Author Topic: Writing a Superman Trilogy  (Read 1932 times)

The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Writing a Superman Trilogy
« on: July 24, 2006, 12:34:57 PM »
I've been discussing it with various people since I saw Superman Returns, which I liked, but didn't love, and I've decided that I have the best ideas for a follow up of three movies.

The main problem with Superman movies is there's no one to throw down with. Here's a guy who can lift continents, pretty much, and he never gets to punch anyone out. Lex is fine, but there's no action except natural disasters. Except in Superman II, which is probably my favorite one.

So, here's my proposed set of follow ups (they all must have boring titles, like, The Quest for Peace, or Superman Returns, or Batman Begins. Or Batman and Robin and that stupid bimbo.

Superman Does Some Stuff: Superman takes on Metallo -- the bionic guy powered by a heart of kryptonite.
Superman Dies: heavy script writing changes to the Doomsday storyline
Superman Returns Again (or else, as Fell suggests, Superman's Not Really Dead We Were Just Kidding): Heavy adaptation of The Reign of the Supermen storyline.

I plan to have the same background villain running the bad guy show in all three. Hopefully, a reanimated Richard Pryor will agree to the role once the voodoo lady is done with him (hey, she brought back Marlon Brando and Captain Barbosa).

I will do some fleshing out below. Warning, the Superman Does Some Stuff outline will contain some spoilers for Superman Returns.

Fellfrosch

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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2006, 12:51:41 PM »
I would recommend a different villain than Metallo, since Reign of the Superman has a cooler cyborg already, and we don't need two.
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The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2006, 01:06:18 PM »
Superman Does Some Stuff:

Richard Pryor (whom, as I've mentioned, we'll have voodoo-ed back to life) plays a disgruntled employee of STAR Labs. His wife died during the earth quake in Superman Returns and he sees Superman's failure to save her life as a mixture of not caring, and incompetence. He hates the public love for him and vows he will be destroyed. He continues work on his top secret project concerning cybernetics or robotics or something. He has a green crystal which he is trying to adapt as a power source.

Richard White, (Lois's beau in Superman Returns) sees Superman leave his home one night. He becomes suspicious and untrusting, and eventually comes to believe that Superman is the real father of Jason (Lois' son) and that Lois is sleeping with him again. How much actual truth to any of this remains as dubious as it can be given what we pretty much assume from Superman Returns. He goes out and gets drunk. He is hit by a car, mumbling something about hating superman.

Pryor finds him in this condition and assumes he wants to kill Superman, and to save his life, plugs him into the Metallo outfit he's been making. The adaptation to his body, including replacing his heart with a rock of Kryptonite, breaks Richard's mind. He allows himself to be convinced by Pryor to try and kill Superman.

uh... insert fight scenes here. Lots of cool stunts, preferably. Superman gets a hint of who is really behind this, but he can't beat Metallo in a fight (what with his kryptonite heart). He manages to recognize Richard for who he is, and reminds him of who he was. Richard remembers that he used to be a reasonable man and a good guy, so he breaks off the fight with supes and runs away -- leaving Metropolis. He cannot face Lois again. (This leaves us able to re-use Metallo again if we want him to break again).

The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2006, 01:10:33 PM »
Quote
I would recommend a different villain than Metallo, since Reign of the Superman has a cooler cyborg already, and we don't need two.

Or we could conflate the cyborg and Metallo.

The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2006, 01:23:07 PM »
Superman Dies:

We see a weapons designer quitting his job after seeing what his weapons do in real combat and having a crisis of conscience. Maybe we'll have Shaq play him, because we like having terrible decisions plague our superhero movies and he's already done this part. But, even better, we can have Mr. T do it.

Pryor, angry over Metallo's failure to kill Superman, decides to abandon robotics and instead creates a biological horror. He is fired from STAR Labs, but he manages to set off a reaction that will allow Doomsday to escape his containment cell.

We see the beginning of a cloning project -- somehow we make it clear but unstated that this blood was taken from Superman when he was hospitalized in Superman Returns.

Doomsday breaks out and runs amok, looking for his "father," who had already ingrained a hatred for the Man of Steel. He heads for Metropolis. Superman gets to fight him a lot.

Mr. T sees his weapons being used in gang fights. He starts designing a suit of armor, vowing to take them off the streets. We don't see him again this film.

More Doomsday fights. Superman is getting is butt handed to him. But even though his outfit is tearing and he's bleeding, we finally start to see broken exoskeleton pieces and a bit of blood seeping from Doomsday.

In a final stroke, both combattants give everything and kill each other with a massive blow. Lois embraces the corpse of Superman and weeps.  We see Richard/Metallo in the alley way, also weeping. Roll credits.

Spriggan

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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2006, 01:26:26 PM »
I think the next movie will have Bizzaro due to the blood they collected at the hospitle.
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The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #6 on: July 24, 2006, 01:59:10 PM »
Superman Is Not Dead - We Were Just Kidding:

open with a funeral for Superman. Make sure the crowd has the following people in it:
-whoever played Batman in the most recent Batman film (hopefully it'll still be Christian Bale)
-Any other "secret identities" for superheroes that have recently had films, if not the heroes themselves
-the current president
-Perry White
-Lois Lane
-Jason White
-A cloaked Richard White
-Ma Kent
-Richard Pryor
-Marlon Brando (more voodoo may be necessary)
-Ray Davies
-Michael Stipe
-That guy from Three Doors Down
-John Williams
-Anyone else we think is cool and has written a song about Superman for pop culture consumption
-Lex Luthor
-Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang in Smallville)
-Tom Welling
-Current Mayor of New York (who will play the mayor of Metropolis)
-Bo the Bartender
-Jimmy Olson

Make it touchy feely. Women in the audience should cry. Maybe we can use some Christopher Reeve footage to enable this.

Crime rate has escalated dramatically. Not much is working to stop it, even Lex Luthor's specially equiped "Team Luthor" (he's supposedly gone legit).

A team of newsboys assists someone break out of a Star Labs facillity. This person claims to be Superman but looks like a teenager. Maybe we'll get Tom Welling to play him, which would be awesometacular, i think. In which case, we'll have to dump him from the funeral. Oh well. This teen claims to be Superman.

An armored man with a big hammer helps save some people. He has a big S-Shield on his chest.

A big guy who looks a lot like superman kills off a would-be rapist. People aren't sure what to believe. He claims to be a Superman that has "seen the truth"

A man who looks exactly like Superman but with half a metal face shows up.  He saves the president from an assassination attempt, thus not only does he claim to be Superman on a life-support mechanism, but the president backs this claim.

Lex Luthor makes another bid for power. Only the four new supermen are able to face down his Team Luthor troops.

The Man of Steel (the one in armor) leaves. As the others stand victorious, the Man of Tomorrow (the cybernetic one) turns on the one who killed the rapist,  killing him. During the fight, he is revealed to be Metallo/Richard. He captures Superboy as well and starts destroying Metropolis, replacing it with a mechanical city. He enslaves and kills normal people.  

Steel hears about it all and flies to the fortress of Solitude, having overheard something from Lex during that fight about it. He is looking for a way to help him fight Metallo. Instead he finds a chamber like the one in Superman II containing the body of Clark Kent. reviving Clark, he learns that the Man of Tomorrow had stolen his body before it was buried and brought him here. Unable to resurrect him, the MoT instead made a new body. Turns out the MoT was a semi-sentient agent grown inside the Fortress of Solitude -- a Kryptonian android, as it were.  Clark is mostly healthy, but having been dead and not exposed to sunlight, he has no powers. Steel helps him into a power suit there in the Fortress and together they go to Metropolis.

Big fight. Metallo breaks open Clark's suit. Clark has absorbed just enough sunlight to survive, but he is unable to fight furhter. Metallo has Steel pinned, but not before his hammer is hurled and breaks open Superboy's prison. Superboy, with Clark's help, defeats Metallo.

Metallo's consciousness escapes (in a small robotic bit, it turns out he can restructure the machinery that encases him, which is what allowed him to imitate Superman). Steel decides to retire, now that Clark is getting his power back. Superboy accepts that he's not really superman and flies off to "find himself."
Clark, as clark, not superman, get's a kiss from Lois.

The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers

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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #7 on: July 24, 2006, 02:16:09 PM »
Soundtrack suggestions:
"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" by Smashing Pumpkins would make an awesome soundtrack to the punchout in Superman Dies.

The last film should have all kinds of songs that have Superman in the lyrics. "Kryptonite" by Three Doors Down, "Superman" by REM, "Superman" by the Kinks, "Superman's Dead" by Our Lady Peace, and "Superman Inside" by Eric Clapton would all be excellent choices.

Archon

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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #8 on: July 24, 2006, 02:37:41 PM »
Superman with Silver Guns by Stone Temple Pilots could be the Man of Steel's personal soundtrack.
« Last Edit: July 24, 2006, 02:38:31 PM by Archon »
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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #9 on: July 24, 2006, 05:03:05 PM »
You have peaked my interest E. I hope Bryan Singer finds this and somehow gets a hold of you. Or at the very least steals your ideas.

You sir, are quite an impecable genius.
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Fellfrosch

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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #10 on: July 24, 2006, 06:27:25 PM »
I think we need to establish the MoT android earlier in Superman Does Some Stuff so that it's not as big of a weirdo thing when it shows up in SINDWWJK. Same with Lex going Legit.

Conflating Metallo and the cyborg is kind of cool, but I want to see more from his character--I want him to be completely evil and insane, not just a misunderstood shmuck who gets drunk and thinks Superman is stepping out with his wife.
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medrx

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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #11 on: July 24, 2006, 08:05:28 PM »
Quote

I plan to have the same background villain running the bad guy show in all three. Hopefully, a reanimated Richard Pryor will agree to the role once the voodoo lady is done with him (hey, she brought back Marlon Brando and Captain Barbosa).
quote]

I must admit when I first read the thread title, I was a bit...hesitant...but after reading all of your ideas, (especially love the Richard Pryor bit, it's just too riduculously funny not to include him) I think you have a stellar idea.
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Re: Writing a Superman Trilogy
« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2006, 08:45:29 AM »
I think Fell is dead on with the MoT and the Legit Lex. I'll have to work on that

The reason for the misunderstood Metallo is to get Richard Perry out of the picture without doing something really really mean to a guy who really is a great person in Superman Returns -- but we still need to get rid of him to allow a romance between Lois and Clark. By SINDWWJK we can have him evil, but in the first run up, we just want him to be falling. After all, falling too far too fast was the problem we had with Anakin right? We'll have to establish his complete turn during the early parts of that film.

The other problem I've realized is that we never deal with Pryor. Suggestions? Perhaps a fourth film?