Broken Frontier

Mark Millar’s Superman Trilogy?

In an interview with G4 TV, Mark Millar (Wanted, Civil War, The Ultimates) said he wants to write a rebooted Warner Bros.' Superman film series as a trilogy. No stranger to the iconic character, Millar previously penned Superman: Red Son (2003), an Elseworlds tale that explored what would have happened had Superman been raised in the Soviet Union.

While Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns follow-up, The Man of Steel, had reportedly been in the planning stages, Millar suggests that the studio may be looking to go in a different direction with the franchise.

“A director approached me about three months ago now. I had sort of given up on it,” Millar told G4’s Blair Butler. “[But] Superman is a huge deal to me. My friend knows this. He’s a really big director. He says that, ‘look, The Man of Steel looks like it might not be happening. If it doesn’t happen, it’s been spoken about the possibility of me coming in. Would you like to write it?’” Millar did not reveal the identity of this mystery director.

“I’ve had this plan for ten years of a big three-picture Superman thing,” he added. “Like a big Lord of the Rings epic, starting over from scratch again. A seven-hour Superman story, hopefully one year after the other. If it works out, we could start shooting next summer.”

Click here to watch the interview in its entirety.

Watchmen Goes to Court January 6

The legal battle between Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. over the rights to the film adaptation of Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen will be brought before a federal judge on January 6, Reuters reports. 

Fox claims to hold the rights to adapt Watchmen, citing a 1991 distribution agreement the studio had made with Largo Entertainment producer Larry Gordon, under which Fox “quitclaimed” distribution rights to a big-screen version of the acclaimed series-turned-graphic novel. According to Reuters, Fox later negotiated a “turnaround notice” with Gordon, which would have created a buyout formula for the studio if Gordon wanted to buy Fox’s rights. According to Reuters, Fox argues that Gordon did not follow through with his end of that deal. 

In 2006, Gordon negotiated a “quitclaim” contract with Warners, giving them distribution rights to the Zack Snyder (300) film. Fox affirms, however, that it never lost the rights, and sued Warners in February, 2008.

Warners is still set to release Watchmen on March 6, 2009.