Now, you know that we valiant types at Empire never stoop to reporting gossip and hearsay as cold, hard movie fact – especially when the source for said gossip and hearsay is as spurious as ‘I bumped into a top film bod at a premiere, no really, and he told me this about his new movie, no honestly, he did!’
However, when the movie in question is Bryan Singer’s Superman: The Man Of Steel, we thought we’d make an exception every now and again. So here goes: Comingsoon.netare reporting that a user of the The Planet Forum over at Superman Supersite, bluetights.net, bumped into Man Of Steel co-scribe, Michael Dougherty at the US Capitol building and, instead of leaving him alone, hit him with a barrage of questions.
First up was: is Dougherty, whose directorial debut, Trick’r’Treat (think Pulp Fiction for horror fans) is coming out later this year, co-writing the film with Singer and Dan Harris? “He confirmed that he is writing it with the two just like the last picture,” wrote the poster, codenamed ‘Brain’.
Secondly: is The Man Of Steel still on track for 2009, what with Singer being slightly busy on Rubicon (aka Valkyrie)? “The goal is still to have the movie out in the Summer of 2009. He seemed a little hesitant about it but did his best to try and reassure that it will get done by then,” added Brain.
And now for the biggie. “I asked if he could give any more info on the film,” continued our intrepid Brain, like a dog with a bone. “He responded, "There are TWO villains," and he smiled.”
Well, folks, if that didn’t blow your mind into the outer reaches of our solar system, with its yellow sun, then we don’t know what will, quite frankly.
Only kidding – in case you’re as sceptical as we were, check out the thread over at Bluetights where Brain talks about his encounter with Dougherty. Sadly, his comments and a photo have been removed by the author due to ‘excessive negativity’, but the thread itself is still quite a laugh. And it does at least point us towards a possible plot direction for Singer’s Superman Returns sequel.
It’s been known for a few weeks now that Kevin Spacey would be reprising his role as Lex Luthor (last seen stranded on a desert island with no sunscreen), alongside Brandon Routh’s Superman. And a second villain has been strongly rumoured – and this would seem to confirm it. But who could it be? Singer’s love for the Donnerverse of the original Superman movies had led to talk of a return for General Zod, the megalomaniacal Kryptonian, but that seems unlikely. Instead, we’d lay money on Brainiac, the bio-mechanical alien computer smarty pants who was the main bad guy in Kevin Smith’s Superman Lives script.
Of course, official confirmation is still some way away, but thanks to the intrepid Brain and the loose tongue of Mike Dougherty, let the idle speculation intensify!