Superman flies again . . . but can even he save Hollywood?

The Times ^ | May 6, 2006 | Chris Ayres

[MadIvan]

Not looking good...for Hollywood that is, film otherwise will thrive.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[AnotherUnixGeek]

WHAT can save Hollywood from another summer of dire sequels and box office catastrophes?

Decent scripts, decent direction, and decent acting. Good luck finding any of that in Mission Impossible:3 and the other explosion laden dreck out there. The best movie of the summer is likely to be one that features no live actors - Pixar's animated feature "Cars".

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***and 28 years since the the first Superman film,***???

The first Superman film was made in the 1940's and in the 1950's George Reeves made one about little men from inside the earth.

[weegee]

ANOTHER REMAKE.

Yawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn.

We know the origin of Superman. It isn't that great a story. You want to tell a Superman story, tell a story about this guy. But not THAT story again.

[weegee]

Wasn't that a feature edited down from the adventure serials?

The Fleischer Bros. cartoons from the WWII era did a good job of capturing the look and feel of the Sigel and Schuster comic books.

[Darkwolf377]

This is the monthly "Can Hollywood be saved?" story. The exagerrations in this piece--driving a car through a theater and not hitting anybody, i.e. nobody going to the movies--is such bunk. They make it sound like the Hollywood economy is in the toilet.

It's not making as many megabucks as before, but it comes and goes, and always has since TV came along.

This movie won't "save" Hollywood anymore than the last movie to "Save Hollywood" did, be it Star Wars, King Kong, The Passion, etc. etc.

I won't see this movie because Superman, simply put, is boring; the movies I saw about him were boring, Superman 1 being one of the great schizo movies ever: epic and beautiful up to the point where Reeves shows up, then dominated by boring TV show characters and a silly villain. Also, it's directed by Bryan Singer, whose X-Men movies are among the most overrated genre exercises in years.

I'm looking forward to Mission Impossible 3, which I've heard from people who've seen it has a good story and characters; The Fountain, because it is genuinely weird; and X-Men 3, because I read the comics as a kid and need SOMEthing big and epic-looking.

The problem with Hollywood is not with the direction or acting, which are both fine generally, or with the craftsmen and women, who are at their most polished. It's with the producers, who are back in the driver's seat with more power than ever, their roles more like those of television producers rather than just financial officers; the writers, who go along with the dictates of these people because they get paid buckets of cash to write crap and that's what they deliver, polished crap with snappy comebacks and little character interest; and yes, the audience, which keeps this crap at the top of the box office.

I get bored with people bitching about Hollywood because if we didn't pay to see this stuff, they wouldn't make it.

[jwh_Denver]

Poseidon

They're chiseling at the bottom of the barrel.

Superman 43?

[Centurion2000]

That, at least, is the hope in Hollywood, which collected only $3.6 billion (£2 billion) from American moviegoers last summer, its worst performance since 2001. Yet with summer releases accounting for up to 40 per cent of annual sales Hollywood is desperate for a caped hero to save the day.

Stop putting out liberal, pudding-eating gay cowboy movies and start with some fresh APOLITICAL or conservative ideas and you will get record crowds.

[peggybac]

I'm tired of remakes and wish the high paid writers and studio heads could actually be creative instead of constantly remaking old flicks. That said, I adore Brandon Routh and hope the film succeeds for his sake.

[Centurion2000]

I can think of at least 3-4 book series that would make awesome fodder for movies.

Posleen Wars Series : John Ringo
1632 series : Eric Flint
Honor Harrington series : David Weber
Term Limits : Vince Flynn
The Bear and the Dragon / Executive Orders : Tom Clancy
Civil War series How Few Remain : Harry Turtledove

There are PLENTY of new ideas and plots that can come to the screen without many problems.

[Paleo Conservative]

Is Hollywood even worth saving?

[jwh_Denver]

"Maybe if Hollyweird started trying to create ORIGINAL ideas instead of remakes of great moves and crappy tv shows"

I agree with both you guys. Remakes just plain suck. Heck, if they wanted a good movie just grab the writers of "24".

[staytrue]

Superman Returns is expected to cost north of a quarter of a billion dollars. ...which has taken ten years and multiple writers to make

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it is the biggest box office bomb ever.

[staytrue]

I think the tv show "smallville" is actually pretty good.

[The Foolkiller]

Lex Luthor, the semi-comic villain, will be played by Kevin Spacey

---

Dear God. They're going to do it AGAIN. When will Hollywood learn that Lex Luthor is NOT a stand-up comedian? That was what REALLY turned me off about the Chris Reeves movies. The only one worth a damn was the second one, which Zod's character saved, because it was played straight. Believe I'll avoid this one like the plague.

[Rastus]

The new trailer for this actually came out a couple of days ago:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/supermanreturns/hd/

I think it's pretty terrible myself. After Michael Rosenbaum played Lex Luthor as a real human being, this Gene Hackmanesque parody is tough to take.

[Rastus]

Wait until you see the trailer. Spacey really sucks the life out of it.