A vision for how they should have adapted DC Comics heroes in the 2000

[Airwings]

A VISION FOR HOW THEY SHOULD HAVE ADAPTED DC COMICS HEROES IN THE 2000s

I have had this idea for a few years now. Hope this post can stay to become a thread of its own and doesn't get deleted. If so, I have to repost it in another thread

As we know, Marvel got several of their heroes adapted for the big screen. First separately, then MCU started.
But what if the same could have been done with the DC Comics heroes?
And they being done first, because the DC comics heroes have been around for longer (in comic books).

You can present your own visions here if you want to.
Well, there are some rules actually:

*No links to older Superman/Batman films. None of these actors should continue. Cut the ties! Start something new, fresh! Even if the same characters are to be adapted again.

*This is not about altering the existing DCU, changing those films we got, releasing them in another order, but keeping DCU actors. There is another thread for that, about reconstructing DCU.
This is about starting something totally different.
But you can base your vision of SR or Nolan if you feel like it. That's allowed because they were 2000s films with a new cast

I'll go back 21 years myself, to the very first year of the millennia, before neither MCU or the actual DCU even started.
I have to point out again in case you missed it, this is NOT another take on DCU that started with MOS.
I decided to make something completely different.

In my vision, the 1990s with its string of films still happened but then it changed. At the turn of the century, right after Schumacher destroyed Batman with the nipples and the camp. That’s when my vision started to take place, the different live action adaptions of DC characters.
With such major improvements in special effects over the previous decade (90s had T2, Jurassic Park, Titanic, Matrix), the time had come to the DC Comics. We were ready for it. There were no valid excuse to not be adapting them.

DC Comics is not only the big heavy hitters Bats and Supes. No, this go further. Much further.

I decided to take away several existing films. That’s a price I have to pay.

X-Men and Raimi's Spider-Man get ditched. The same with Nolanverse and MCU. Doesn't it sound terrible?

Well, if I never got to see them, if these films never happened, I wouldn’t know what I missed out on. That's a fact, because I wouldn't know about those films. Not a single person in the world would know about them. I have to comfort myself with that.

LOTR can still happen. It’s too good to be taken away. And that trilogy will affect my visions for the upcoming stuff, in fact. That’s why I keep it.
But no X-Men, no Spider-Man, no Batman trilogy (that includes Ledger's Joker) and most important, no MCU at all.
The first decade of 2000s belongs to DC heroes. Maybe, just maybe, it goes on for longer than that

The heroes are not working together. Each of them is separate. This is not a shared universe, like MCU/DCU. If teams eventually happen later on, the dynamics between the characters would be more interesting if each of them have been given an distinct style and a world of their own to fight crimes in.

But let’s see what happens further down the road.

Have a good ride! Hope you will like it!

I'll post the first film in a while, if this thread is allowed to remain.

 

[Airwings]

“This is why Superman works alone”

Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin (1997) is a real letdown when it comes to superhero films.
After the big flop, Warner Brothers decide to sell the rights to all DC characters except Superman and Batman.
The "Superman works alone" line got stuck in Tom Cruise’s head. He got obsessed with the idea of a new Superman film. It’s been ten years since the last one so it could be time for another attempt.

He heard talks about Tim Burton, or possible Kevin Smith, being involved with a Superman project. It went back and forth, and there was some confusion with who's gonna do it.
He only knew he wanted to get there first.

With the recent success of Jerry Maguire and him just signing on for a Stanley Kubrick project, his words might mean something in Hollywood. He’s also in early pre-production stages of a second Mission: Impossible. He’s a star! He’s Tom Cruise!
He might get a Superman film to happen.

Cruise made sure to get his hands at the rights to the scripts floating around. He looked through them.
It had some untraditional ideas for the character. He scrapped most of it, but kept a few things:

*Clark's relationship with Lois, is it only friendly or might there be love?
*Superman dealing with a little self-doubt, he's already been a hero for several years.
*He hasn't found out he's from Krypton yet, but he will

These were interesting thing to explore.

He also liked one of the possible titles: Superman Reborn
This was pointing to a new franchise for the character.

He contacted Warner Brothers and said he's planning to make a Superman film, he will he in charge for delivering a script to them, hoping the studio would be on. WB were happy they could finally get Superman off the ground again.

Cruise hired some writers to develop his ideas. He went with some guys who's been involved in older sfi fi films and TV shows. He wanted a little old feel to his Superman. "Classic sci fi" as he described it.
What the writers later delievered didn't live up to his expectations.
In talks with the studio, both parties agreed to find new writers. The ones chosen had as a collective a bit more experience with blockbusters. These could also talk Cruise out of some weird ideas, like Superman encountering Santa Claus.
Yes, that would be ridiculous.
But it could have been possible in some sense as the story takes place around christmas and the film was out in December. Just not working for a Superman film though

But who should direct? It needs to be a guy with a name. Someone with experience in film-making. Not just anybody.

Cruise thought for a while about this.
He called his Maguire director Cameron Crowe because he liked doing that film.
“If you do Superman, I’ll star in your next project”.

Crowe was too busy with writing a story about his younger self and couldn't find time for Superman.
(Cruise still appeared in Vanilla Sky later on, but that’s another story).

Superman is a true American hero, he stands for the “American way” among other things. That means a director with a big portion of Americana could do the character justice.
The king of big American blockbusters at that time was still Steven Spielberg, sort of. The director was approached but he lacked interest in the idea, instead he offered to work with Cruise at something else.

Who else could do it? A director with dramatic weight could be good too. Perhaps someone like Sydney Pollack or Barry Levinson (whom he worked with before)?
And then there was Lewis Gilbert who helmed the most sci fi themed and fun Bond films with those big sets. But he had already said he would retire soon.
Neither ended up doing it. They felt it was not a good time for another superhero that short after B&R
Luckliy, he found a director in the end.

The set designs suffered from the same problems as the writing. The first guys didn't satisfy him or Warner Brothers. New ones had to come and do some upgrades.

The cast turned out quite interesting. Cruise made a lot of calls, A LOT OF CALLS.
Half of the approached actors agreed to be onboard this project.

And of course he was to play the lead himself. He was a major star and this was his project!
The actor managed to do both this film and Mission: Impossible 2 at the same time. Quite an achievement.
As the usual Cruise way, he really went into the character and gave his all in the performance. Both for Clark and Supes. There weren't any typical Cruise manners here, like the laughter. He played the character more straight, albeit with warmth and likability.
And when the story asked for it, he could be intense as well.
Nobody could ever claim he failed at it. No matter what they think of the film as a whole, no matter if they dislike the actor.
In the year 2000, Tom Cruise was Superman

 

[Airwings]

Superman Reborn (2000)

Directed by Alan Parker
Produced by Chris Columbus

First draft written by Christopher Wood, Nick Castle, Clifford Green, Ellen Green and David Ambrose

Final script written by Bob Gale, John Hill and Melissa Mathison

Music by Elmer Bernstein (incl a new Superman theme) (incl. re-arrangement of John Williams' theme, just to pay homage once, and this wasn't done again)

Costume design: John Mollo,
Costume consultant: Robert Fletcher

The first production and set designers: Assheton Gorton, Georgio Desderi, Richard D James

The second production and set designers: John M Dwyer, Rolf Zehebauer and Kathe Klopp

Clark Kent/Kal-El: Tom Cruise
Lois Lane: Courtney Cox (not because Frodo already had her as Lois in one of his alternate films)
Jimmy Olsen: Topher Grace
Perry White: Roy Scheider
Lex Luthor: Kyle MacLachlan
Winslow Schott/Toyman: Crispin Glover

Mayor of Metropolis: Ted Danson

Martha Kent: Diane Keaton (cameo)

Appearing as holograms
Jor-El: Gary Cole
Lara: Kim Basinger

UPDATE February 15th: John Ritter did a cameo too. He's a taxi driver in a scene where Lois and Clark have to get somewhere. A fun little add to the film.
But should he have been Jor-El instead?

The set design is inspired by pics (and one GIF) below. Not copied!
And you guessed it right then it's mostly about the look of Fortress Of Solitude. But there also one winter landscape included
I'll post more of the influence later.

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

This is a fun thread idea, I think about this a lot! It’s a shame they didn’t start building a DCEU much earlier.

 

[Airwings]

This is a fun thread idea, I think about this a lot! It’s a shame they didn’t start building a DCEU much earlier.

Thank you! It's nice when people like what I've done.

Here's more inspirations for set designs

And this pic could inspire a flashback set at Krypton

 

[Airwings]

There's no Messiah theme to Superman this time around. It's not Donnerverse.
I think he's more of a Santa Claus symbol. Only differences are that he doesn't only show up once a year, and everybody knows he's real LOL
But he lives on the North Pole

For the Fortress of Solitude, they go for the look from the comic books. The giant golden key.

John Mollo had designed costumes in the old Star Wars films. He was in charge for Superman's suit here.
Robert Fletcher was consultant for the designs because he had done something somilar earlier. Those had the look and the material Cruise wanted.

And because of Cruise's desire to get an older feel, they went with an early version of Superman.

This is similar to how Superman's suit looks in the film, and it actually worked, despite this coming out 2000. Try to imagine Cruise in that, with the hair he rocked back then.

It's not difficult to see that the short films from Fleischer Studios was an inspiration for the story.
We get to see Supes save a plane here, among other things.

Tomorrow, I'll post next film

 

[Vaibow]

Fun idea.

Nic Cage gets the job in his 90's hey day... but the Burton script and plan gets scrapped last minute and they bring in Donner to steer the ship with Simon West as Director.

Cage goes full on method acting, hitting the gym and roids, looks a beast in publicity shots before the movie begins production.

Sandra Bullock is lois.

John Malovich is Luthor.

Travolta is the President.

Will add more later.

 

[Airwings]

Fun idea.

Nic Cage gets the job in his 90's hey day... but the Burton script and plan gets scrapped last minute and they bring in Donner to steer the ship with Simon West as Director.

Cage goes full on method acting, hitting the gym and roids, looks a beast in publicity shots before the movie begins production.

Sandra Bullock is lois.

John Malovich is Luthor.

Travolta is the President.

Will add more later.

Good
Keep on the work. Flesh out your visions.

For myself, I've planned so many films I can't even count them
Everything is tightly structured. It's a grand piece of art if I'm allowed to say that.
But maybe not all of the films will be liked by others here.

As it appears, it seems like this thread can stay

 

[Vaibow]

Fun idea.

Nic Cage gets the job in his 90's hey day... but the Burton script and plan gets scrapped last minute and they bring in Donner to steer the ship with Simon West as Director.

Cage goes full on method acting, hitting the gym and roids, looks a beast in publicity shots before the movie begins production.

Sandra Bullock is lois.

John Malovich is Luthor.

Travolta is the President.

Will add more later.

Meatloaf - Perry White

Fred Savage - Jimmy Olsen.

So basically Cage plays Reeve style Clark, just a bit of a dork, looking like he hasn't got his **** together - you kinda feel that clark is a lost cause, but he always gets the job done and produces these great articles. Cage really plays the southern, farmer twang angle. He has this nervous laugh too. People don't really gel with Clark and Cage really shows us his vunerable side, like, we see him act this way, then the look in his eye that he hates he has to and that he just wants to be himself.
Which actually pushes clark to see Lois more and more, as superman... as he likes her and he can't be himself in the office.

As Superman, he's so smooth, likeable and a true hero. A lot of the time we only see superman from the third person, like through a camera lens or an onlooker at distance, it's never really first person to the audience - that way there is still some mystery to superman, and easy to see how people don't connect him to clark. It's only towards the end do we see more of superman, and funnily enough when that happens, clarion the office then becomes a side character and not involved much in the remaining scenes... we switch the focus almost..

Final third is lex wanting to expose clark as superman - but, in doing so... clark threatens to expose lex's dealings... clark 'in character' says he knows about Cadmus, cloning, the deaths, the cover ups, and that if any harm came to him, because lex thinks he is superman, he will expose lex... lex calls his bluff... and proceeds to point a gun at clark.. clark then pages someone... to which a fax comes through of info' lex puts the gun away.... agrees to let clark walk... clark thanks him, reclaims his breath... then boldly stands... appeanrace and stance changes, takes off his glasses and hovers in the air...and says goodbye... as he flies away smirking... lex looks pissed, having been fooled... but realizing clark was at the very least, his equal.

 

[Airwings]

Meatloaf - Perry White

Fred Savage - Jimmy Olsen.

So basically Cage plays Reeve style Clark, just a bit of a dork, looking like he hasn't got his **** together - you kinda feel that clark is a lost cause, but he always gets the job done and produces these great articles. Cage really plays the southern, farmer twang angle. He has this nervous laugh too. People don't really gel with Clark and Cage really shows us his vunerable side, like, we see him act this way, then the look in his eye that he hates he has to and that he just wants to be himself.
Which actually pushes clark to see Lois more and more, as superman... as he likes her and he can't be himself in the office.

As Superman, he's so smooth, likeable and a true hero. A lot of the time we only see superman from the third person, like through a camera lens or an onlooker at distance, it's never really first person to the audience - that way there is still some mystery to superman, and easy to see how people don't connect him to clark. It's only towards the end do we see more of superman, and funnily enough when that happens, clarion the office then becomes a side character and not involved much in the remaining scenes... we switch the focus almost..

Final third is lex wanting to expose clark as superman - but, in doing so... clark threatens to expose lex's dealings... clark 'in character' says he knows about Cadmus, cloning, the deaths, the cover ups, and that if any harm came to him, because lex thinks he is superman, he will expose lex... lex calls his bluff... and proceeds to point a gun at clark.. clark then pages someone... to which a fax comes through of info' lex puts the gun away.... agrees to let clark walk... clark thanks him, reclaims his breath... then boldly stands... appeanrace and stance changes, takes off his glasses and hovers in the air...and says goodbye... as he flies away smirking... lex looks pissed, having been fooled... but realizing clark was at the very least, his equal.

It's very good to separate Clark and Superman this way. Nobody should suspect anything. Except a super genius like Lex.
It could be demanding to have two characters in one. Maybe Cage is talented enough as an actor. I think so

 

[Airwings]

Today's superhero film

Tom Cruise’s Superman was the first cinematic adventure of many. But it wasn’t the first new DC project after Schumacher’s disaster.
Already earlier during the fall of 2000, another film saw the light of day. It wasn’t made for the big screen but a TV production. Tom Cruise had nothing to do with it either. It was an adaption that just happened to be made, and the character isn’t the most well-known among DC heroes.
NBC was behind this TV film. They wanted to make a fun crime story for teenagers and adults.
It has a kind of weird B-film esque feel to it. But aren't all superheroes weird?

Dan Garrett is the first Blue Beetle in the comics. Actually, there are two versions of him that existed before Ted Kord was created. This film mash the two Dans together into one.
Dan Garrett's suit is a Phantom rip-off really. They had to tweak it to avoid too many similarities with Billy Zane's look in the 1996s film

Blue Beetle (TV-film, NBC, 2000)
shot in Dallas late 99/early 00, broadcasted at NBC in august

Directed by John Glen
Produced by Roger Corman, Dino de Laurentiis

Written by Gerry Anderson, Tom Holland (not the actor), Jeffrey Boam
Music by: Mark Snow (incl a theme)
Costume design: Jean-Pierre Dorléac, Danilo Donati

Cast
Dan Garrett: Mark Hamill
Mike Mannigan: Adrian Dunbar
Jarvis Kord: Dan Aykroyd
Ted Kord: Ralph Macchio
Sparkington J. Northrup jr/Sparky: David Gallagher

The plot
Dan Garrett is a police detective who's had enough of the justice system. It's not strong enough to deal with all criminals.
Prior to the film, he had donned a bulletproof rubber suit and started fighting crimes already a decade or so ago. When we first see him, he's already a celebrated hero. We'll see him taking up the vigilante way in short flashbacks
At the same time being a masked hero, he continued to work for the police, living two separate lives really.
His partner, the Irish Mike Mannigan, believed Blue Beetle is nothing else than a bandit himself and tries several times to catch him.

It’s said that Jarvis Kord (Dan's old class mate) at Kord Industries was the the designer of the suit.
It's a briliant invention. It's able to fit inside a small bug-like mechanical device, a “beetle”, hence the name.

Ted Kord, the younger brother of Jarvis, is a brilliant scientist, engineer and inventor but always held back by his brother.
When Dan wants some upgrades on the suit. Jarvis hands the assignment over to Ted. He re-designs the suit and makes a completely new and smarter one out of elastic skin tight Kevlar. He also adds some gadgets.
When he tries it on, he realizes how powerful it makes him.
Ted has always been in Jarvis’ shadow. It’s later revealed that he was in fact the creator of the first suit, as a younger tech prodigy. Jarvis just like to take credit for everything.

Now Ted sees a chance to turn the tides on his brother. The suit is changing him. He wants to be praised and enjoy glory.
A new Blue Beetle rises. At first, he’s a hero. The public start talking about Blue Beetle having got a fashionable upgrade.

Ted is slowly becoming a villain. After years of being treated unfair, his needs for getting even takes over his mind.
Make Manning is correct this time when claiming Blue Beetle is a criminal. But that's because he thinks it's the same guy.

Ted kidnaps his brother and takes over KORD Industries. Then he becomes a costumed menace of the city.

Dan has to step in to clear his name and find out who’s this new Blue Beetle is.
When Sparkington J Northrup jr, the son of an English lord, arrives in USA. Dan is afraid the evil Blue Beetle sees this as a chance to kidnap the youngster for ransom. He takes it on himself to protect the kid and act as a bodyguard. The two learn to know each other well. The boy has a love for 70s disco music, leading to Dan addressing the lad as "Sparky"

The two Blue Beetles clash. Dan gets defeated the first time. He had never faced someone that powerful, only street-level crooks. Ted has also learned some martial arts, due to the influence of the suit.

When Dan tries to fight the evil Beetle a second time, he uses some dance moves Sparky taught him. Ted is taken down and ends up in jail.

“This is why Superman works alone”

Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin (1997) is a real letdown when it comes to superhero films.
After the big flop, Warner Brothers decide to sell the rights to all DC characters except Superman and Batman.
The "Superman works alone" line got stuck in Tom Cruise’s head. He got obsessed with the idea of a new Superman film. It’s been ten years since the last one so it could be time for another attempt.

He heard talks about Tim Burton, or possible Kevin Smith, being involved with a Superman project. It went back and forth, and there was some confusion with who's gonna do it.
He only knew he wanted to get there first.

With the recent success of Jerry Maguire and him just signing on for a Stanley Kubrick project, his words might mean something in Hollywood. He’s also in early pre-production stages of a second Mission: Impossible. He’s a star! He’s Tom Cruise!
He might get a Superman film to happen.

Cruise made sure to get his hands at the rights to the scripts floating around. He looked through them.
It had some untraditional ideas for the character. He scrapped most of it, but kept a few things:

*Clark's relationship with Lois, is it only friendly or might there be love?
*Superman dealing with a little self-doubt, he's already been a hero for several years.
*He hasn't found out he's from Krypton yet, but he will

These were interesting thing to explore.

He also liked one of the possible titles: Superman Reborn
This was pointing to a new franchise for the character.

He contacted Warner Brothers and said he's planning to make a Superman film, he will he in charge for delivering a script to them, hoping the studio would be on. WB were happy they could finally get Superman off the ground again.

Cruise hired some writers to develop his ideas. He went with some guys who's been involved in older sfi fi films and TV shows. He wanted a little old feel to his Superman. "Classic sci fi" as he described it.
What the writers later delievered didn't live up to his expectations.
In talks with the studio, both parties agreed to find new writers. The ones chosen had as a collective a bit more experience with blockbusters. These could also talk Cruise out of some weird ideas, like Superman encountering Santa Claus.
Yes, that would be ridiculous.
But it could have been possible in some sense as the story takes place around christmas and the film was out in December. Just not working for a Superman film though

But who should direct? It needs to be a guy with a name. Someone with experience in film-making. Not just anybody.

Cruise thought for a while about this.
He called his Maguire director Cameron Crowe because he liked doing that film.
“If you do Superman, I’ll star in your next project”.

Crowe was too busy with writing a story about his younger self and couldn't find time for Superman.
(Cruise still appeared in Vanilla Sky later on, but that’s another story).

Superman is a true American hero, he stands for the “American way” among other things. That means a director with a big portion of Americana could do the character justice.
The king of big American blockbusters at that time was still Steven Spielberg, sort of. The director was approached but he lacked interest in the idea, instead he offered to work with Cruise at something else.

Who else could do it? A director with dramatic weight could be good too. Perhaps someone like Sydney Pollack or Barry Levinson (whom he worked with before)?
And then there was Lewis Gilbert who helmed the most sci fi themed and fun Bond films with those big sets. But he had already said he would retire soon.
Neither ended up doing it. They felt it was not a good time for another superhero that short after B&R
Luckliy, he found a director in the end.

The set designs suffered from the same problems as the writing. The first guys didn't satisfy him or Warner Brothers. New ones had to come and do some upgrades.

The cast turned out quite interesting. Cruise made a lot of calls, A LOT OF CALLS.
Half of the approached actors agreed to be onboard this project.

And of course he was to play the lead himself. He was a major star and this was his project!
The actor managed to do both this film and Mission: Impossible 2 at the same time. Quite an achievement.
As the usual Cruise way, he really went into the character and gave his all in the performance. Both for Clark and Supes. There weren't any typical Cruise manners here, like the laughter. He played the character more straight, albeit with warmth and likability.
And when the story asked for it, he could be intense as well.
Nobody could ever claim he failed at it. No matter what they think of the film as a whole, no matter if they dislike the actor.
In the year 2000, Tom Cruise was Superman

Superman Reborn (2000)

Directed by Alan Parker
Produced by Chris Columbus

First draft written by Christopher Wood, Nick Castle, Clifford Green, Ellen Green and David Ambrose

Final script written by Bob Gale, John Hill and Melissa Mathison

Music by Elmer Bernstein (incl a new Superman theme) (incl. re-arrangement of John Williams' theme, just to pay homage once, and this wasn't done again)

Costume design: John Mollo,
Costume consultant: Robert Fletcher

The first production and set designers: Assheton Gorton, Georgio Desderi, Richard D James

The second production and set designers: John M Dwyer, Rolf Zehebauer and Kathe Klopp

Clark Kent/Kal-El: Tom Cruise
Lois Lane: Courtney Cox (not because Frodo already had her as Lois in one of his alternate films)
Jimmy Olsen: Topher Grace
Perry White: Roy Scheider
Lex Luthor: Kyle MacLachlan
Winslow Schott/Toyman: Crispin Glover

Mayor of Metropolis: Ted Danson

Martha Kent: Diane Keaton (cameo)

Appearing as holograms
Jor-El: Gary Cole
Lara: Kim Basinger

The set design is inspired by pics (and one GIF) below. Not copied!
And you guessed it right then it's mostly about the look of Fortress Of Solitude. But there also one winter landscape included
I'll post more of the influence later.

Here's more inspirations for set designs

And this pic could inspire a flashback set at Krypton

There's no Messiah theme to Superman this time around. It's not Donnerverse.
I think he's more of a Santa Claus symbol. Only differences are that he doesn't only show up once a year, and everybody knows he's real LOL
But he lives on the North Pole

For the Fortress of Solitude, they go for the look from the comic books. The giant golden key.

John Mollo had designed costumes in the old Star Wars films. He was in charge for Superman's suit here.
Robert Fletcher was consultant for the designs because he had done something somilar earlier. Those had the look and the material Cruise wanted.

And because of Cruise's desire to get an older feel, they went with an early version of Superman.

This is similar to how Superman's suit looks in the film, and it actually worked, despite this coming out 2000. Try to imagine Cruise in that, with the hair he rocked back then.

It's not difficult to see that the short films from Fleischer Studios was an inspiration for the story.
We get to see Supes save a plane here, among other things.

 

[Airwings]

Costume designs for the Blue Beetle film are heading for the old (just as Cruise did)
Both Dan's and Ted's suits cover their head. Other than that, the influences for their suits are shown in forefront below (not background characters)

 

[Vaibow]

It's very good to separate Clark and Superman this way. Nobody should suspect anything. Except a super genius like Lex.
It could be demanding to have two characters in one. Maybe Cage is talented enough as an actor. I think so

Honestly, I am surprised directors haven't handled it like this before. In the sense that when in the daily planet, in the building, Lois, Perry, jimmy, cat all take primary focus. When Lois is at the desk we see clark in the background, it's subtle, blink and you miss it. He interrupts a meeting, he's just this unassuming, dorky character that we all have in the office. If you didn't know anything about superman or the lore, you would have no idea that clark and superman were the same. Like the camera doesn't pay him extra attention, no tongue in cheek moments or a nod to the audience.

 

[Airwings]

Honestly, I am surprised directors haven't handled it like this before. In the sense that when in the daily planet, in the building, Lois, Perry, jimmy, cat all take primary focus. When Lois is at the desk we see clark in the background, it's subtle, blink and you miss it. He interrupts a meeting, he's just this unassuming, dorky character that we all have in the office. If you didn't know anything about superman or the lore, you would have no idea that clark and superman were the same. Like the camera doesn't pay him extra attention, no tongue in cheek moments or a nod to the audience.

Isn't this what Donnerverse did?

 

[Vaibow]

Isn't this what Donnerverse did?

clark was heavily featured in the office...

 

[Airwings]

clark was heavily featured in the office...

That's because he's the main character to the audience.
But for Lois, Perry and the rest, he was the way you described.

 

[Airwings]

Tom Cruise’s Superman was the first cinematic adventure of many. But it wasn’t the first new DC project after Schumacher’s disaster.
Already earlier during the fall of 2000, another film saw the light of day. It wasn’t made for the big screen but a TV production. Tom Cruise had nothing to do with it either. It was an adaption that just happened to be made, and the character isn’t the most well-known among DC heroes.
NBC was behind this TV film. They wanted to make a fun crime story for teenagers and adults.
It has a kind of weird B-film esque feel to it. But aren't all superheroes weird?

Dan Garrett is the first Blue Beetle in the comics. Actually, there are two versions of him that existed before Ted Kord was created. This film mash the two Dans together into one.
Dan Garrett's suit is a Phantom rip-off really. They had to tweak it to avoid too many similarities with Billy Zane's look in the 1996s film

Blue Beetle (TV-film, 2000)
shot in Dallas late 99/early 00, broadcasted at NBC in august

Directed by John Glen
Produced by Roger Corman, Dino de Laurentiis

Written by Gerry Anderson, Tom Holland (not the actor), Jeffrey Boam
Music by: Mark Snow (incl a theme)
Costume design: Jean-Pierre Dorléac, Danilo Donati

Cast
Dan Garrett: Mark Hamill
Mike Mannigan: Adrian Dunbar
Jarvis Kord: Dan Aykroyd
Ted Kord: Ralph Macchio
Sparkington J. Northrup jr/Sparky: David Gallagher

The plot
Dan Garrett is a police detective who's had enough of the justice system. It's not strong enough to deal with all criminals.
Prior to the film, he had donned a bulletproof rubber suit and started fighting crimes already a decade or so ago. When we first see him, he's already a celebrated hero. We'll see him taking up the vigilante way in short flashbacks
At the same time being a masked hero, he continued to work for the police, living two separate lives really.
His partner, the Irish Mike Mannigan, believed Blue Beetle is nothing else than a bandit himself and tries several times to catch him.

It’s said that Jarvis Kord (Dan's old class mate) at Kord Industries was the the designer of the suit.
It's a briliant invention. It's able to fit inside a small bug-like mechanical device, a “beetle”, hence the name.

Ted Kord, the younger brother of Jarvis, is a brilliant scientist, engineer and inventor but always held back by his brother.
When Dan wants some upgrades on the suit. Jarvis hands the assignment over to Ted. He re-designs the suit and makes a completely new and smarter one out of elastic skin tight Kevlar. He also adds some gadgets.
When he tries it on, he realizes how powerful it makes him.
Ted has always been in Jarvis’ shadow. It’s later revealed that he was in fact the creator of the first suit, as a younger tech prodigy. Jarvis just like to take credit for everything.

Now Ted sees a chance to turn the tides on his brother. The suit is changing him. He wants to be praised and enjoy glory.
A new Blue Beetle rises. At first, he’s a hero. The public start talking about Blue Beetle having got a fashionable upgrade.

Ted is slowly becoming a villain. After years of being treated unfair, his needs for getting even takes over his mind.
Make Manning is correct this time when claiming Blue Beetle is a criminal. But that's because he thinks it's the same guy.

Ted kidnaps his brother and takes over KORD Industries. Then he becomes a costumed menace of the city.

Dan has to step in to clear his name and find out who’s this new Blue Beetle is.
When Sparkington J Northrup jr, the son of an English lord, arrives in USA. Dan is afraid the evil Blue Beetle sees this as a chance to kidnap the youngster for ransom. He takes it on himself to protect the kid and act as a bodyguard. The two learn to know each other well. The boy has a love for disco music, leading to Dan addressing the lad as "Sparky"

The two Blue Beetles clash. Dan gets defeated the first time. He had never faced someone that powerful, only street-level crooks. Ted has also learned some martial arts, due to the influence of the suit.

When Dan tries to fight the evil Beetle a second time, he uses some dance moves Sparky taught him. Ted is taken down and ends up in jail.

Costume designs for the Blue Beetle film are heading for the old (just as Cruise did)
Both Dan's and Ted's suits cover their head. Other than that, the influences for their suits are shown in forefront below (not background characters)

After B&R, neither Blue Beetle was the first DC live action adaption.

Mark Hamill donning a hero costume as Dan Garrett in a TV film, was a part of NBC's idea to make adventures about comic book characters. While Blue Beetle was a latter add to the project and meant for a little older audience, something even more family-oriented had been on the mind for a few years. It was released on TV already during the spring of 2000.

If you've seen Super Friends, you know about

Can you believe it? It's Wonder twins!

The story behind the production goes as far back as very early 1997. This was even before Schumacher's last Batman flic came out.
NBC had success with the comedy series 3rd Rock From The Sun.
They got an idea to make something with the superhero twins. Why not update the characters for the 1990s?
Even at that early stage, lead actors were considered.
Natalie Portman was only suggested at one of the meetings, but not asked to audition.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt on the other hand, he was approached and got a little briefing.
He thought it was hillarious that he was asked to play another alien who comes to earth.

There was no script yet and the idea was put on ice for a while after the B&R distaster. It did take some time before the project really took off.
Kiddie stuff like Zenon and Small Soldiers were coming toward the end of the decade. NBC guessed there might be some interest for WT, there could be an audience.
Atleast on TV. There's a risk that a film wouldn’t draw enough people.

Things started moving faster when NBC heard Cruise was in early stages of preparing a Superman film. THIS was the right time!
WT was a one-shot that happened for no reason other than to entertain families with some adventure. No continuing, no second season.

When looking at the final result, there are nods to the style of the West and Wards Batman series, but with a faster pace that suits the 90s. A more modern feel.
You won’t like it but this WT adaption is tonally (not story-wise) a combination of Schumacher’s last Batman film (on a 90s TV budget), Billy Zane’s Phantom, and Nickelodeon’s Henry Danger.

To give a short summary of the plot:
Zan and Jayne are two performers in a galactic circus. They're on vacation, along with their pet monkey, and decide to spend some time on Earth. They try to blend in, even attending high school.
They find human science and technology intriguing, despite it being centuries behind what the're used to.
The twins are soon caught up in teen drama. And when getting their hands on a comic book, they find that their "skills" are actually seen as super powers here on Earth.
When they leave, they have learned a lot about humankind and what it means to be a hero

Wonder Twins (TV-series by NBC, 2000)
shot in Nashville late 99/early 00, broadcasted in April-May

5 episodes a 30 min

Created/produced and written by Peter Hewitt, Ted Nicolaou and Kenneth Johnson (each of them directs at least one episode)

Co-writer: S.S. Wilson
Story and script consultant: Michael Allin

Music by Shuki Levy (incl a theme)

Costume design: Emma Porteous
Costume consultant: Donfeld

Set design: Danilo Donati, Rochelle Moser

Zan: Gregory Smith
Jayna: Mila Kunis
Red Flag (the villain): Erik von Detten

Here's inspiration for costumes, and it might be difficult to see how these opposites can be combined. It's mostly about fabrics and materials. It's still typical Wonder Twins suits.

Here is what influenced the set design in the scenes set outside of Earth, including the circus

 

[Airwings]

Next DC project!

I mentioned earlier that Warner Brother sold off most of their DC Comics catalogue after Batman & Robin. This happened in 1998.
No studios had particular interest in making a comic book movie but a bunch of them still got hold of the rights to different characters.

During the first half of 1999, the word was out that Tom Cruise and WB were in the midst of preparing a new Superman film, and that it was officially happening.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had the opinion that it should be enough with all these spectacle films. First the disaster B&R and now Superman. It's style over substance and nothing more. This opinion came out and Cruise responded that they should go and make down-to-earth films then, but let the audience decide what they wanna see.
He added that there are real humans inside DC Comics, not all these overpowered guys, and Batman is an example, and his roots were about fighting thugs in a noir setting.
"I can help you if you want, give some advice, take care of some pre-production stuff even"

This went back and forth for some months. Then talks were held with MGM.
When Superman started shooting in the fall of 1999, MGM begun working on a film meant as a reaction to Superman. Something that's the opposite of the Big Blue Boy Scout from Krypton.

MGM had already gotten the rights to Green Arrow before the production started.
It's the Golden Age version in the film, the one without a goatee. But a modernized one. No arrowcar or arrowcave here!!!!

Black Canary appears, a mash up of the golden and silver age character.
The suits are not bright and colorful, but of darker shades
The location of Star City varies in the comics. When shooting the film, the choice fell on Boston.

Cruise assisted MGM in some sense, brought several creative people to the project.
When the casting process begun, some actors were interested because this was going to be a more serious kind of "superhero".
The lead actor had even seen Mark Hamill in NBC's Blue Beetle and that was one of the reasons he agreed to be in the film.

It wasn't released as a MGM film, but under the Orion banner.




The Green Arrow (Orion Pictures, 2002)

Directed by Walter Hill
(Cruise had so must trust in the character that he thought the film adaption deserves a director like Brian De Palma, which in turn turned it down at the very minute he was asked to helm this)

First draft by Robert Benton, Robert Janes, Sam Hamm
(Their joint ideas lacked something, new people had to come in and add more edge to the story, make it less comic book-y)

Final scrip by Michael Frost Beckner, Larry Gross

Music by Michael Kamen (incl a theme)

Costume design: Charles Knode

Actors
Oliver Queen: Ewan McGregor
Dinah Drake: Franka Potente
Arthur King/Merlyn (a.k.a. Dark Archer): Jason Isaacs
Floyd Lawton/Deadshot: Matt Dillon
Roy Harper: Vincent Kartheiser

Here's the feel they went for in costume department (but not those very designs)

 

[Vaibow]

That's because he's the main character to the audience.
But for Lois, Perry and the rest, he was the way you described.

You've misunderstood, the way the movie is shot.... when we view events in the office, clark is a side character, even to the audience, for a lot of the time. There isn't much focus on him, so we don't we him much and think 'oh he is integral to the plot'

 

[Airwings]

You've misunderstood, the way the movie is shot.... when we view events in the office, clark is a side character, even to the audience, for a lot of the time. There isn't much focus on him, so we don't we him much and think 'oh he is integral to the plot'

The audience will know it's Clark in the background. It won't be a surprise when he becomes Superman.
Without this element of surprise, treating Clark as an extra wouldn't benefit the film. Some people could even find this annoying.

 

[Airwings]

Warner Brothers had looked at the finished Superman Reborn a month before the release.
They were satisfied with the quality of the film and the talent of everybody involved.

Then, the day after the opening in December 2000, they called Tom Cruise back in the office and told him that Batman is going to be next project. He said they could just go ahead.
WB wanted him to help in getting the right approach because he did mostly well when assemblin the creative people for Supes, and they're unsure how to do it without him.

Cruise felt like he was a little split here since he was already involved with Green Arrow for MGM/Orion.
He agreed to give suggestions for designers and writers, and added that's up to the studio how they should continue with that.

The director matter was another problem for WB.
Cruise said that the character should return to his noir setting. People have to feel that they can take Batman seriously. Ditch the camp!
Sydney Lumet could do that. Francis Ford Coppola would be even better, but he has to be convinced that he's the right man for this.

The film was entering pre-production during 2001.
This time, they were going to show the origin story. How the family had just seen a fictional The Phantom film (no Zorro this time), they get robbed in an alley, the boy lose his parents and grow up to be Batman.
As New York is used for Metropolis in Superman, Gotham City is obviously Chicago!!!

The word were out about the upcoming film. It got attention before they even started filming.
Someone got a passionate interest for taking on the lead and called Cruise
"I want to be Batman!"
"Don't call me, buddy. I'm not in charge! Let Warner know you want the role"
That guy was Johnny Depp.

In this alternate scenario, the Pirates of the Caribbean films never happened.
Batman became Depp's comeback that year, and he was nominated for an Oscar. This was a real boost for the superhero genre.
Don't worry. He didn't act funny here. Bruce Wayne isn't Jack Sparrow.
The actor played the role straight and showed a rare seriousness, something that was later seen in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies.
Batman made sure Depp didn't evolve into a joke in Hollywood.

WB really went a long time back in time for the look of the new Batman. To the earliest design.
One has to look back sometimes, in order to move forward.

How would that suit have looked in live action?
The answer is in the pic right below.
Look at the body suits underneath all the armour and you will know.
Gone were the thick, heavy rubber outfits of Schumacher's films.

What kind of Batmobile should they go for? It needs a retro feel just like the suit.
Something similar to this was considered for a while before they ditched the idea

In the end, they went with a tweaked Phantom Corsair. Thankfully!

The plot however isn't only based on older comic books. There is some inspiration from The Long Halloween (the film takes place around the holiday), but it didn't follow that particular storyline much.

A rivalry grew between this and the previous year's Green Arrow. People started bickering about who's the best masked crime fighter.
Can be compared to the eternal Star Trek vs Star Wars discussion.


Batman: The Caped Crusader (2003)
Directed by Jonatan Demme

Written by Rospo Pallenberg, Stephen Tolkin, Steven E de Souza, Channing Gibson

Music by Jerry Goldsmith (incl new theme) (incl. re-arr of Elfman’s theme, just to pay homage once)

Costume design: Julie Weiss
Set design: Ken Adam

Cast list
Bruce Wayne: Johnny Depp
Alfred Pennyworth: Alan Oppenheimer
Gordon: Scott Glenn

Black Widow: Gena Rowlands
-A serious take on the 66's villain
(Robert Wagner wanted to be in the film too, so they wrote a new character for him. He played Widow's dead husband in flashbacks - and as an illusion, because she's crazy)

Mayor of Gotham: Peter Weller

Young Bruce Wayne: Logan Lerman
Thomas Wayne: Bill Paxton
Martha Wayne: Geena Davis

I mentioned earlier that Warner Brother sold off most of their DC Comics catalogue after Batman & Robin. This happened in 1998.
No studios had particular interest in making a comic book movie but a bunch of them still got hold of the rights to different characters.

During the first half of 1999, the word was out that Tom Cruise and WB were in the midst of preparing a new Superman film, and that it was officially happening.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had the opinion that it should be enough with all these spectacle films. First the disaster B&R and now Superman. It's style over substance and nothing more. This opinion came out and Cruise responded that they should go and make down-to-earth films then, but let the audience decide what they wanna see.
He added that there are real humans inside DC Comics, not all these overpowered guys, and Batman is an example, and his roots were about fighting thugs in a noir setting.
"I can help you if you want, give some advice, take care of some pre-production stuff even"

This went back and forth for some months. Then talks were held with MGM.
When Superman started shooting in the fall of 1999, MGM begun working on a film meant as a reaction to Superman. Something that's the opposite of the Big Blue Boy Scout from Krypton.

MGM had already gotten the rights to Green Arrow before the production started.
It's the Golden Age version in the film, the one without a goatee. But a modernized one. No arrowcar or arrowcave here!!!!

Black Canary appears, a mash up of the golden and silver age character.
The suits are not bright and colorful, but of darker shades
The location of Star City varies in the comics. When shooting the film, the choice fell on Boston.

Cruise assisted MGM in some sense, brought several creative people to the project.
When the casting process begun, some actors were interested because this was going to be a more serious kind of "superhero".
The lead actor had even seen Mark Hamill in NBC's Blue Beetle and that was one of the reasons he agreed to be in the film.

It wasn't released as a MGM film, but under the Orion banner.

View attachment 42695


The Green Arrow (Orion Pictures, 2002)

Directed by Walter Hill
(Cruise had so must trust in the character that he thought the film adaption deserves a director like Brian De Palma, which in turn turned it down at the very minute he was asked to helm this)

First draft by Robert Benton, Robert Janes, Sam Hamm
(Their joint ideas lacked something, new people had to come in and add more edge to the story, make it less comic book-y)

Final scrip by Michael Frost Beckner, Larry Gross

Music by Michael Kamen (incl a theme)

Costume design: Charles Knode

Actors
Oliver Queen: Ewan McGregor
Dinah Drake: Franka Potente
Arthur King/Merlyn (a.k.a. Dark Archer): Jason Isaacs
Floyd Lawton/Deadshot: Matt Dillon
Roy Harper: Vincent Kartheiser

Here's the feel they went for in costume department (but not those very designs)

 

[Airwings]

Ken Adams were hired because he would do amazing designs for Batcave and Black Widow's Spider themed lair.

 

[Vaibow]

The audience will know it's Clark in the background. It won't be a surprise when he becomes Superman.
Without this element of surprise, treating Clark as an extra wouldn't benefit the film. Some people could even find this annoying.

dude... I am joining in with your thread, giving you MY ideas of how I would present the movie.

 

[Airwings]

dude... I am joining in with your thread, giving you MY ideas of how I would present the movie.

Yes, you have put a good effort here.
But does that mean I can't have another view on something? Do I need to have the same opinion as you?

 

[Airwings]

2004 looked good. The interest in superhero films became noticeable.

NBC held a couple of special cinema screnings for their Blue Beetle (00). Then released it on dvd (along with Wonder Twins).
And more than one film were coming out during the year.

Let's look at one!
The story behind started in 2001, during the filming of Minority Report.
Tom Cruise started thinking: what if someone with future technology visited our own time? What would that person be able to do? How would he or she be percieved by us? What kind of tech would they have in the future?
He was sure this could be an interesting plot for a film and wanted to explore the idea.
No need to create an original character, it did already exist.

There was this superhero called Booster Gold. Disney got the rights from WB some years prior. He approached the studio and told them about his ideas. They realized there is some potential to it.

The story in the film goes
A talented football player from far in the future thinks he doesn’t get enough of praise. Life has started to become too dull for him.
He steals some technology and travels to present day.
With his flashy gadgets and his knowledge of historical events, he stages heroic deeds to be admired by the public.
In the end, some unpredicted happenings force him to raise up as a real hero.

That's not everything. After doing the ordinary hero thing and saving people, he starts to poke his nose into things that's none of his business, like interfering with Task Force X operations and risking to expose them.
And if that wasn't enough, The Linear Men don't want somebody to mess with timelines and send agents back to 2003, to catch Booster. This is making them somewhat "villain esque" in the light of the film.
It's a fun flic. A bit campy, but there are decent action scenes.

Actors from popular TV shows in the past take on supporting characters and cameos. I can mention Richard Dean Anderson, Jason Priestley, Christina Applegate and Corin Nemec as the more recognizable faces.
The main players however, are
Michael Jon Carter/Booster Gold: Kip Pardue
Rip Hunter: Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Amanda Waller: Pam Grier

Disney released the film under the Buena Vista brand.

Booster Gold (Buena Vista, 2004)
filmed in Atlanta

Directed by Steven Lisberger (his first directorial gig in a long time)
Written by Steven Lisberger, Harve Bennett, Tom Schulman, Brent Maddock

Music by Joseph Harnell (incl a theme)

Costume design: Joanna Johnston
she removed Booster's mask because it makes him look too dorky. The hero got a pair of cool high tech glasses instead

In order to make the future world cool, a bunch of people were brought in

Set design ideas: Keith Wilson, Patricia Van Ryker, Jim Mees
Final set designs: James Ira Colburn, Herman Zimmerman, William Stout

These were among the many influences

But do people in the future really dress like this?

This film went further than that and depicted the world of Booster's time really "out there"