Posted in: Movies | Tagged: Mark Millar, Superman: Red Son, Vladimir Putin

Mark Millar Says WB Wants a Superman: Red Son Director, Vladimir Putin Could Finance It

Published Sat, 30 Dec 2017 17:20:20 -0600

As previously reported by Bleeding Cool, superstar comics writer Mark Millar decided to ring in the new year by hanging out with controversial pro-Brexit socialist politician George Galloway on the Russian state-funded propaganda network, RT. Here at Bleeding Cool, we dutifully donned our tinfoil hats to protect our brains from mind control beams and watched the interview. We're pretty sure the hats worked and we weren't affected at all, though we do have a strange desire to see the means of production in the hands of workers, a strong craving for vodka, an extreme mistrust of moose and squirrels, and an irresistible urge to look at shirtless pics of Vladimir Putin, comrades.

Speaking of the glorious leader, during the interview, the subject came up of Superman: Red Son, and how President Putin could play a role in the production of a movie based on it.

"Tell me about this Soviet Superman," Galloway asked Millar. "When I first met you, it's the thing that captured my imagination."

"There's something quite exciting about it," Millar replied. "I love reversals, stories that flip something on its head. And I like something that's an icon being flipped. It's always kinda interesting to write those kinds of stories. Like James Bond, who's an aristo, making him a working-class kid, or Kick-Ass, Spider-Man, but having no superpowers. I find that quite fun. Superman, for me, is the ultimate American icon. So to flip it and make him the ultimate Soviet icon, the story writes itself."

"Could you make a film of that, Mark," Galloway asked after Millar explained the concept behind the comic.

"There's a friend of mine who's a director called Timur Bekmambetov who made Wanted," Millar answered, "the first movie that I was involved in myself, and he said to me, 'I wish you hadn't done that as a DC comic. If you'd just made it your own character, we could have done that as a movie.' But DC, unfortunately, they own the rights."

"Lately, a few director friends have said to me that Warner Bros has approached them and asked for a take on Red Son as a movie," Millar added, something he's mentioned in the past. "Russia's never been more interesting than it is at the moment. There's an international audience."

"President Putin could play Superman," Galloway suggested.

"He could fund it," Millar replied.

"Well, if he's watching," Galloway pointed out.

Everyone laughed nervously at that point, before Galloway turned the conversation toward "another Superman:" Jeremy Corbyn, a "Man of Steel for sure."

You can watch the interview below:

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