At this point in the early history of the Justice League film, it's obvious that the rumors are still flying at...well, superspeed, that Tom Welling will be cast as Superman. Adding fuel to this is a continuing thread over at Countingdown.com. The entries by infamous_emijayne suggest an inside source, who addresses not only Justice League, but Man of Steel (sequel to Superman Returns) as well.
"Man of Steel is done. Dead. Gone," one message claimed on Thursday September 20th (the entire thread can be tracked by going over to (http://starwars.countingdown.com/movies/343447/board?viewpost=3992757&folder=0). "The studio execs have decided if another Superman film is made it will be a restart as they did with Batman Begins. Routh was told the news about a week ago. Being under contract for MOS, he was guaranteed a shot at keeping the role. I didn't like that info, but oh well. So that's it for now. All we can do is hope and pray for a deal to be worked out but it looks like the triangle of WB, Smallville's producers, and Welling were unable to figure things out before Miller signed his deal."
Later that day, the poster added: "At this point, I'd say with the strike looming and a deadline to begin shooting, Welling fans like myself should be cautiously optimistic. I'm told it's a combination of filming schedules and money, but that may not be the case. I was also told it was wording in a specific part of the contract. Just like with any business contract, a single word can be a deal breaker. We may never know what happened. Yet again, they may still work something out. At least all speculation of Man of Steel is over with. It's indefinitely on the shelf. That news kept me from being too upset about Welling." And then: "But like I said, with the strike coming up and not having a lot of time to get started, whatever got in the way may be too much to overcome in time. From a percentage standpoint, what was a virtual lock, I'd say it's now down to a 25% chance they work this out. So IESB saying Welling is 'out' could be just them going with the odds. Which I would completely understand. Based on everything I know and what has been going on behind the scenes for months now, I'm still holding out for a last minute miracle. Either way, I'm quite confident the film will be spectacular. At least we won't get a super skinny (Routh) Superman."
So much information in a single day, with infamous_emijayne also writing, "New development....I don't know how true this is but it sounds legit given what I have posted on this subject in the past. Some of this I know I've mentioned briefly once before so bear with me.... Quite some time ago when Miller was first announced as being in the running for director, I said WB wanted the JLA film to be a launching point for Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern as well to revitalize the Superman franchise. It seems Miller felt the cast needs to be older and have the Justice League already well established in the film rather than being about the formation of it. This is why he added Martian Manhunter who was left out of the first draft. Anyway, reasoning for this would be to copy the X-Men franchise, which is now doing prequel spin-offs of Wolverine and Magneto. Eventually Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc would get their solo origin spin-offs.
"With that said, recently I posted that Miller did not want Welling. Well I was just told moments ago that it seems WB was more concerned with signing a director than signing Welling and went with Miller's idea. Again, I don't know if its true, but I'm being told they felt it would be easier to find someone else to play Superman than it would be to find an available director with the strike coming. If this turns out to be true, I think WB shot themselves this time. It's one thing to wise up and get rid of Singer and his wussy Superman, but to not get Welling because a director wants an older cast?? Come on..."
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