Holy crap… as someone who worked in law for a number of years, I can tell you that sometimes it works in really strange ways. And this one is VERY strange… but probably correct.
The family of Superman creator, the Siegel’s, have been in a battle with Warner Bros to get back control of the Superman character. In a recent ruling Warner won the rights to the character TEMPORARILY (they have until 2011 to start production on a new movie or all bets are off), but now a NEW ruling has confused the issue even more as the Siegel’s and Warner now each own the rights to different parts of the Superman story.
The good folks over at Cinematical break it down like this:
According to Variety, the Siegels have recaptured the rights to the first two weeks of the daily Superman newspaper strips, and portions of Action Comics and Superman comics. They apparently now control all depictions of Superman’s origin story, which means they now own Krypton, its fiery destruction, Jor-El and Lora, and Kal El. In 2008, the Siegels recaptured the rights to the Superman character (which includes his costume and his alter-ego of Clark Kent), Lois Lane, the Daily Planet, its gruff editor, and their love triangle. DC still owns Jimmy Olson, his ability to fly, Lex Luthor, kryptonite, and Superman’s expanded powers and origins.
So basically, Warner has until 2011 to make another Superman movie, but they can’t mention Krypton, his parents, the daily planet or Lois Lane…. but they can still show him flying.
This is going to get interesting.
In reality, what this decision does is sort of FORCE Warner and the family to come to a settlement, because nothing can really happen under the currently circumstances.
Theve killed captain america. Now superman. Wow were a country of patriots. Never mind its all about he money. Fuck our history as a nation……….
I prety sure that kids still love very much this film.
Just send Supes to Gotham. Nuff said.
With this legal mess, I’d say forget about producing a new Superman movie. He’s not fun to watch anymore anyway.
Here is what you do. A new color of kryptonite is discovered which makes superman invisible. Jimmy is then the main character of the movie and ends up getting captured by Lex is then defeated by the invisible superman (who is never actually mentioned by name). That should stay inside their limitations.
No question.
thats the funniest thing i’ve read in a long while!!!! LMAO
Just finished watching the 4 seasons of lois and clark the new adventures of superman. havent seen them since i was a kid…. FANTASTIC! So cheesy and the visual effects…brilliantly bad :) there’s something about seeing the cables holding up superman :) :) but now i’m kind of sad as it looks like i’ll be waiting a while to see anything new of superman. suppose i’ll give smallville a go.
i highly reccommend lois and clark though
Also,i have to wonder how this will affect Smallville. I hope ir kills it. That show has been going on for too long now
Probably.
Maybe I never saw enough of the show, but it always seemed really cheezy and unbelievable to me. Maybe I haven’t seen enough of the characters. In a show, characters are everything.
I really don’t care as long as they make a good Superman movie, something they have yet to do. Everytime they get WAAAAY too interested in Lois Lane, nobody cares. She needs to stay quietly on the sidelines like Batman’s Alfred, she doesn’t need to be the focal point of the story. Same goes for Lex Luthor, he needs to be a thorn in Superman’s side, not his archrival. He’s a human, he can’t ever convincingly pose a threat.
If they ever make another superman movie, it better have SUPER villains. But not Zod, that’s been done before.
Wow, this shit is crazy, it’s like they just ripped the character into tiny little pieces. So does this effect the comic books as well? Who the hell owns the rights to his super strength or is that included in “Superman’s expanded powers”?
I’m not a huge fan of Sups, but he is a timeless character, means allot to allot of people all around the world, both young and old, and should continue on matter who wants how much money and control.
WB/DC should just let the Siegel’s have all the rights and pay them to use them. But hopefully the Siegel’s wont be too greedy and not deprive the world of this beloved character.
Bring on the Superman/Jimmy Olson Buddy Comedy Movie.
LOL! Yes, Jackie Chan as Superman and Owen Wilson as Jimmy Olson, HA!
Just kidding…
Well, so song as Kan didn’t say Chris Tucker as Jimmy Olsen…
I wonder if this will have an impact on Smallville’s next season if they don’t make an agreement before September.
Not much of an impact; they still pay royalties under the agreement (and) it is Smallville’s last season.
Warner Bros should make Kingdom Come into a movie. No origin of Superman there, Lois is gone and the worlds a shitbasket.
I don’t know the law (and don’t really care all that much about it) but Warners should do the right thing morally and give the Shusters and the Siegels an annual paycheck for being able to use their intellectual work of art. With the money Warner have made off the character over the years, the family deserves something, and not to be needing to go to court over it all. If it keeps going this way, soon I may get to buy a part of Supermans story on eBay, and then we’ll all be fucked, because there’s no way I’ll let them make a film about Superman using heat vision.
Still, I’d expect nothing less than this garbage coming from a litigous country like the US.
That’s what I keep saying. The one real problem is that there are so many characters to introduce and become familiar with.
The other issue would be that, unless you’re a comic book fan, you could care less about Kingdom Come. WB wants to make a movie with universal appeal, so they can make the most money – and if they make a dystopian DC movie that’s dark and needs to be an R rated epic, they’ll lose the kids as an audience, and possibly their parents too.
WB learned their lesson with Watchmen – a great film, a great comic film, but it made very little money in comparison to “family” comic films, like Spider-Man and Iron Man. (Dark Knight is an exception to this rule, of course.)
I’m not sure, but I don’t think WB thought of Watchmen in that way. I’m pretty sure they knew it wouldn’t make as much as Dark Knight did.
But it was a ground breaking comic book story that deserved it’s own live action movie treatment just as much as any other comic book film.
Kingdom Come needs to be rated R? Which comic book were you reading?
Didn’t you see the alternate version where the Spectre is dressed as a clown and that old dude narratinge the thing is actually Stan Lee in disguise, trying to destroy DC?
The problem with a “Supey returns” sequel now is that they can’t “mention” Lois Lane, which means the kid either ceases to exist (hey, I heard some cheering applause somewhere….must be hearing things…) or cannot speak mommy’s name anymore. The kid goes mute.
They cannot talk about The Daily Planet. They can have Jimmy Olsen show up. Guess he got laid off in the economy downsizing…as does Clark Kent. Both hate the situation so much they refuse to speak the name of the previous employer.
No mention of Krypton, but where does Kryptonite come from?
No ma and pa kent. Well, dad was dead anyway.
*******************
Seeler to the rescue…er….well, not really, because I’m not the fool writing it, but still, let’s give it a shot.
Let’s take on one at a time. I’ll start with The Daily Planet, then Lois, then possible bad guys… All at the same time. And this is not kid-friendly. Sit down, sip a soda, here it is:
Instead of the “Planet” Clark Kent (and perhaps even Jimmy Olsen) now works for WGBS-TV. Morgan Edge also replaces Perry White.
This action also replaces Lois Lane with Lana Lang.
Morgan Edge, however, it turns out, is an alien clone from a planet called Apokolips, ruled by Darksied, and on Earth, the fake Edge is partnered up with Intergang. So, in they very least, we have a setup for Darkseid.
We don’t need to be reminded of Krypton or the Kent family; that history would be a given.
Superman could also find that, due to contact with some of Intergang’s weapons, they “Byrne” him. As in John Byrne Crisis Infinitive Earths where Supes starts growing facial hair, and his powers drop down a bit.
I suppose it’s possible to also make an Alternate Earth (and thus get yer reboot) but other than the above, there’s only one other possible. It’s wild and it is wacky. Wanna hear it? Sure you doo…but no, you don’t…
JLA movie
WHAT! ! !
Damn right.
A JLA film featuring Supes eliminates: Lois Lane/ The Kid, The Daily Planet, mentions of origins, other characters will show *thier* powers so Supey doesn’t have to do it all, and…
HEY!!
Don’t shoot the messenger!
It’s perfectly acceptable to shoot the messenger when the messenger is the one who created the message.
This would include a new suit too right LOL, Superman flying around in his Batman Underoo’s.
red supeyman/blue supeyman?
Do the Siegel’s want to take Superman to another studio? Or is it the issue of licensing?
so does Joe Shuser’s family get the Ultimate shaft with owning no Superman rights whatsoever?
they can’t mention Krypton and the other unless the pay the Siegel’s?
So basically if they want to make a new Superman they have to set in the future where DP and Lois Lane is long gone
Wait- this is really fucking good!
John, you do relize that now the next movie wont have Lois and the same stupid stupid Krypton talk (everyone KNOWS hes from Krypton! stop mentioning it in movies!)
The daiy planet is redundant and so are his parents, the last 5 superman movies have been 90% about AL of this boring shit weve been through 20 times
This is gret news, too bad they didnt also take Lex, im tired of him.
Now- can they still use villains like Darkseid, Metalloh, Mogul and Doomsday?
Amen.
“So basically, Warner has until 2011 to make another Superman movie, but they can’t mention Krypton, his parents, the daily planet or Lois Lane…. but they can still show him flying.”
Thats ALL we need to see, Superman flying and beating the fuck out of bad guys, its a superman movie, not Shindlers List. If you all wanted a superman movie that emotionally dug deep into clark kents personal feelings, watch the last 5 movies. In the next one i want 2 hours of FIGHTING. I mean, its a fucking Superman movie
Yeah, what Hazmat said.
James,
Yes, yes, and yes. Been there, done that a million times. Now let’s move on with new characters, threats, and stories!!!
Leave Lois and yes, even leave Lex.
Lex in my honest opinion serves no threat to Superman. In the comics yes, in the movies (so far) yes.
But if superman was fucking real, Lex wouldnt have a PRAYER!!!!!!!!!
If Superman can fly around the world in 4 seconds then that means he can fly around the world 24 times and on the way- he can blast through Lex’s body 78 times leaving nothing but dust and some organs that didnt burn to ash. Theres no fucking TIME to “think about a genius plan involving the very convenient krypton” no- bullshit.
Lex is totall garbage. I want him fighting Darkseid or something…you know…someone whos lame plan isnt kryptonite
“Lex didnt you use kryptonite last time?”
“But this time..ill use a MOUNTAIN of kryptonite!!!”
For fucks sake.
pay the siegels and schusters to use lois and the planet and then give me a Superman Returns sequel! Woo Hoo!
I’m sorry Derek but I’d pay money NOT to see a sequel of “Returns”. It was slow and boring and
had a baby in it. Watching Supes stalk Lois with
his super vision was pathetic.
Go back to mega battles like Doomsday or something.
Thats why you have Doomsday or Lex or somebody kill Supes kid off in th first 5 minutes of the movie and then we get a sweet movie where Superman is pissed off and full of blood thirsty rage and out for revenge. It’s something that needs to happen to the boyscout to give him some much needed depth!
Yes, I’d watch that movie. If they had the guts to film it…
I am not looking for dark just for the sake of dark. I like dark movies and upbeat movies.
But I 100% agree. I have no ill will toward children but that would take Superman in a direction that he has never been and would give us a real reason to seem deeper into his character.