A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

I think the main reason for so many remakes and “reboots” is simple: economics. The movie industry - or “Hollywood” - is not an altruistic community of artists who seek to entertain and/or enlighten us  just for the sake of it.  It’s a business, and its primary goal is to make a profit by producing a product that is intended to entertain or enlighten us, the consumers. The artists themselves may have some artistic impulse to create, of course, but “Hollywood” really means  the studios,  which are run by business people. Superman: The Movie  is a classic….did it need a reboot? Now, studio executives are extremely risk-adverse when it comes to making movies. Financing a film project is almost like gambling; the suits at 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Universal, and Sony don’t have a money-printing machine in their basements, so they prefer to play it safe and go with tried-and-true concepts instead of taking a leap of faith and financing an origina...

(C) 1978 Warner Bros. and DC Comics Superman: The Movie (1978) Directed by Richard Donner Written by Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, Robert Benton, and Tom Mankiewicz (uncredited) Story by Mario Puzo Based on the DC Comics character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster Starring: Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando, Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Ned Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Valerie Perrine, Marc McClure, Terence Stamp Superman: I'm here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way.   Lois Lane: [laughs] You're gonna end up fighting every elected official in this country! Starring Oscar-winning actors Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando as Lex Luthor and Jor-El, and co-starring Christopher Reeve in the dual role of Superman and his alter ego Clark Kent, Superman is a witty, exciting action-adventure based on the DC Comics character created in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. You’ll Believe a Man Can Fly Gen...

“Superman Returns” (2006) Directed by Bryan Singer Written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris Story by Bryan Singer, Michael Dougherty, and Dan Harris Based on the DC Comics character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster Starring: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Mardsen, Frank Langella, Parker Posey, Sam Huntington, Kai Penn Lex Luthor: Do you know the story of Prometheus? No, of course you don't. Prometheus was a god who stole the power of fire from the other gods and gave control of it to the mortals. In essence, he gave us technology, he gave us power. Kitty Kowalski: So we're stealing fire? In the Arctic? Lex Luthor: Actually, sort of. You see, whoever controls technology controls the world. The Roman empire ruled the world because they built roads. The British empire ruled the world because they built ships. America; the atom bomb. And so on and so forth. I just want what Prometheus wanted. Kitty Kowalski:...

Man of Steel,  director Zack Snyder’s ambitious 2013 reboot of Warner Bros. Superman film franchise, is an earnest but sometimes dour and plodding retelling of the DC Comics superhero’s origin story. Starring British actor Henry Cavill ( Stardust ) in the dual role of Kal-El/Clark Kent and co-starring Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe, and Michael Shannon,  Man of Steel  reinvents Superman’s backstory from the ground up. In essence, it tells Superman’s Moses/Jesus-inspired saga of how Kryptonian scientist Jor-El (Crowe) sends his newborn son to Earth to save him from his home planet’s destruction. Because the screenplay by David S. Goyer (based on a story by producer Christopher Nolan) pretends that the Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh Superman films don’t exist,  Man of Steel  begins on Krypton. As in the comics and the Richard Donner  Superman: The Movie,  the planet is doomed. However, in Goyer’s reboot, Krypton’s red sun...