McG succumbs to Kryptonite

Posted Wednesday, July 14, 2004 at 3:25 PM Central

by John Couture

The circus that is the tent-pole picture Superman got a little more wild this week. McG, who has been tied to direct the project two separate times in the last couple of years, has walked out on the Man of Steel for good.

The official word, according to the trades, is something akin to irreconcilable differences and that the split was “amicable.” The real point of contention may have been shooting location and budgets. McG was quoted on the split, “As a filmmaker, I felt it was inappropriate to try to capture the heart of America on another continent. I look at Superman as a character that embodies all that is beautiful about America.”

Apparently, the patriotic director, who filmed both Charlie’s Angels movies in California, was dead set on filming on location in New York. While, Warner Bros. had the budget-friendly Australia in mind to double as Metropolis.

The storied history of the “rebirth of Superman” is rich with intrigue and covers some of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters. Everyone from Nic Cage to Johnny Depp has been rumored to be the next, Last Son of Krypton. Writer-director Kevin Smith has a funny story on An Evening with Kevin Smith about a script he turned in and producer Jon Peters’ fascination with spiders that eventually became a climatic moment in the 1999 dud Wild Wild West.

The current scribe attached to the movie is Alias creator J. J. Abrams, although with McG’s departure, Warner Bros. may decide to go in a completely different direction. Adding even more intrigue to the tale is the possible inclusion of director Michael Bay to the next incarnation of the project.

On July 1st, a mysterious Superman “S” logo appeared on MichaelBay.com, the director’s “official” website. Officially Bay denied any involvement in the stunt and even went so far as to claim that the site is actually run by a fan and not affiliated with him in any way.

One thing is certain, the more time that passes, the more likely that kids will pony up another $10.00 to see Spider-Man 2 saying “Superman who?”