’re able to understand various points of view. You’re able to touch on some subjects that are a lot more far reaching, while still grounding it in entertainment.”

Source

So there you have it. Some deep thoughts from Tony Stark himself.