Everyone knows Superman was originally created by two men – Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster – whose creation first appeared in Action Comics #1. As of last week, a judge ruled that the heirs of Jerry Siegel were to receive half the copyright of that material back. What does this mean exactly? Well, if I had to distill the story down into only two wildly oversimplified bulletpoints, then know this – DC may have just lost half the profits they make (and have made since 1999) off of Superman, and they may lose the remaining half of the copyright entirely to the Shuster estate in 5 years.

Now, things aren’t really as cut and dry as that – as in any legal case, there’s a lot of room for interpretation. And expect DC/Warner to make more than a couple appeal attempts as well.

But for now…
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The quality of Superman movies varies greatly. Defenders even have trouble justifying The Quest For Peace.
But the quality of Superman music has been pretty much completely good. John Williams original score and the composers who followed him universally captured the Last Son of Krypton without words or images. Now Film Score Monthly is going forth with a limited to 3000 edition 8CD box set of every note from the Christopher Reeve Superman movies and selections from the 1988 Superman Animated Series.
Its currently on sale for $119.95 via Screen Archives Entertainment. If you’re interested, buy it now, because once they tick 3000 orders its done.

Via AICN

From the man who brought you Babe: Pig In The City and Happy Feet will come the big screen debut of DC’s best and brightest: The Justice League.

Let’s forget that Miller hasn’t directed anything other than children’s movies in the past 15 years. Let forget that Warners is pushing a movie with Superman and Batman into theaters when they already have independent Superman and Batman series. Instead, let’s think of the one way this might be good: Tom Welling as Superman. He’s paid his dues, time to give him the cape. Include the Leaguers already on Smallville, set it in Smallville’s universe, and get Rosenbaum as Luthor while you’re at it. Keep Bale and Batman out of it.

Variety says the movie will begin casting and go into production soon to be completed before the Hollywood strike, planned for a 2009 release. Right around when Bryan Singer was hoping to get Man of Steel out. Ugh.

While this is not new by any means, I wanted to post some pictures from the second wave of DC Universe. We first mentioned the lineup for this wave in our second roundup of SDCC toy news. Here is the updated lineup with mirrored images below:

• Black Manta
• Superman Blue
• Superman Red (evenly distributed with Blue)
• Harley Quinn
• Modern Aquaman
• Modern Firestorm
• Variant: Classic Aquaman
• Variant: Classic Firestorm
• BAF: Gorilla Grodd

   
   
 

Source: Toyfare

IESB has been breaking all the news on this proposed JLA movie. They’ve received word that the way a JLA movie can come to pass and not interfere with any other movie series is an all motion capture computer generated imagery animated movie. Yes, they’ll cast actors, track their movements, and assign those to CG characters.
While Ryan Reynolds and Brandon Routh have made no secret they want to be on board as The Flash and Superman, respectively, Batman star Christian Bale says he hasn’t been approached, and adds: “It’d be better if it doesn’t tread on the toes of what we’re doing, though I feel that it would be better if it comes out after Batman 3”
Couldn’t agree more, but a CG movie would certainly elevate awareness of Wonder Woman, The Flash and any other hero they might want to turn into a bigger movie. And even if its very well animated and photo-real as promised, people are more likely accept it has nothing to do with current Superman or Batman movies, and re-casting would be perfectly acceptable.
Casting begins next week, we could be hearing some definite announcements very soon.

A couple years back, Screenwriter David Goyer was getting ready to go on a movie based on the DC hero The Flash, and he made no mystery that he wasn’t Ryan Reynolds in the role. Then the movie died. Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman isn’t happening either. Batman rolls on into the Dark Knight, and Superman is still tenatively scheduled to return again as Man Of Steel in 2009.
IESB reports that Warner Bros execs are gassed about a Justice League script they got and want to put it into production as early as next spring fro a 2009 release…

Our sources have confirmed earlier reports that the Justice League of America film will consist of at least Superman (Clark Kent), Batman (Bruce Wayne), Wonder Woman (Princess Diana), The Flash (Barry Allen), Aquaman and the Green Lantern (John Stewart) and will follow the OMAC storyline and also feature Maxwell Lord.
Within a few weeks, George Miller should be confirmed as the director and casting should commence immediately. The priority for the studio will have to be to figure out what they are doing with Superman and Batman.

I bolded that last part because its important. I don’t know if Batman or Superman as a franchise can survive with a JLA movie. I don’t know if Nolan & Goyer’s Batman would even work in this movie. And recasting Batman would be as big a mistake as keeping him and changing his character.
Fueling speculation is Ryan Reynolds dodging Flash questions. Why would he talk at all unless he was either already signed or seriously being considered for the role?

Personally I’d leave Batman and Superman out of it. If they’re so gung ho to get a League movie going, lets get Giffen and DeMatteis on it and make a Justice League Detroit or Justice League International movie.

Among some unexpected news from Wizard World Chicago, it appears DST has put on display the previously unannounced wave 8 of the DC Minimate line. The line appears to include Cyborg, Raven, The Question, Salakk, Batwoman, Sinestro, Red Son Superman and Red Son Wonder Woman.

News came from MinimateHQ, while the image came from Fwooshnet.com.

I was browsing through my feeds this afternoon, specifically the Blogs@Newsarama feed and saw the following preview posted to YouTube. It looks pretty interesting. It will be based off of Darwyn Cooke’s comic that was highly influenced by the silver age of DC comics. This trailer was shown at SDCC and will apparently be released in Spring 2008, though the B@N post says February 2008. Keep your eyes open for more info and feel free to share any thoughts on the trailer in the comments!