Jul 9, 2009 02:39 PM
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Warner Bros. doesn't have a Superman film in development right now, and President Alan Horn told a judge that he has "issues" with the Man of Steel. Warners won its latest legal battle, but has Superman's movie career already lost?
The new Superman ruling was just the latest development in a running battle over the legal rights to the last son of Krypton. The heirs to Superman's creators, Joe Siegel and Jerry Shuster, have been battling over the rights, and legal control, of Superman for years now. This time around, they were arguing that Warners paid sister company DC Comics too little for the movie and TV rights to Superman, in a "sweetheart deal." In order to win this case, Warners had to prove that Superman's screen incarnation wasn't worth that much — which the company did, by citing the poor performance of Superman IV: The Quest For Peace and the lukewarm box office and critical reception of Superman Returns.
Horn told the judge:
What hurt us is that the reviews and so on for the Superman movie did not get the kind of critical acclaim that Batman [Begins] got, and we have other issues with Superman that concern us.
He also said, flat out, that the company doesn't have a Superman film in development — at all. So forget all the speculation about whether Bryan Singer or Brandon Routh might come back. Judge Stephen G. Larson wrote:
No script has been written, filming has not commenced, and the earliest a ‘Superman' film could be theatrically released would be in 2012.
According to Variety, there may be a bit of a deadline for Warners to figure out its issues with Clark Kent, and get a movie rolling. At least, attorney Marc Toberoff, representing the Siegel heirs, claims that his clients and the Shuster estate will own all copyrights to Superman:
This trial was only an interim step in the multifaceted accounting case which remains, in that it only concerned the secondary issue of whether DC Comics, or DC Comics and Warner Bros., would have to account to the Siegels. To put this in further perspective, the entire accounting action pales in comparison to the fact that in 2013, the Siegels, along with the estate of Joe Shuster, will own the entire original copyright to Superman, and neither DC Comics nor Warner Bros. will be able to exploit any new Superman works without a license from the Siegels and Shusters.
He also claims that the court ordered that if Warner Bros. doesn't start production on a new Superman movie by 2011, the Siegels and Shusters will be able to sue for damages.
So there may be a bit of urgency for Warners to change its mind about Supes. But only one thing is really certain: scads more litigation are in the Man Of Tomorrow's future. [Variety and New York Times]
Send an email to Charlie Jane Anders, the author of this post, at charliejane@io9.com.
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