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Mark Millar, Superman Movies And Stuff

Mark Millar likes Superman. I think we all know that. He grew up thinking Superman was real, but had been killed off. He dressed up as Superman repeatedly as a small child – and now owns the Superman cape from the movies. He grew up to write a number of Superman comics, included his acclaimed run on Superman Adventures and the soon-to-be-animated Superman: Red Son. But for a while it's been clear. he wanted to write a Superman movie.

On September 2nd 2004, Harry Knowles accepted Mark Millar's bet that Jim Caviezel was to play Superman in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns. Millar lost the $1000 bet, but firmly established his name linked with reportage on the property.

October 22nd, 2007, with news that new writers were being sought for the sequel to Superman Returns, Mark Millar posted;

It's 8.58am right now, my guys at CAA get into the office in about seven hours and my call will be waiting for them to talk about this. I want to revamp Superman like Hillary wants thin ankles. Revamping this franchise is what I as given fingers for and so, invited or not, I'm putting my plan together now. I've been asked to work on half a dozen screenplays lately, but this is the only one I have ever truly wanted.

As most here know, I have literally hundreds of pages of notes and sketches just waiting for this opportunity. This would be my dream gig and, as a fan, I know exactly what this project needs to work. This has to be Superman for the 21st Century, keeping everything we adore, but starting from scratch and making the kids love it as much as the 30-somethings. I would honestly write this thing for free.

Anyway, my treatment is being polished as we type. Wish me luck. I want to do that Superman movie we all want to see.

Days later, it was not to be;

Anyway, my agent is a big beast at CAA and can set up meetings with anyone. I'm always amazed by this because, like all comic guys, I do this job in a converted attic at home on a rainy rock some miles from mainland Europe and about as far from Hollywood as you can get. But my agent got my call around 4pm my time on Tuesday and within hours we were talking on the phone to some very nice exec at Warner Bros who said that several producers and director friends had already been in touch to push me for the gig because they knew how passionate I was about this project. And for about fifteen minutes things were looking very sweet. I had a massive three-picture epic in mind, cribbed from notes I've been putting together for the last five years for a Superman comic-book revamp and the people I spoke to absolutely loved it. Everyone said this was very, very exciting, but…

Well, sadly, I'm a Marvel guy and we were surprised to find out that WB couldn't hire me for a DC property. They were incredibly nice and superbly apologetic about it, but when they discussed the matter seriously DC explained just how associated I am with Marvel Comics at the moment and it's against company policy to hire the competition. It's absolutely nothing personal. I spoke to some friends at DC and they explained this has happened with a couple of big Marvel writers in the last couple of years and I absolutely respect that. It's a business after all and to have a guy writing Fantastic Four, 1985, Kick-Ass and another super-big project for Steve McNiven this year which would be mentioned in every article about a Superman movie is not only an insult to their own writers, but makes bad business sense. I have nothing but respect for the DC high-ups and, though obviously disappointed, can absolutely appreciate their position. They're the custodians of these properties and they obviously know what they're doing.

So no Millar-penned Superman movie at this stage, I'm afraid. That situation may change, of course. As a Warner chum said to me last night, the last Superman movie had a number of starts and stops and who knows what will happen over the next couple of years, especially after my Marvel contract expires. In the meantime, I'm keeping my 200 pages of notes and sketches on a slow boil, just in case. As for the next movie, I wish whoever does land this gig nothing but the best of luck. I wanted to bring my vision to the screen out of nothing but pure love and hope to be as thrilled as everyone else. They're talking to a couple of guys with a better screen-writing track record and, like the rest of you, I'll keep my fingers crossed that this sequel to Bryan's first picture all works out great.

Thanks again for all the support and backing for my involvement in this project. It stunned me that the WB people had seen this and it absolutely factored in how quickly all those doors opened for me.

So that was the end for now… or was it? Nine months later, on July 1st 2008, Millar was reported as saying;

Since I was a kid I've always wanted to reinvent Superman for the 21st century. I've been planning this my entire life. I've got my director and producer set up, and it'll be 2011. This is how far ahead you have to think. The Superman brand is toxic after that last movie lost $200million, but in 2011 we're hoping to restart it. Sadly I can't say who the director is, but we may make it official by Christmas. But fingers crossed it could work out, that would be my lifetime's dream.

Elaborating on Millarworld;

In the interests of clarity (because I'm sure this will be picked up somewhere) a very well known American action director heard about my love of Superman, approached my and asked me to team up with he and his producer to make a pitch for this. We've been talking for several weeks now and, if this is going to happen, we'll know by Christmas. He has huge pull at WB so fingers crossed. But this is nothing more than a huge US name pulling me into his fold and making me part of a package.

But which director? Bypassing Warner's concerns about Millar's Marvelness? Was it back on? He soon continued;

The 'director' phoned me about a month ago, and said 'Look, I've got absolutely no authorisation from Warner Brothers, because Warners aren't looking in particular, but I want to have all my soldiers lined up, just in case." He said "I want to do a complete reboot of the Superman franchise". He said "I know you've got a huge passion for it and the buzz on Wanted is great". I think it was the week before Wanted opened. He said "I'd just like you to be a part of it. I think there'd be a really good fan reaction, because people have said they'd like to see what you'd do with it. And I'd just like you to be part of the team. Are you interested?".

[laughs] It took me a nanosecond to say 'yes'. I've had the plot for an amazing Superman trilogy figured out since I was about ten, so I told him that and he loved it. When we were in the states, we met up – he's an American director, and he's a big, big deal in terms of action movies and so on. But in terms of courtesy, you have to wait and see if Bryan [Singer] is going to do any more. You can't just go in there and nick a project off a guy. If Bryan ends up standing back and goes to move on and do something else, we'll be in there like a shot.

And on G4 in September;

"I've had this plan for like 10 years for a big three-picture Superman thing, like a Lord of the Rings epic, starting over from scratch again with a seven-hour Superman story. One to be released each year." [Mark] Millar said.

Millar says there's nothing firm yet, but he hopes to get word over the next few weeks. If everything goes perfectly, they'll be shooting next summer.

At the end of October he talked to Empire;

Mark has been working closely with a 'big-Hollywood action director' – who he refuses to name at this stage – on a pitch for what he is calling the Magnum Opus of Superman stories. His idea is for an 8-hour saga, split into 3 films to be released a year apart, in a Lord of the Rings fashion. Although several other sources have reported similar conversations with Mark, he went into further detail, fleshing out the story arc a little more.

"It's gonna be like Michael Corleone in the Godfather films, the entire story from beginning to end, you see where he starts, how he becomes who he becomes, and where that takes him. The Dark Knight showed you can take a comic book property and make a serious film, and I think the studios are ready to listen to bigger ideas now."

"The problem with Superman Returns was like releasing Star Wars in '77, The Empire Strikes Back in '80 and then waiting 28 years to release Return of the Jedi, it wasn't relevant. I understand what Bryan Singer was trying to do, to pay homage to Richard Donner's original vision, but I think you should pay homage by doing something completely different."

"I want to start on Krypton, a thousand years ago, and end with Superman alone on Planet Earth, the last being left on the planet, as the yellow sun turns red and starts to supernova, and he loses his powers."

Then… nothing. In March last year, Mark revisited saying;

Warner's talked to us and a few other writer/ director teams, but things seem to be in stasis right now. As far as I understand, nothing is happening with Superman at the moment and so the director and I are just working on another project. If it happens, great. If it doesn't, no biggie. Kick-Ass taught me that creating your own stuff can be at least as much fun and you don't have to answer to anyone. It's the future, baby

By September 2009, Mark was pulling back further and naming the American action director as… um… London born-and-based director Matthew Vaughn, his collaborator on Kick-Ass.

Nobody has ever seen my Superman idea besides Matthew. We never pitched. I've never done a pitch in my life (it's demeaning) so all this stuff about people hating my Superman ideas, etc, is just bullsh*t. Nobody's seen it. I don't write or give ideas away for free and simply wouldn't. I mentioned a big epic idea to Empire in a Wanted interview which was a couple of lines long, but no story stuff at all. So the stuff about me pitching is nonsense. I don't and will never pitch. That's why I like working in comics.

And now Latino Review quote a source saying

Conoces como Mark Millar walks around acting like he was going to write it? El Taco discovered that this was always BULLSHIT. Paul Levitz hated the guy and he was never even discussed to write it. He made all that "almost" stuff up.

To Millar's response;

I've said on record that WB had direct and serious talks with Vaughn and Vaughn was only doing it if we did it together. This didn't work out and we're doing something else, but the notion that it's fiction is insane. I can say on record that Vaughn had meetings with them about our ideas over a year ago.

Which is consistent with what Millar has said previously  – if you manage to ignore Matthew Vaughn not being American, consider Stardust an "American action film" and see a few overblown claims as… well… just that. Puffed up a bit, but nothing more.

And now Latino Review's source has been dismissed further, with even the central aspect that David Goyer is definitely writing Man Of Steel now possibly scotched. As it were.

But with Kick-Ass tracking rather well, getting all sorts of positive advance notices and more projects coming thick and fast, exactly what would Mark Millar want with Superman now? Apart from the score for the beginning of Kick-Ass that is…

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