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Possibly unfortunate news for those who, like me, loved “Superman Returns”: The studio plans to reboot the “Superman” franchise, according to the Wall Street Journal (and seen on Newsarama.)

“‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to,” Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov told the Wall Street Journal. “It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned.” “Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009,” he adds.

“But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.”

Does this mean Brandon Routh is out? Bryan Singer is done? The article doesn’t make that clear, but it’s certainly a possibility.

For those who loved the Richard Donner film (films if you count II as essentially Donner), then “Superman Returns” returned to that world and wrapped those films up admirably. 

I’m a huge “Superman” fan, so I’m likely in line for whatever WB tries to do.  But you don’t have to go far to find out how much Warner’s didn’t understand the Man of Steel in the not-so-distant past.  As I said when I reviewed the excellent book “Hollywood vs. Superman”:

The abortive “Superman Reborn” of the 1990s, to have starred Nicolas Cage and been directed by Tim Burton, has fueled screenwriter Kevin Smith’s college tours for years, but Rossen finds even more dirt on the plagued production. In addition, the dozens of unusual casting ideas for various Superman projects will have even casual fans scratching their heads — Ashton Kutcher and Neil Diamond were considered as possible Men of Steel; Tim Allen came very close to becoming Lex Luthor.

These are not the ideas of people who get why Superman is important. Let’s hope the people making the decision for the next film respect and love the character as much as the creators of “Superman Returns.”

– Matt Price