UPDATED NEWS AS OF March 8, 2001!: Following News From "Fabio2's Superheroes At The Movies" 55555 Big news today, courtesy Steve Younis' superb site. Cynthia Ettinger (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) has been cast as Martha "Ma" Kent, alongside John Schneider's Pa Kent. Sam Jones III has been chosen as Clark Kent's best friend Pete Ross, while Allison Mack (THE OPPOSITE OF SEX) has been tapped to appear as Chloe Sullivan, a school friend of Clark's and Pete's. Shooting on the show started March 1 at the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, before shifting to location work in Merritt and Cloverdale, British Columbia, Canada from March 8 onwards. All other news below will be old stuff to returning visitors. If you're visiting for the first time though, keep on reading! 55555 The cast of "Smallville" is really starting to shape up nicely. After casting 2 unknowns (Tom Welling as Clark Kent and Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang), the WB has given the roles of Lex Luthor and Jonathan Kent to two actors you may have actually heard of. The role of Luthor goes to relative newcomer Michael Rosenbaum, who appeared in the film URBAN LEGENDS. As for Pa Kent , the role goes to "Dukes of Hazard" alumni John Schneider. The only real key role left is that of Martha Kent which should be cast very soon as production on the pilot episode began March 1st. Following News From "Coming Attractions.com" 55555 The upcoming WB series Smallville has found a location that fits their needs. The pilot episode is being filmed in British Columbia, which would seem to confirm recent rumors that scouting agents were taking a good long look at the small town of Merritt recently. The WB location scouts were being very hush-hush, so just in case it's stll a secret, don't tell anybody. It looks as though additional casting is going to be done by Heike Brandstatter and Coreen Mayrs, who won an Emmy Award for her casting work on Freaks & Geeks. 55555 An actress by the name of Kristin Kreuk has been cast as Lana Lang, the teenage girlfriend of Superboy. Kreuk, who hails from Vancouver, is 18 years old and of Dutch/Chinese heritage. Prior to her upcoming role in the new series Smallville, she's appeared in several TV productions including the cancelled CBC show Edgemont. 55555 Clark Kent Cast! The role of 15 year old Clark Kent in the coming Smallville TV series has finally been cast. According to the Hollywood Reporter, a newcomer by the name of Tom Welling will be taking on the role of young Kent in his formative years prior to creating the secret identity of Superman. 55555 Warner Bros. is hoping to get production of the series up and rolling sometime within the next month. The WB TV network has ordered up 13 episodes of the series for its fall 2001 schedule. Following News From "Superman Collectors.com" 55555 Jim Hambrick, owner and operator of the Superman Museum, has just forwarded this bit of news to me that he received: Here's a piece of news that'll get fans excited before the DVD release mid-year. Warner's has decided to do a test theatrical release of Superman: The Movie special edition in San Antonio, Texas the weekend of March 23rd. If it's successful in this relative market, they're going to go wide with it as they did with the Exorcist. Needless to say, Donner and crew are trying their best to get everyone hyped for it. 55555 Extremely cool news if you ask me. It seems like it has taken forever for Warner Bros. to finally do the right thing. If you can, be sure to get to San Antonio that weekend as I'm sure quite a few faces from the movie will be in attendance. The Special Edition DVD is still set for release this Summer with the new series "Smallville", which you can read about below, debuting on the WB this Fall. 55555 Cinescape.com has just released new info on the "Smallville" tv series. As some readers may already know, last September the WB network announced that it was ordering up 13 episodes of a TV show featuring a teenage Superman. Due to the series, Warner Bros. studios is waiting to see how well it does before continuing with "Superman Lives!". Comics2Film has uncovered some information about the characters that will occupy the show, and town, named Smallville. A source close to the project provided this background information for the main players: 55555 Clark Kent is, of course, the main character in the show. Kent is depicted as a 15 year-old. Jonathan and Martha Kent found the boy at the crash site of a strange metallic craft. The 3 year old escapes the crash unharmed. As Clark's strength quickly grew, the Kents encouraged him to keep it a secret in order to avoid scrutiny by the authorities. In order to keep up the charade, Clark avoided sports and excelled in academics. At 15, new powers have started to emerge and it's a struggle for Clark to control them. The Kents have come clean about the boy's origins. Clark fears that he my be responsible for a string of weird occurrences that have plagued his small town since his arrival on Earth. Because he feels responsible, Clark uses his powers to stop these occurrences. 55555 Lex Luthor is the 21 year-old son of Lionel Luthor the pesticide king of Metropolis. Lionel is a driven businessman who neglects his family. Lionel tries to connect with young Lex by including him on a business trip when the boy is nine years old. During the trip an accident causes Lex to lose all his hair. The guilt ridden Lionel tries to restore the boy's hair but fails. Instead he showers Lex with money and gifts, but eventually sends him off to boarding schools. An academic overachiever, Lex faced constant ridicule due to his baldness. Ridicule led to altercations, which had Lex bouncing from school to school. Eventually he graduated from Metropolis University at the top of his class. However, rather than taking Lex under his wing, the senior Luthor sends him to Smallville to turn a struggling fertilizer plant around. It's supposed to be a one-way ticket to failure but Lex vows to succeed and the take the corporation from his father. 55555 Lex and Clark become friends after Clark saves his life. Clark looks at Lex as a big brother, while Lex feels Clark is a confidant. Neither can imagine that one day they'll be bitter enemies. 55555 Lana Lang is Clark's 15 year-old love interest. Like Clark, she's an orphan, but she's overcome that by being outgoing. She's the most popular girl in school and dates the high school's star quarterback. Lana feels a closeness with Clark, but that's usually thwarted by his strange behavior. When Lex Luthor comes to town, Lana is intrigued by his big-city mystique which appeals to her desire to escape the confines of the small town. 55555 Sounds like it going to be a pretty good show if you ask me. If it's anywhere close to the same writing that made Lois & Clark a hit, then everyone is in for a real treat and the wait for a new Superman movie will finally be over! Following News From "Fabio2's Superheroes At The Movies" 55555 JOHN WOO to direct "Superman Lives"? The answer, quite possibly, is yes. Despite what the latest FilmForce.com article says, the truth is that Woo was approached in October of this year, and is one of the many directors approached for the job. The last to be approached was not Oliver Stone, but DINOSAURS director Ralph Zondag. Apparently, both Stone and Woo are interested in the job, but Warner Bros. are waiting to see how the "Smallville" TV series pans out before making their Superman film plans concrete. But, for all accounts, John Woo is indeed in the mix as of right now. That doesn't mean he'll end up directing SUPERMAN LIVES. He may indeed knock the offer back. We'll see. Brett Ratner and Simon West were also approached. Their thoughts on the project are unknown. 55555 February is now the month that WB are looking at for possible theatrical re-release of Superman The Movie with the DVD following in May. Donner has done all he can to persuade WB to release STM in theaters, it's now up to to the executives. I think we can go for one last effort and start writing short letters to these people. If this is going to work, we'll need a lot of support from all Superman websites and fans. I don't think we've got anything to lose except a few pennies and cents (postage). 55555 Late last week, Ain't It Cool News broke a story about an exciting new direction the Superman Lives movie effort may be taking. The report told of a new treatment that was in the hands of top people at Warner Bros. The new treatment abandoned the Death of Superman storyline entirely and, instead, featured the man of steel in a knock-down, drag-out with that main bastich Lobo! The treatment was turned in by none other than Lobo's daddy: comic veteran Kieth Giffen. Comics2Film spoke with Giffen about the report last week. Giffen confirmed that he did write such a treatment. Contrary to the AICN report, the writer is not currently working on a screenplay. So far it's just a treatment. Beyond that Giffen did not want to comment further on what was supposed to have been a secretive development effort. Thanks to Superman Cinema for the preceeding information. 55555 Rumour has it that New York radio stations WPLJ-FM and WHTZ-FM have reportedly confirmed with Russell Crowe's people that he has been approached by Warner Bros. to play Superman/Clark Kent in SUPERMAN LIVES. The report apparently went on to say that the offer is in the vicinity of $30 million (sounds too high to me, that's $10 million more then Nicolas Cage pocketed), and that Crowe isn't relishing the workout needed to look good in the role, though concedes the offer is very attractive. According to the same rumour, Brad Silberling (CASPAR, CITY OF ANGELS) is interested in directing, Kevin Spacey may still be in line for the Lex Luthor role, and the studio is thinking of going back to the Kevin Smith written script, which was previously tossed by former director Tim Burton. 55555 Well, even though these rumours cannot be verified, it's pretty certain that Warners will be moving forward with the William Wisher script, and NOT the Smith one. Then again, knowing Warners these days, anything can happen. Thanks to Fabio2 for this information! 55555 Hollywood Reporter has reported that possible "Superman Lives" director Ralph Zondag has decided to make his live-action directing debut not with Superman, but with another film entitled "Raised By Ghosts". Now, it isn't impossible that Zondag couldn't do both films, as Ghosts seems to be on the fast track, but is it likely? Probably not. Below is the report quoted in full: DINOSAUR co-director Ralph Zondag will make his live-action feature directorial debut with MGM's dark comedy, RAISED BY GHOSTS, for producer Chuck Gordon. The project is on the fast track and is being targeted to start production early next year. "Ghosts," written by Craig Mitchell and Richard Stern, is about an orphaned teenager who was raised from infancy by a group of ghosts. When he is brought to live with a dysfunctional suburban family, he discovers for the first time what it's like to be human. Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson (STEINBECK'S POINT OF VIEW) have just been hired to pen a rewrite of the script. 55555 E Online has reported that Warner Bros. have publicly committed themselves to the film. Despite the departures of Tim Burton (April 1998) and Nicolas Cage (March 2000, not June as we thought), the the studio is still working hard on getting SUPERMAN LIVES onto the silver screen. 55555 Big news, and it comes from the man himself Nicolas Cage. In an interview with the Mr. Showbiz website (which you can watch yourself with Real Player), Nicolas Cage announced that he's no longer involved with SUPERMAN LIVES. He states that while he thought it would be fun at first, he feels too much time has elapsed since and he thinks the opportunity has now passed him by and that it's time to move on to other projects. 55555 The news is a big shock, and quite unexpected too. No-one saw this coming, but it's probably a good thing, even though everyone was very curious to see how Cage would pull it off. 55555 Now, the big question is - how does this affect the rough schedule Warner Bros. had for the film ie. late 2000 shooting, summer 2001 release. Well, if the studio signs a director soon, and they get to work on the film, it shouldn't neccessarilly affect the schedule at all, but will that happen? Only time will tell. Hopefully, whomever directs will choose a suitable unknown in their 20s, as they really should have done to start with. 55555 It has just been confirmed by Warner Bros. & Richard Donner himself that the original 1978 "Superman" movie will be returning to theaters this Fall/Winter! It seems as though the Warners people want to see if a Superman movie is still popular with the public before they go releasing a brand new movie based on the character. Hey, it worked for "Star Wars" and I can't imagine it not working with the Man of Steel. 55555 In other recent news, the rumors that Oliver Stone was going to direct "Superman Lives!" have been proven untrue. The whole rumor started when it was found out that Mr. Stone would be directing a Warner Brothers film that was being produced by Jon Peters. A lot of people just thought it would be "SL". Superman fans worldwide can now take a sigh of relief. 55555 On February 17, screenwriter William Wisher dropped off his script to Warner Brothers. Wisher, best known for his work on both Terminator films for director James Cameron and the Stallone vehicle Judge Dredd, was brought on board in November to take a stab at the script. The studio and and all parties involved with the film were quite happy with the new draft. So happy that preproduction has already begun and location scouts have been sent to states such as Texas and Pennsylvania. 55555 Even though no director has yet been named to the revived Superman film, a new script is a huge step forward for a project that was at one time "...in development hell." Though the movie was once set for a July 4, 1998, release date, there's still no word on when Superman Lives might be flying into a theater near you.