The relationship between Richard and Shula Donner, Joel Schumacher, Bryan Singer and How the Dye for the Modern Superhero Movie was Cast…And WHERE does Joel Silver fit in?
Shane Black- A forgotten writer with credits that include Lethal Weapon, The Last Boyscout… and the Lethal Weapon Reboot? Where does he fit in?
Christoper Nolan and David S. Goyer as overseers of the Superman reboot to be directed by Zach Snyder (sweet!) and all-around DC movie Universe Supervisors.
I’m trying to draw some concrete lines between some of Hollywood’s ruling class and the direction and tone that all superhero movies have taken since the release of Superman in 1978. There is a definitely a direction connection between Richard Donner (whom I’m a big fan of) and Joel Schumacher (who has far more arguable credibility) and somewhere mixed in there is a sprinkling of producer Joel Silver and director Bryan Singer who has, honestly, been questionable since The Usual Suspects, but is responsible for the tonality of the X-Men franchise before he jumped ship to work on the abandoned (by glitter-meister McG) Superman project which ultimately flopped, and Fox essentially jumped ship on the X-Men, relegating it to the man behind such gems as Rush Hour 1,2 and 3, non other than Brett Ratner (how do I hate thee for destroying the limited credibility the X-Men franchise had attained? Let me count the ways.)
In any event, when the dust cleared, there was much to be said about the way Singer handled the X-Men in movie one and two, casting at the time relative newcomer Hugh Jackman in what would ultimately be the lead role of Wolverine and, and cast the rest of the team in a not necessarily star-spangled manner. He also made the plight of the mutant in society (read civil rights movement) tantamount to the storytelling the way Chris Claremont did in his epic 17-yr run helming the writing duties of Uncanny X-Men. Whether or not I agreed with the feel of much of the first movie and disagreed with the way they side-swiped most of the characters in favor of Wolverine (perhaps due to the not-completely-thought-out decision to cast the team with somewhat less than dynamic personalities) is sort of beside the point. I still can’t quite understand why FOX studios is so determined to keep moving backwards in the X-Men timeline in order to tell the story forward. It’s one thing to back-story Wolverine (although if it wasn’t for the director and writer by way of story I’d be sick to death of him too). But in any event here are some links that I think are somewhat enlightening when you think about how everyone got to playing the parts they do in crafting what the world will remember of the X-Men (and Superman for that matter)
An article about Singer and how he approached the X-Men source material. Shula Donner (wife of Richard and Producer in her own right) worked closely with Singer from a production standpoint. Singer relates the atmosphere (dealing with the pressure from hokey hero flicks of the late 90’s presented by Schumacher in Batman Forever/ And Robin and Ben Stiller’s send-up(ironically titled Mystery-Men, a reference to the ultimate 4th wall hero send-up, Flaming Carrot Comics)
An Article detailing Richard Donner’s development as a Director and list of Hollywood achievements, which include directing important and well-cannonized films such as The Omen, The Toy (one in the series of Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor films, likely as not introducing Donner to Prior and sparking the relationship that would land Prior in the Superman Franchise, as well) Directed all the Lethal Weapon films, from a script by Shane Black produced by Joel Silver, and directed THE GOONIES from a story by Spielberg, who produced the flick with Frank Marshall. Also directed the Lost Boys. Worth a read just for director details. And proof positive that Donner is world-class material. It’s sad to think about how much better the Superman franchise might have been handled if he hadn’t been pulled.
