Mark Millar Talks Superman

Mark Millar (writer of the comic Wanted, among others) has been talking for a while now about how he wants to take over the Superman franchise at Warner Brothers when they get around to resurrecting those movies.

Some more details about his storyline came out today when he spoke to Empire Magazine. Millar wants an eight-hour epic, told over three films released a year apart from each other. The story would follow Kal-El's birth on Krypton a thousand years ago and "end with Superman alone on Planet Earth, the last being left on the planet, as they yellow sun turns red and starts to supernova, and he loses his powers."

Epic indeed. In semi-related news, Christopher Nolan has returned from his post-Bat vacation and has said that if they can get the story right, then he's down for a third Batman movie. Otherwise, he's a no-go. Some Warner Bros. exec has said that they won't make a decision on Superman's release date until they figure out what's going on with Batman, so needless to say - get the freakin' story right and let's get this show on the road.

Preacher is Coming To The Big Screen!

I never thought I would see this day. Preacher, the comic series that I've been hyping for a year since I read it, is finally getting it's long-discussed movie adaptation. Sam Mendes will be directing, and they don't have a writer yet.

Mendes is...an interesting choice. He directed one of my favorite movies, American Beauty, and is responsible for the upcoming DiCaprio-Winslet reuniting Revolutionary Road. Why Columbia Pictures would think that he is the man for the job remains unseen, but he must have blown them away at the pitch meeting for them to finally get this project off the ground.

Kevin Smith was once attached to a movie version, and then Robert Rodriguez and Mark Steven Johnson were in talks to direct the movie for HBO. Man, I really hope this doesn't suck. I still recommend that everyone check out the comic version before this hits theaters.

Alan Rickman? Really?

This one can still be classified as rumor, but I hear that Alan Rickman (of Die Hard and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves fame) is in talks to play the role of The Caterpillar in Burton's upcoming 3D Alice in Wonderland.

Since this is a 3D thing and there's probably going to be some motion capture involved, it'll be interesting to see how much of that technique they use and how much of the actors' real performances they keep. As far as my opinion goes, Rickman would be a fine Caterpillar. But then, so would Jack Black.

More Alice in Wonderland Updates

Christopher Lee (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars prequels) and Danny Elfman have joined the cast and crew for Tim Burton's 3D adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

Lee's role has not been determined, but I'll let you know as soon as that information becomes available. Elfman has done music with Burton before (Big Fish, Edward Scissorhands, Batman, etc) and Lee has worked with him on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (among others), so the addition of these two continues the trend of Burton working with a tight unit (that's what she said).

This Doesn't Surprise Me

One of the strangest men alive has joined the cast of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

Crispin Glover (The Epic: Quest for Schneider, Back to the Future, Willard) has signed to play the Knave of Hearts. It's been a while since I've seen the animated version of AIW, so I don't specifically remember this character. Evidently, he steals the queen's tarts and is put on trial with Alice defending him.

The world is one step closer to harmony now that Burton and Glover are working together - I'm shocked their careers haven't crossed paths up until this point.

Cleopatra Rock Musical - in 3D

I never thought I'd be saying this, but Steven Soderbergh has just been signed to direct a rock 'n roll musical about Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.

Soderbergh has directed some great stuff in the past (Solaris, Ocean's 11, etc), but this project sounds a little out of his league. I'm not saying that he can't pull it off, but it definitely caught me by surprise that he was the one chosen for this. Oh yeah - the budget is $30 million and it's starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Hugh Jackman as Cleopatra and Marc Antony, respectively.

With the talent assembled here (great casting on Zeta-Jones), I'm going to call myself a fan of this project until I see something that sways me in the opposite direction. It'll be a while before this gets into production (Soderbergh has two more movies lined up before he shoots this one), but I'll keep you updated.

No More Terrence Howard

Don Cheadle will be replacing Terrence Howard as James "Rhodey" Rhodes in the upcoming Iron Man 2.

This news certainly comes as a shock to me, since I was pretty sure the Big Three (Downey, Paltrow, Howard) were signed as a unit to the sequel. Apparently there were monetary differences (among others) that drove Howard away from the movie.

I guess if there was any actor to replace him, it would be Don Cheadle (or perhaps Chiwetel Ejiofor). Those guys are always solid, so we shouldn't be expecting the worst here.

Holy Balls, I Just Realized This

All right. Brummitt and I were just talking about the news of Johnny Depp possibly making $75 million dollars for Pirates 4, and I didn't fully understand the gravity of that statement until we started talking about the numbers broken down in terms we can wrap our heads around. So for those of you who don't quite get it yet, let's take a look at what this would mean.

The average filming time for a standard Hollywood movie is three months. Let's say that Mr. Depp works every single day of those three months, for nine hours a day (which is highballing it, in all honesty. There's no way he would work nine hours straight for 90 straight days). But giving him the benefit of the doubt, here's the breakdown.

• For a three month shoot, Depp would be making an astonishing $833,333 dollars PER DAY.

• This translates to $95,593 dollars PER HOUR. Keep in mind, in 2007 the median American family was making approximately $50,000 dollars PER YEAR. In one hour, he's nearly doubled their yearly income.

• If this deal is legitimate, it would mean Depp would be banking $1,543 dollars PER MINUTE.

• Sickeningly, this breaks down into a mind-blowing $25 dollars PER SECOND. Within a mere 8 seconds, Johnny Depp will have made what the average American pulls down in a single day. Un-freaking-believable.
  

Roundup 10/9

Seems that casting rumors have been all the rage in the past week around the internets, so let's get to it.

• Kicking things off, we've got the possibility of Russell Brand (the hilarious Aldous Snow from Forgetting Sarah Marshall) playing Captain Jack Sparrow's brother in the recently-confirmed Pirates 4. Also in talks for the role is Borat himself, Sacha Baron Cohen. Tim Burton is rumored to be replacing series director Gore Verbinski, but Timmy's obviously got to finish Alice in Wonderland first (if it's even true that he's interested). In related news, Johnny Depp is said to be banking a record-breaking $75 million dollars for his role in the upcoming sequel. That's 75 million for ONE GUY. Incredible.
  

• Josh Brolin, recently thought to be the next Terminator in next summer's flick, has now switched genres and has reportedly signed to play western anti-hero Jonah Hex in the production directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor - the guys who wrote and directed Crank. Thomas Jane was considered, but eventually turned down by the directing duo; we'll see if Brolin actually gets confirmed here in the next couple of weeks. I wouldn't mind seeing him as Hex. He's got the gruff aspect down pretty well.

• Surprisingly, Warner Brothers wants Ryan Gosling to play Hal Jordan in the upcoming superhero blockbuster of Green Lantern. I guess they figure with all the talent they assembled with The Dark Knight, they might as well keep going for Oscar nominated actors for their superhero movies. It's seemed to work for them so far, and I know next to nothing about the Green Lantern, but Gosling is OK in my book and I'd be down for him to have a huge summer in a couple years like Robert Downey Jr. did this year.

• DC Comics President told Latino Review that they had meetings with Brandon Routh about the future of the Superman franchise and are still interested in him playing the character. He also said they are waiting on Chris Nolan to sign for the a third Batman film before they figure out the release date of the tentatively-titled Man of Steel.

That's enough of the rumors. Let's get to some confirmations.

• My girl Anne Hathaway (get off me, Branz - I saw her first) has signed to play the White Queen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Helena Bonham Carter has been signed to play the Red Queen. While HBC seems right at home, Annie seems a little out of place here. Let's see if she can hang with the big dogs or if she'll be relegated to Get Smart 2 (which has coincidentally just been greenlit).

• Jamie Foxx (who, on a personal level, I absolutely despise but was phenomenal in Collateral) has joined Frank Darabont's Law Abiding Citizen, an awesome-sounding movie co-starring Gerard Butler. The plot follows a criminal mastermind (Foxx) who controls the city from inside his prison cell, while the assistant D.A. (Butler) stands in his way. It's being co-written by Darabont (director of The Shawshank Redemption) and Equilibrium writer Kurt Wimmer.

That's all for now. I'll have more for you soon, I'm sure. In the meantime, check out the ever-increasing post frequency over at The Solar Sentinel.

Under Siege 3 - With Aliens?

Steven Seagal, taking a break after his fantastic performance in The Onion Movie*, told MTV that there's a definite possibility of an Under Siege 3 - a film that could bring him back to theaters after years of wallowing in the direct-to-DVD market.

"I personally want it to be something more modern...in other words, I wouldn't mind if it was about something more mystical or maybe extraterrestrial in nature."

So what does that mean? Casey Rybeck is now the head chef for a space station that gets hijacked? If that's the case, I'm absolutely down.

*Here's one of the better parts of The Onion Movie, which was pretty funny and I'd recommend you checking out if you haven't yet.