Singer To Produce New Superhero Movie At Warners

It has been a good summer for superheroes, and Warner Brothers, who have had the biggest superhero success of the summer in The Dark Knight, are hoping that trend lasts a bit longer as they have just picked up the rights to the upcoming graphic novel Capeshooters and are in negotiations with director Bryan Singer to produce the film. 

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the story centers on “two down-on-their-luck slackers who specialize in shooting videos of superheroes. They find themselves on the run when they uncover evidence that a legendary superhero actually is evil.” The graphic novel is from crerator Rob Liefeld and is not yet scheduled for publication.

While it sounds like an interesting premise, but it reminds me of the old John Cusack-Tim Robbins comedy Tapeheads, just with superheroes.

Singer’s relationship with Warners has been in some question after the less-than-anticipated box office of his Superman Returns. His planed remake of the science-fiction cult classic Logan’s Run has been back-burnered, if not entirely shelved. Meanwhile, his World War II drama Valkyrie is due this winter. No word yet as to when Singer’s Superman Returns followup gets moving.

While I’m not a fan of Liefeld’s other comics work, my biggest complaint about this project is that Warners is shopping around for comic book properties when they have a ton of potential film franchises right under their corporate umbrella at DC Comics. Studio execs even met with DC personnel earlier this month to discuss the best way to develop these characters as franchises. The studio is currently developing features around characters like the Flash, Sgt. Rock, Green Arrow and Wonder Woman.

Get on the ball Warners.